Not only does your staff help deliver your mission, they’re full of their own ideas, feedback, and strengths.

Establishing a solid connection with your staff, and helping to develop them in many areas, will not only make them happier but take your gym to the next level. These tips should help you on your way.

10 Staff development tips

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**All tips from CrossFit’s Affiliate Playbook**

1. Know that your business, and you personally, cannot succeed without your staff succeeding.
2. Get to know your staff members as people.
3. Be vulnerable. If you bring your full self to work, open up about your life, and aren’t afraid to show your strength and weaknesses, you’ll encourage your staff to do the same.
4. Se aside at least one hour each quarter for a one-on-one development conversation with each member of your team. Use this time to discuss their performance, goals, and future at the affiliate. Be sure to take notes you can reference down the line.
5. Give direct feedback in real time. Make sure you are fiving feedback on great performance as well as poor performance, using specific examples. When you point out poor performance, always provide suggestions for improvement.
6. Create a team. A collection of individuals will remain just that until you make an effort to bring them together as one unit, one team. Bring the full team together to discuss the business on a monthly basis and for bonding activities every one to three months.
7. Make sure every employee knows and truly believes in the values of the business. One great way to do this is to integrate your core values into everything you do.
8. Identify everyone’s strengths and give them an opportunity to put those to work and really shine – inside and outside the bounds of their role.
9. Publicly celebrate success. When an employee does something exceptional, make sure you call this out and celebrate it with the team.
10. For the members of your team who supervise other employees, be sure to invest time and energy in developing their leadership skills. Your job is to guide and empower them to build those skills and develop confidence as a leader.

What other development tips would you add?

Read more: Learn from Adam Neiffer, Coach to Justin Medeiros and Much More

A Coach and their training plan:

1. A Coach will give you structure, systematic planning and long term goals

A Coach’s work is not based on their daily inspiration, it’s a process with long term goals that are clearly defined. You set a goal together and then later dig deep into macro-, meso- and microcycles. It’s about setting up periodization for your progress, and giving clear purpose to your efforts, and structure to your training.

2. A Coach’s focus is on optimizing your performance: Not simply helping you compete with your peers.

Competition can be fun and constructive, but while you’re focused on proving to others that you are better than they are, your coach is focused on you: On making you a better Athlete, and your performances much stronger. Their goal is not to aid you to compete with your peers, like your ego likes to do, but simply optimize your training output and competition performance.

Source: Chris Hinshaw / Tia-Clair Toomey

In essence, a good coach will help you become better – that can be as an athlete, entrepreneur or any other field – but what traits do successful coaches possess?

Ben Bergeron, one of the most celebrated CrossFit coaches in the sport, outlined five characteristics an effective coach displays in his podcast, Chasing Excellence. Bergeron explains how coaches should posses all of them to be great, and can use these categories to measure where strengths and weaknesses lie.

1. Enthusiasm

For CrossFit coaches, enthusiasm is a great tool to engage class members. When coaches really believe in what they’re saying and are excited to be there, athletes take notice.

“To me the number one thing […] in basically any relationship is the level of trust that you are establishing,” says Bergeron. “As I say something, how much second guessing is going through your head before you’re like: ‘Yup, I’ll give that a shot’?

“With great coaches, none of that [second guessing] comes through [an athlete’s] head.”

Great coaches are enthusiastic; they love what they do and through that, they create a big level of trust with their athletes. They get athletes to be inspired and go out of their comfort zones.

Source: Photo courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

2. Curiosity

Curiosity is hard to teach, but it makes a difference. Great coaches do not only want to make others better, but posses a big amount of curiosity to become better coaches themselves.

They are interested in what they’re doing and are curious to learn how to do it better – an improvement which them cascades down to all athletes.

“It starts with your own disciplined pursuit of betterments,” says Bergeron. “You becoming better at your craft, you becoming better at how you engage with people, the curiosity of you wanting feedback, understanding that feedback is the shortcut to your betterment.”

Great coaches look for critical feedback because they know that’s how they can become better; they know they don’t have all the answers and there’s always room for improvement. They search for this feedback in an empowering way.

Source: WODSHOTS

3. The Ability to Connect with People

Great coaches have the skills to see where their individual athlete or team are coming from. They understand their clients and how to get them places they could not go without a coach.

“As you enhance the abilities of individuals and you enhance the relationships of the team, those connection points get better results than would otherwise be present,” explains Bergeron. “That’s what a good coach does.”

Exceptional coaches understand where people come from, what their history and motives are, and what they hear when the coach says something. They meet athletes where they are.

Once an athlete feels like they’re being listen to, they’re open to almost anything.

Source: Photo courtesy of CrossFit Inc

4. Presence

The ability to command – in the sense of being able to lead – and for people to be captivated by what you’re saying is another characteristic of a great coach.

Great coaches engage their clients and hold their attention.

“It’s an overlooked aspect of coaching but one of the most powerful ones,” says Bergeron. “If you can own a room […] and people can’t wait to hear what you have to say, that to me is so powerful.”

Source: Photo courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

5. Domain and expertise

Coaches have to know their craft to be good, as well as understand how much they know about the area they want to master.

“If you want to be a successful coach, you have to be knowledgeable in your field,” says Bergeron. Yet you also have to know that there are probably many things that you are still to learn.

Every beginner knows they’re a beginner, but once people learn and become advanced in any area, they tend to think they’re on the cusp of mastery. The problem then arises where the gap between the knowledge and skills that you possess and what you’re still to learn is unknown.

“The closer and closer you edge towards mastery, the more and more you realise what you do not know,” Bergeron continues.

Domain and expertise in your area is the only trait of a successful coach that is industry specific.

Source: Photo courtesy of CrossFit Inc

Listen to the whole podcast yourself:

In 2019, we surveyed over 2,400 members from 26 CrossFit and micro gyms across the United States as part of a member experience survey and analytics pilot to best understand the true factors that drive gym success.

Outcomes such as member retention, likelihood to refer, and overall member engagement were all analysed. The average monthly fee these members were paying to their gyms was $155, for an annual average of $1,860 per member.

The Member Experience

We discussed with gym owners, coaches and members when we hypothesized the most important aspects to consider within ‘member experience’. Following our discussions, we developed the following member experience model.

Specifically, the member experience is comprised of:

• Facilities: equipment, space and safety
• Community: feeling of family, welcoming and supportiveness by other members
• Coaching: a welcoming and engaging experience focused on improving member strengths and weaknesses
• Management/Ownership: a caring, trustworthy and communicative management team
• Programming: an approach that builds and scales programming and balances strength, conditioning, skills and mobility
• Value: exceptional value via classes, training and add-on products and services.

We deployed a 42-item survey using a 6-point favourability scale (Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree) across 26 gyms and close to 2,500 members. We found that when specific aspects of the member experience are in alignment, engagement peaks and members are more likely to:

• Feel a sense of pride with their gym (68% Strongly Agree)
• Recommend their gym to others (69% Strongly Agree)
• Stay at their gym (49% Strongly Agree)

We looked at the combination of member experienced most likely to drive this pride, recommending others and most importantly, remaining at their gym.

Drivers of “What Matters Most”

When we really dug down and used multivariate analysis to understand not what people like or dislike the most, but rather what impacts their likelihood to be engaged and to stay and recommend the gym to others, we found these six factors matter most in the minds of members:

• Exceptional value
• Trusting owners to do the right thing
• Believing owners will take positive action from member feedback
• Programming that purposely builds on a variety of fitness needs over time
• Feeling welcomed by the gym’s coaches
• Feeling support and camaraderie from fellow athletes

Five of these six factors have nothing to do with the direct action of working out or fitness, rather they are about the value and the feeling one gets from their community and coaches.

Gym Retention Drivers

We immediately saw significant variability in how favourable these drivers were in predicting member engagement. For example, feeling welcomed by a gym’s coaches is much easier for a gym to achieve compared to driving the perception that they provide exceptional value to their members.

This insight should be valuable in providing gym owners an understanding of priority and level of effort in improving the member experience.

Gym Member Loyalty

Across a total of around 2,500 members, approximately 86% were what we would call “All in”. In other words, 86% are fully engaged with their gym, likely to stay and will tend to refer others. We only found that about 3% were “out” and were more statistically likely to leave quickly.

But more fascinating was the fact that 13% (314 members in the study) were “Seekers”. This means that, while these members appeared to be engaged, analytics indicated 1 out of every 8 members were looking around for other gyms to join because something in their current fitness experience was missing.

What exactly are those factors? While we know every gym is unique, on average we found these factors to be the ones described above.

Imagine the impact on gym owners and member retention by being able to gently transform those 13% “Seekers” to being “All In” members, simply by understanding the things that would turn members loyal and keep them that way.

Take Care of Your “Micro-Tribes”

When we dug into the data further, we found some additional findings that should encourage gym owners to think different about different groups of members within the broader gym population. For example:

• A greater significant proportion of members that are 18-24 years old (78%) and those aged 55 and older (77%) are more likely to recommend their gym to others, compared to other age categories such as those aged between 25-34 (66%) and 35-44 years (68%).
• Those attending 3-5 classes per week are significantly more likely to recommend their gym to others vs. those attending 1-2 classes per week. When members attend more than 5 sessions per week, this statistic improves even more.

These findings reinforce the need for gym owners to think beyond a “one size fits all” for how they engage their members. Appealing to different demographics in a differentiated way can yield new and improved results in retention and loyalty for owners.

Source: Photo courtesy of CrossFit Inc.

Gym Member Retention and the Impact of COVID-19

During COVID, especially during the initial outbreak in March 2020, a number of owners of micro gyms either temporarily or permanently closed their doors. During that time, we surveyed members to get sense of:

• Their timing and readiness to go back to the gym
• Whether they would continue to participate in person or move to an online model

Even at the onset, when members (N=474) were surveyed:

• 51% indicated they would return immediately with another 32% indicating they’d return within a month of re-opening.
• 12% indicated they’d likely return within a few months
• 3% indicated they’d return when a vaccine was available
• Less than 2% indicated they would not be returning

Moreover, 66% indicated when they came back, they would be attending anywhere from 3-5x per week.

However, 50% also had safety concerns on their minds as gyms continue to re-open and nearly the same number indicate they plan to use online resources such as Zoom classes if offered.

What does all this mean to gym owners?

• Don’t assume all members are the same. Different aspects drive members to want to come to your gym. Make sure you understand everything you can by taking both a data-driven approach and a “1 size fits 1” when connecting with your members.
• Keep safety in mind. You might be doing everything you can to create a safe environment but understand that it will continue to be on the minds of your members. Peace of mind for your members means higher likelihood they will show up, stay and refer.
• Remember that your gym and its member experience story is unique. We see so much emphasis to spend on online advertising, tools to fill new member pipelines, 6-month challenges and other ways to entice new member acquisition. Instead, let the data speak for itself. Get into the minds of your current members and understand what drives their experience. Take care of that, and your members will take care of you through loyalty and referrals.

Mitchell Gold, Ph.D. is an industrial/organizational psychologist, data scientist, and avid Master’s CrossFitter. He’s the founder at Rx3, LLC and Rx3 Analytics. He can be reached at rx3@rx3analytics.com

The initial stage of the COVID crisis sped up the natural evolution of the fitness industry, compressing a shift that would have taken years into a few months. Evolution is a painful, messy process. In 2020, some gyms didn’t survive, but a few thrived. And the coaches who pivoted fastest found themselves at the top of the new food chain.

Two-Brain Business, a data-driven mentorship practice that serves gym owners and coaches around the world, has spent the last few years building a huge database of concepts and proof by evaluating key metrics in the hundreds of gyms we work with around the globe. We can measure data and say, with certainty, whether a certain strategy is unproven or better than an existing tactic.

It’s a huge, expensive initiative, but the data is worth the expense: it helped coaches pivot fast when the COVID crisis started earlier this year.

And now, the data shows that the industry has changed, bringing new opportunities.

Let’s start with the most important thing: what clients actually need and what coaches can provide.

Coaching: More Than Workouts

The pandemic had a separating effect: coaches with strong personal relationships with each client were able to deliver their services online. Coaches who were selling only programming at scale—think hundreds of clients at $19 per month—really didn’t suffer either.

But those in the middle—the coaches selling only group classes or just selling access to equipment—were driven to the brink. In fact, the big chains suffered worst, with many declaring bankruptcy.

But coaches in our data set who moved quickly to customized programming delivered online retained 86 percent of their revenue on average in the first month of closure and only dipped as low as 74 percent on average as the crisis continued. These coaches delivered their daily workouts to one person at a time. Most offered a few Zoom classes each day, but Zoom offerings were not the core of their service.

Conversely, the big chains—selling access, not coaching—went to zero revenue.

I have to admit: I don’t like waiting. So when the move to online delivery looked imminent for trainers, I contacted experienced, long-time online coaches such as Brad Overstreet, Jonathan Goodman and Josh Grenell, paid them for their knowledge and then taught their lessons to gyms in the Two-Brain mentorship program.

Our gyms pivoted fast, and our data tracking showed that they were able to retain large percentages of revenue while other gyms saw revenue all but disappear.

The stronger the one-on-one relationship with each client, the better the coach (or gym) fared through a lockdown.

Conversely, you could make a case that clients fared better, too, because they kept training and didn’t stop working on their fitness.

A key part of this successful pivot was the understanding that clients in captivity had needs beyond “do this many burpees today.” They needed help with stress, with self-management and—most of all—with nutrition.

The pandemic brought those needs to the forefront. Many coaches quickly added nutrition plans, challenges, daily meditation or other elements to clients’ plans. And the best learned to use a technique called motivational interviewing to really understand their clients.

The pandemic confirmed what many had already discovered: The best coaches aren’t necessarily masters of squat and deadlift mechanics. The best coaches are the trainers who can find ways to help clients accomplish goals in any circumstance—even if those goals change from “better Fran time” to “lose 5 kg” to “get to bed earlier.”

Now, coaches are better equipped to serve clients as a second wave of lockdowns are in progress around the world, and they’ll be able to offer a better service overall whenever the pandemic ends.

They can always teach people to squat, but now clients will look to them for help sleeping, eating and managing stress, too. This is an incredible opportunity to help more clients become healthier.

Using New Tools and Tech to Help Clients

Many in the fitness industry were already using coaching software, but the COVID Crisis brought different players to the front. Instead of just tracking workout scores, coaches started to consider personalized delivery, nutrition tracking and other goodies that were already available.

Most of the big training platforms—such as TrueCoach, TrainingPeaks, etc.—didn’t change a thing, but their toolkits suddenly became more relevant than many of the old players that were common in affiliate gyms.

Source: WODSHOTS

Sure, some gyms adopted systems like Zoom. But COVID showed trainers other options for coaching—and showed them that many of these platforms are better. Now, they’ll help gym owners deliver a higher-value, higher-touch service in the future.

The software can help coaches do more for clients who still want to train in person, and it can help them develop a new revenue stream that isn’t tied to a physical location.

For our 2020 review coaching software, click here.

A New Approach to Space, Time and Equipment

Perhaps COVID’s greatest forcing function was an “audit.” It made trainers ask, “What do I really need to coach people?”

A three-month shutdown and phased reopening created a great opportunity for coaches to cancel unnecessary classes, require preregistration or appointments, cut back on unnecessary equipment and even renegotiate leases.

A second wave presents another opportunity to find a silver lining, make positive changes and emerge from lockdown stronger.

The optimization of operations in spring and summer helped many gym owners become more profitable, but that’s not even my favourite part. All these changes actually centered around what clients actually need. They don’t need 10,000 square feet of “CrossFit” equipment. They need attention, clarity and the right program to follow.

The really interesting thing? In studying data from the gyms we work with, we’ve learned many clients still prefer to do some of their training at home, allowing coaches to scale their practice without ramping up expenses. Imagine having twice as many clients in half as much space—online training makes that possible. And imagine how a “hybrid system” like this will insulate coaches if they’re subject to a second wave of lockdowns.

Clients benefit, too. In my gym, Catalyst in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada, many members commute up to 40 minutes to make their appointments. For them, the ability to do some of their workouts at home is a huge new bonus. And my general manager loves doing intros and goal review sessions over Zoom. Our close rate is just as high, and our show rate is higher than ever because of the convenience.

Source: Stevie D Photography

The Future of Coaching Post COVID

As I said, the pandemic simply sped up the evolution of the microgym. These changes were coming, but COVID forced coaches to improve their one-to-one relationships with their clients, look hard at the software and tools they were using, cut unnecessary expenses, and put the client back at the centre of their business.

It also created new opportunities to coach clients in their nutrition, habits and mindset—very scalable frontiers that don’t require more time or physical space to grow.

In the future, as they seek to build better personal relationships with clients, coaches at bricks-and-mortar gyms would be wise follow a “prescriptive model” with regular goal review sessions.

That will benefit both parties: clients will get better results and gyms will keep clients longer because they’re providing true value as they tailor services to the client. And many of their clients will train at home, at least some of the time.

That relationship will allow gyms to charge more because their value will be increased through more accountability and better services.

Three Characteristics that Define a Great Coach

Our data supports these moves: Two-Brain gyms that reopened after a COVID shutdown reported a surge of new clients at higher value. That was a win for everyone.

My hope is that the pandemic will ultimately make gyms more antifragile—many of our clients have already reduced their expenses but increased their revenue, making them more profitable than ever despite the pandemic.

And the best news? The clients get better service because more and more coaches aren’t just pushing everyone into group classes. Now they’re asking their clients the most important question of all: “What do you need now?”

If you’re facing a second lockdown, read “The Second Shutdown Plan for Gym Owners.” Our original recommendations helped thousands of gyms pivot. Those recommendations have been updated with everything we’ve learned since March as we analyzed the data we collected from hundreds of gyms.

Chris Cooper is the founder of the worldwide gym mentorship practice Two-Brain Business. He’s been a trainer for decades and owns Catalyst Fitness in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada. He’s the author of four books on the fitness industry, including the bestseller “Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Thief.” Chris is determined to help fitness entrepreneurs find success and happiness.

Find out more: Two-Brain Business

Wrong!

For years, as both an athlete and a coach, I just assumed everyone wanted to do CrossFit in a large class. And I wasn’t alone. Many others made the same incorrect assumption.

As a gym owner, that was a huge mistake—I missed out on opportunities to serve clients better and I missed out on revenue. As an athlete, I didn’t realise that a personal coach would have kept me on track, helped me improve faster and made my training more enjoyable.

Now, more and more gyms are using CrossFit for group classes and one-on-one coaching. According to stats from the top 15 gyms working with Two-Brain Business, 12-15 percent of gross revenue comes from personal training, and some facilities even offer online group or personal coaching.

People who want to do CrossFit today definitely have more options than they did 10 years ago.

Here’s how to determine which one is perfect for you.

CrossFit Training: Is One-on-One Coaching Best for You?

Personal training is more expensive—that should be stated right off the top. Expect to pay anywhere from $50 to $100 an hour for personal coaching.

But health is priceless, and you’re going to get results faster in a one-on-one setting.

That’s not to say group training doesn’t work. It does. But there is no substitute for personalized coaching and one-on-one attention.

A personal coach will find out everything about you and put together a plan that will help you accomplish your goals. That plan will include specific workouts that account for your age, injury status, training history and so on. But the best personal coaches also help you address nutrition, sleep, stress management, mindset and other key elements of health.

You just won’t get that level of attention in a group setting even if talented coaches can quickly customize general group workouts for each client. But customization isn’t personalization.

Expect true personalization, constant attention and the “white glove treatment” from a personal coach. In a group class, members can expect to be led through elements of the class with their peers and then receive two or three quick intervals of personal attention sprinkled throughout. If you’re in a class of 10, you can expect to receive about five to 10 percent of a coach’s attention, not 100. One on one, you’re paying for every second of time, and you are the trainer’s sole focus. Some people love that; others don’t.

Source: Stevie D Photography

Starting Is Easier With a Personal Coach

It should also be noted that personal training makes it much easier to start CrossFit.

Some gyms run group “on-ramps” or “fundamentals” classes for newcomers, and that process can work for confident people who are very comfortable in gyms and new settings in general.

Other new exercisers find these classes—and gyms in general—very intimidating. They do much better with a smiling personal coach who can answer every question, allay fears and ensure the new client has a spectacular experience.

Imagine the person who’s never been in a gym and is scared to ask an important question in front of others. He or she might quit training simply because of a lack of comfort in a group. Or think about the older client who feels intimidated in an on-ramp full of tattooed soldiers and competitive athletes.

If you’re nervous about starting a fitness program or have a lot of questions, one-on-one training will most definitely be better for you.

As a coach, I’d suggest every client should start with one-on-one training. I firmly believe it’s the best way to help a client start a program and continue training long term. We stopped offering group on-ramps at CrossFit 204 many years ago and never looked back.

Choose PT if:

• You want to make progress faster.
• You’re doing CrossFit or exercising for the first time.
• You need more accountability.
• You don’t like feeling “lost in a group.”
• You’re shy or simply not interested in training in a group setting.
• Attention is more important than atmosphere.
• You don’t want to “figure things out” and prefer to leave everything to a professional.
• Your schedule doesn’t match up with group-training options.
• You’re training for a specific event or sport.
• You’ve hit a sticking point or plateau.
• You want a strong long-term relationship with a personal coach.
• You want more access to your coach.
• You prefer short- and long-term plans tailored to your exact needs.
• You might want to add nutrition, sleep and mindset coaching to your plan.
• You might want to book sessions that aren’t exactly one hour.
• You might want to book sessions in your home or another location.
• Your budget will allow it.

Gym Owners: Free Trials Are No Longer The Best Way to Start CrossFit

CrossFit: Are Group Classes Right for You?

Group CrossFit classes are amazing. The atmosphere and camaraderie can’t be beat. But a trade must be made: You will not receive as much direct attention in a group.

For many, that’s just fine. They need a little coaching but not a lot, and they like nothing more than bantering with or chasing their friends as they push through a workout together. For these people, the energy of the group and the competition trump everything else.

Working out begins to feel like a fun game, which is great for keeping clients on track. The whiteboard offers motivation, incentives and daily proof of success. Energetic trainers help clients thrive. A well-run group class is a magical experience.

Further, the price of group training is always lower than the price of personal training. Many gym owners don’t realize it, but group training is their discount option even if they don’t offer discounts on services. One-on-one training is the premium option.

Great coaches also build relationships with clients in a group setting, and top gyms have accountability systems that ensure group-training clients don’t slip through the cracks.

In the group setting at most gyms, you’ll also get the benefit of various coaches so you’re exposed to new cues and coaching tips. It’s not uncommon for a client to finally have something “click” just because a different coach tried a new approach to something.

Source: Stevie D Photography

CrossFit Groups: Are Your Needs General or Specific?

Results are critically important when you join a gym, and you can get very, very fit in a group led by a talented coach who quickly adjusts and modifies movements and workouts for each athlete. Well-balanced general CrossFit programming is incredibly effective for overall fitness. But in a group setting, it can be less effective for very specific goals.

For example, if a client who only wants to improve endurance always seems to show up on strength days just by coincidence, he or she will not get the perfect workout on those days. A personal coach could use CrossFit to build endurance faster with a tailored program.

On the other hand, a recreational football player could absolutely use group classes to improve general physical preparedness and create a broad base of fitness that would support sport-specific training. And someone who just wants to “be fitter” will greatly benefit from a program that very effectively improves strength, conditioning, flexibility, coordination and a host of other physical attributes.

But there might come a day when you just don’t feel like running and the workout involves running and squats. Maybe you’ll fumble with double-unders for 20 minutes straight on your own because a coach hasn’t circled back to you yet. What if you sign up for a powerlifting meet and want to focus just on strength training? Or perhaps you have an injury and feel like a burden in a group setting.

Each scenario above highlights the main drawback of group classes: Lack of personalization. That disappears in a one-on-one setting.

But for many people, that drawback is overwhelmed by the energy they get when they hear “3, 2, 1 … go!” followed by loud music, a host of clanging barbells, and occasional cues from a very talented trainer.

Let’s be clear: Excellent coaches definitely produce impressive results in a group setting that can be more economical for clients, and many people prefer group training to individual sessions.

Choose Group Classes if:

• You learn quickly.
• You’re very comfortable walking into a gym.
• You don’t require large amounts of personal attention.
• You find groups provide the accountability you need.
• You have mindset, sleep, stress and nutrition under control without a personal coach.
• You have or want to acquire training partners and “frenemies”/rivals.
• You thrive on competition and want to see how you rank daily.
• Atmosphere is more important than attention.
• You draw energy from groups.
• Your fitness goals are more general.
• You can improve movements with quick cues and don’t need much extra coaching.
• Your personal schedule works with the group class schedule.
• You regularly enjoy working with a number of different coaches.
• You don’t mind sharing space and equipment and attention.
• Your budget won’t allow personal training.

A Note About COVID-19

In the current pandemic, governments are imposing restrictions on the fitness industry. These usually involve capacity limitations, spacing guidelines and cleaning protocols.

If you’re worried about COVID but want to keep training, one-on-one sessions will offer more flexibility. Personal training can usually be booked in slower hours in the gym, which will make social distancing much easier than it is when 10 clients perform workouts—even if the gym follows all government protocols. You’re simply less likely to accidentally bump into someone when there are two people in any space instead of 20.

In other cases, personal trainers can work outside the gym in private or open spaces, which offers additional options. For example, a client might bring her own dumbbell to a park, where a trainer can coach a workout from 10 feet away. Or a coach might travel to a client’s home gym to run a personal session with reduced risk.

Finally, online coaching is another option that reduces transmission risk to zero. Many gyms now offer this option and tailor online programs to client needs. You can find both group and personal options.

Whatever you do, don’t stop or delay starting training if you’re concerned about COVID. Talk to a coach about how you can improve fitness during the pandemic.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFSKsoQHZb4/

The CrossFit Coach’s Role on Either Path

CrossFit is an incredibly effective program, and it’s evolved over the years to actually return to its roots in some ways. For about 10-12 years, group classes were the sole focus of many CrossFit affiliates. But now gyms are offering the same great program in a one-on-one setting with increased coaching.

That’s actually how CrossFit started in Santa Cruz, California: one coach working with one athlete. You can read all about that in CrossFit’s “Level 1 Training Guide” in the section “Scaling Professional Training” (Page 164).

The path you choose is up to you. Each has significant benefits.

But regardless of your choice, your coach or coaches should talk to you about your goals at least every three months. Many gyms now offer goal review sessions to personal and group clients as part of their service package, and if yours doesn’t, ask to talk to a coach for 15 minutes every 90 days. Tell your expert coach exactly what you want to accomplish and why, then ask how he or she can make it happen.

(Coaches: For step-by-step instructions on how to help your clients with goal review sessions, read “How to Increase Your Value” by Chris Cooper.)

Make sure your CrossFit coach knows all about your goals so you can cross them off the list sooner rather than later.

A coach’s duty is to get results for clients in any setting—group or one on one.

Mike Warkentin is the founder of CrossFit 204 and 204 Lifestyle. He’s been a coach since 2009 and spent 10 years as the managing editor of the CrossFit Journal. He’s currently the operating partner of Two-Brain Media, which manages the output of the worldwide mentorship company Two-Brain Business. He lives in Ontario, Canada, with his wife Crystal and two English mastiffs.

Find out more under Two-Brain Media.

The best thing about CrossFit is that it gets people to their goals really, really fast.

CrossFit is great at getting results. The program takes pieces from other disciplines and combines them to make training feel like a game. But it also uses fitness tools to prioritize intensity—the most important part of fat loss or muscle gain.

Intensity was the part most fitness programs skipped before CrossFit.

Doesn’t that sound crazy? It’s true: The strangest thing about the pre-CrossFit fitness industry was that no one knew how to get results.

Now the craziest thing in the fitness industry is that most gyms can’t keep clients long enough for this powerful tool to really be effective.

No exaggeration: The average reported retention score has dropped from 13.1 months in our 2016 surveys to 7.8 months now. And in my 20-plus years in the fitness industry, I’ve learned 7.8 months isn’t long enough to change a life.

Gym owners, I know that changing lives is your primary goal, but if you take this advice, you’ll also get another $40,000 per year in revenue just by keeping clients longer.

Below, I’m going to tell you exactly how to set a client up for success, how to keep a client engaged, and how to leverage the most powerful tool we have for changing fitness and health for the better.

If you’re a person who’s looking to start a CrossFit program, review the steps below. These are the best practices in the industry, and if your experience starts like this, you’ll know you’re going to get great results.

Source: Stevie D Photography

Step 1: Start With a Consultation.

Before you can say “My program is best for you!” you have to know that it is.

CrossFit is not the best option for everyone. According to years of data from hundreds of gyms we work with around the world, we’ve found that you must start with a conversation before anything else. We track the conversion rates in all our clients’ gyms, and we change our approach whenever we find something that works better. Through that process, we’ve discovered that a short interview we call a “No Sweat Intro” gets people to sign up better than anything else. Our data shows the No Sweat Intro is far superior to a free trial.

The No-Sweat Intro (or NSI) is a short-form motivational interview. It follows these basic steps: 

1. Greet the client in a private, professional space.
2. Ask what brought the client to your door—and why now.
3. Measure the thing the clients want to improve. A tip: After more than 20 years of coaching, I’ve never had a new client say, “I just want to move better.” So I don’t do a movement test or screening. If the client wants to lose weight, I measure weight. If he or she wants to lose fat, I measure body fat. If the client wants to get stronger, I measure strength.
4. Outline the best plan to get clients to their goals, knowing that no plan survives 100 percent intact over time. That’s OK—we’re going to set up opportunities to change the plan along the way. Include all elements they’ll need from you: exercise prescription, nutrition, meditation—you’re the coach.
5. Ask if they would prefer to be coached one on one or in a small group setting (your “budget-friendly” option).
6. Ask if they’d like to work out at your gym, at another gym or at home (your “online” option).
7. Tell them the price. I prefer to use a sales binder because I’m not a good salesperson. We share a sales-binder template with all Two-Brain gyms for this reason.
8. Help them make a decision (that’s their first action, and you need to start coaching them).
9. Schedule the first Goal Review Session for 100 days later.
10. Kick off your on-ramp or fundamentals program.

Step 2: Onboarding a client

Whether clients plan to join your group training program eventually or stay with one-on-one coaching forever, they should start one-on-one with you.

How many sessions? That depends. What does a client have to know before you feel comfortable inviting him or her into a group of experienced exercisers?

For me, I can teach the things I want new clients to know in five sessions—but you should set up your own on-ramp process based on what you want them to know, not what you think you can “sell.” Three sessions are far too few for me; 20 are far too many. 

After the first five sessions, we ask a client, “Do you feel comfortable trying a group class?”

About 10 percent of the time they say they’re not comfortable yet. If we hadn’t asked, they would have just quit there. But we do ask, and they getmore one-on-one sessions.

No matter the path, meet with clients within their first 100 days.

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Step 3: The Goal Review

Goal Reviews are the best thing you can do for client retention—but they’re also sometimes a great opportunity to ask for referrals.

A client within the first 100 days of the journey with you is most likely to be an evangelist for your service.

Remember your first 100 days of CrossFit? You were pretty damn unbearable. It was all you talked about. And it was all I talked about, too.

Handle a Goal Review Session like this:

Measure their progress in the same way you measured their starting point. Yeah, it’s cool that their deadlift went up—but if the swimsuit still doesn’t fit, departure is imminent.

Then ask: “Are you totally happy with your progress?”

If they say “yes!” pull out your camera and say, “I think your story is so inspirational, and you have the power right now to help some others. What would you tell past you if you had the chance?” Record, put the client on stage and share with permission.

Then ask, “Who else in your life could really use some help with their fitness right now?”

If the client says, “No, I’m not really happy with my progress,” then change the prescription.

No one is happy with progress all the time. The Goal Review gives you a second chance—and then a third and a fourth—to get clients back on the right track.

Say, “If I were in your shoes, I would … ,” and then explain what to add or remove or change. You’re still the coach. Help the client pivot.

Source: Stevie D Photography

These three stages—the NSI, on-ramp and Goal Review—are part of a long process we at Two-Brain Business call “the Client Journey.” Every client’s journey in your business is different, but in the gyms I work with, every client follows the “Prescriptive Model” outlined above, and that’s why Two-Brain gyms keep clients longer.

So where does the money—more than $40,000—come from? Keeping clients longer.

If you have 150 clients paying you $150 per month each and you can keep each of those clients for two more months, you’ll get them closer to health. You’ll also get yourself $45,000 in new revenue—without worrying about ad spend on Facebook or recruitment or any of the other marketing problems.

 Retention saves lives. It can also save gyms.

Additional resources

Find out more about the Prescriptive Model here or  read more about Goal Reviews here.

Chris Cooper is the founder of the worldwide gym mentorship practice Two-Brain Business. He’s been a trainer for decades and owns Catalyst Fitness in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada. He’s the author of four books on the fitness industry, including the bestseller “Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Thief.” Chris is determined to help fitness entrepreneurs find success and happiness.

Find out more under Two-Brain Media.

She thought she was too old to continue with her professional career.

Yet seven years later she came back for the 2000 Sidney Olympics. In an incredible feat of athleticism she won five Olympic medals, including her first three as an individual.

At that point, Torres was the oldest woman to have won an Olympic medal in swimming. She was 33 years old.

In 2006, in the midst of her second retirement, she gave birth to her first child. Sixteen months later, seeing that her times were still competitive, she made a second comeback. In the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Torres won three more medals, among them a silver in the freestyle 50m, where she hit an all-time personal best. She was 41 years old.

Like all master athletes, Torres had a double battle. The first one, which every athlete faces, was the battle against herself. How can I maximize my potential? How can I be the best version of myself? The second one was less obvious. She was going against the mainstream cultural belief that sees aging as a problem.

In the medicalized world we live in, getting older is a synonym of decaying, of sitting still, of not exerting too much.

Torres won both battles. She did what all great athletes do: defy what we think is humanly possible. Unwillingly, she also made a point loud and clear: master athletes are athletes in their own right.

This is the first lesson every coach training older athletes needs to understand. Training the master athlete implies focusing on the very same things that every athlete needs: an adequate nutritional plan, an individualized recovery plan that takes into account the current state of your athlete and where she is in the long term view, and finally an appropriate routine of training stimuli that will get her to her best performance. A master athlete is for all purposes an athlete.

Yet, like for any other segment, knowing the particularities and the trends pertaining that specific group will help you better satisfy these basic needs. Put your nerdy science glasses on and let’s dive into what we know about master athletes.

PERFORMANCE DECLINE OVER LIFE

This is the hardest pill to swallow for the master athlete and coach. It is hard to be in the business of perpetual improvements while accepting biological decline. Yet, understanding how this happens will help you target your efforts efficiently.

Strength and Power Capacity

As we age, muscle strength, power, and mass loss is inevitable. Moreover, this is not modulated by training. Meaning that after a peak-point this decline happens at a very similar rate for trained or untrained humans.

Two things matter for the CrossFitter. First, that the absolute value of strength and muscle mass ARE modulated by training. This means that even though strength and muscle mass will decline, if you keep training you will stay stronger than if you did not.

Second, the decline in powerlifting modalities is linear, while the decrease in Olympic Lifting modalities is curvilinear. In other words, your snatch and your clean and jerk will be hit harder faster and then plateau, while your power lifts will gradually decrease. (Tanaka 2010)

• What does this mean for the coach? Prioritize strength building and muscle-mass building for the athlete that started lifting later in life. Your objective is to increase that absolute value as much as safely possible. On the other hand, work towards the maintenance of absolute value capacity in the athlete that started young and has already peaked. Your job is not to look for PRs but to keep them lifting strong and heavy.

Aerobic Capacity 

Our maximum heart rate decreases linearly over time at a pace of about 3-6% per decade. VO2 peak capacity seems to decrease curvilinearly with a more dramatic drop later in life. For the CrossFitter this means that the levels of intensity you can achieve will decrease linearly over time, while work capacity at a given intensity will drop more pronouncedly later in life. (Hawkins 2010)

• What does this mean for the coach? Routinely create and perform effort tests. Educate your athlete on how to relate intensity levels with a given HR. This will inform them on how hard to push in each particular training session and workout, depending on the stimulus you want to hit. This information will keep them training hard while avoiding frustration and burnout.

Skills

Skilled performance can be maintained very well as we age. Our bodies are amazing adaptation machines and can make up for some loss of aerobic and anaerobic capacity with better neurological patterning.

In other words, we might lose some brawn but we gain some smarts. For the CrossFitter this means you will be able to keep performing handstands and muscle-ups as long as you keep having a deliberate and intentional practice of these skills.

• What does this mean for the coach? Skill development is an area in which you can create a context of continuous growth for your athlete. Foster this by focusing on new skills that build on the ones your athlete has already mastered.

Recovery

When it comes to recovery there seems to be a universal agreement on the internet and among all Master athletes: it gets slower as we age. However, there is little research on the  topic.

We don’t know how much of this is perception, how much of this is due to cultural expectations and behaviors, how much is due to biological aging, and how much is due to training age.

Answering these questions would be fundamental to know how to better address the recovery needs of the master athlete.

We do have good data on the following: heart rate recovery seems to stay the same while muscular recovery seems to be slower (Hawkins 2010). In plain CrossFit language: you have to be paying attention to more than just perceived exertion, which is highly related to heart rate. You will feel fine to go at it again, but your muscles and joints might not.

• What does this mean for the coach? Provide measures of muscular fatigue and recovery for your athlete. Track stiffness, range of motion, and muscle tone as markers readiness. When programming, modulate stamina and strength work with plenty of aerobic work.

HOW TO TRAIN

Here are the main aspects the coach and the master athlete should keep in mind when designing a complete and effective training plan.

Mindset

1. Embrace aging! We have been aging since the day we were born. It’s what we do. Despite the normal decline that comes with age, the task of the athlete is always the same: go to the gym/track/pool/road/trail to kick ass and have fun. The fact you could have lifted heavier when you were younger is irrelevant today. Focus on the present. The question is how can you get the most out of your workout, right now?
2. One of the greatest things of aging is that you are less of an idiot. I do not apologize to the 20-year-olds out there. Nor do I judge you. Older people probably have more resources and a better skill set too. Amplify that! Train your cognition! Keep working on your skills. You don’t need to prove anything to anybody anymore, which is the best context to create a deliberate and intentional training practice. ENJOY IT!
3. If you love competing, compete! It is often the case that the master athlete will feel a little embarrassed of their drive to compete (Dionigi 2007). There is stigma and shame. It is never too late to have ambition and drive. Keep the goals realistic and foster that edge!

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CrossFit Training as We Age – Nutrition

1. The big picture interventions are what is going to get you more bang for your buck. How consistent are your eating habits? Is your relationship with food healthy? Is your food building you up or stressing you out? The answer to these questions is your number one priority, your macronutrient breakdown is secondary to these.
2. Keep up your protein intake. First, make sure you are eating enough fats and carbs. This will guarantee your protein is used for what we want: muscle tissue maintenance and immune function. As a general rule, the master athlete should aim to have a daily intake  of ∼1.5 to 1.6 g per kilogram of body weight (Morton, Murphy, et al., 2018). “When possible, whole-food sources of protein should be a target to practically acknowledge food matrix interactions, and other nutrient requirements, for optimizing the use of protein in the diet.” (Desbro et al., 2018). You read that right, whole-food protein sources will trump any powder you can buy. Keep that in mind.
3. Be outcome oriented. As you age there are more valuables to consider. Your hormones cycle and your life demands change. Learning how to read and adjust your nutrition given the continuous state of flux of your body is an incredible asset. If needed, hire a coach. I am biased here, because I am one. However I do see the value to have experienced guidance in how to always be adjusting and responding to the messages your body sends.
4. Supplement wisely. As the name says, supplementation is making up for a lack or deficiency in your nutrition. Don’t let FOMO and sci-fi marketing get the best of you. Before you go that route, fill the lack with real food. Then, if needed, supplement. There’s no real need to get very sophisticated here, the classic, albeit not so trendy anymore, fish oil, magnesium, and creatine can help. If you are taking medicine make sure your supplements go well with your medicine. Ask your doctor!

How to train with Master athletes – Fitness and recovery

1. Be diligent. When you are young, you can get away with poor practices. You can disregard recovery and still train. That’s just negligence. We put fitness and recovery in the same category because you cannot understand one without the other. Put the same amount of care and effort you do to your squat cycle to your recovery and your body will adapt faster and better.
2. Prioritize range of motion. While it is true that too much flexibility can hinder the CrossFit athlete, the sad reality is that the overwhelming majority of people don’t have enough flexibility. Most people cannot achieve “normal” range of motion in one or multiple joints – multiple being the standard. Proper range of motion means the connective tissue is working properly with less muscular compensation. This in turn means less aches and pains, in other words: ganinz. Even though connective tissue and range of motion also declines with aging, normal ranges of motion are easily preserved by prioritizing proper form and technique in your movements.
3. Muscle-tone and soft tissue work. Use that lacrosse ball, the percussion gun or the bony elbow of your masseuse. Whatever is your preferred tool, make soft tissue work a routine in your life. Muscles that are screaming to the touch are not recovering well. Don’t normalize pain.
4. Minimal effective dose. When deciding volume and loads keep this principle tattooed in your forehead. We are so focused on going the extra-mile, that we forget that the extra-mile is over training. Your job is to do the minimal you can that still achieves the goal, not the maximal.
5. You are a CrossFitter, constantly varied functional movement performed at high intensities is still your guiding methodology. Keep in mind that intensity is relative to the workout and your present day capacity. Don’t confuse high intensity with maximum effort.
6. Keep in mind the considerations we declared in the previous section.

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For the experienced athlete and coach everything that I wrote here will read just like proper training. It is! As we said a Master athlete is for all purposes an athlete. Stay focused on your training today, and thrive!

REFERENCES

1. Desbrow, Ben, Nicholas A. Burd, Mark Tarnopolsky, Daniel R. Moore, and Kirsty J. Elliott-Sale (2019). “Nutrition for Special Populations: Young, Female, and Masters Athletes”, International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism 29, 2: 220-227, accessed Aug 11, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsnem.2018-0269
2. Dionigi, Rylee & O’Flynn, Gabrielle. (2007). Performance Discourses and Old Age: What Does It Mean to Be an Older Athlete?. Sociology of Sport Journal. 24. 359-377. 10.1123/ssj.24.4.359.
3. Hawkins Steven A.(2010). “The effects of aging and sustained exercise involvement on cardiovascular function in older persons”, The Masters Athlete. Routledge: 52-65.
4. Schorer, Jörg & Baker, Joe. (2010). Maintenance of skilled performance with age: Lessons from the Masters. The Masters Athlete. Routledge: 66-78.
5. Tanaka Hirofumi (2010). “Peak exercise performance, muscle strength, and power in master athletes tanaka”, The Masters Athlete. Routledge: 41-44.

However, during all those years in academia, I always felt there was something missing. Despite being surrounded by amazing people, both good students and brilliant colleagues, I always felt lonely. Teaching in a university and academic research are solitary tasks.

The whole building – the physical and the institution – is founded on medieval and early modern ideas. Books, authors, and teachers are the main players of the game, and everything revolves around them. It took me years of research to understand that universities by conception are not made for students; universities are made for authors.

It was when I started coaching that I understood all this. It was really after spending thousands of hours within the walls of my garage teaching people the basics a human movement literacy that I saw what I felt was missing.

8 Important Lessons from Over a Decade of Coaching

1. The personal goals of the people you’re coaching matter

You see, coaching is teaching but it involves much more than traditional teaching. In my experience, you can be an amazing teacher and never touch a soul, but you cannot be an amazing coach without changing a soul.

This resides in the fact that the scope of both professions is different. In teaching, there is a knowledge that precedes both teacher and student. The objective of the relationship is that the students successfully acquire this knowledge.

In coaching, the focus of attention is not a specific knowledge, the focus of attention is what the athlete or trainee wants to be.

This change of focus is fundamental. When somebody comes to me to help them learn a muscle-up, they don’t want to learn the muscle-up so that they can get a degree and get a job. They want to learn a muscle-up because they want to express something about themselves, they want to be capable of more, they want to challenge themselves, they want to change who they are in a very fundamental way.

In helping them with this project, I had to play the role of the teacher but also had to be a guide, a solid sounding board, an “impartial” observer, and finally a reliable supporter with no other objective than to get them where they want to be.

This not-so-small realization was one of the first transformational lessons I learned from coaching. It changed my views on learning and it created a big shift in my identity. Here, I share with you some of the other lessons I have learned from this fantastic profession.

2. You don’t need to be the best at performing, but teaching

Coaching is the job of getting people closer to where they want to be. Coaching is about making people better according to their measuring stick. Because of this, coaching can happen in almost any context.

Whenever you are guiding a person to perform better in any human skill, you are coaching.

This definition is important. Often coaches and trainees get trapped. They think the coach needs to be the best at whatever skill it is that is to be mastered. Nothing is farther from the truth: coaching is about making people better, not being better than people.

Read more: Three Characteristics that Define a Great Coach

3. Learning can be intellectual and physiological

Learning is a physiological process. I internalized this by teaching movement and nutrition. I always knew that our knowledge is limited by our humanness: by our perceptions and our biologies. But getting out of the classroom showed me I only knew this at an intellectual level.

I needed to learn this with my body, and my gut, and with my emotions, with my whole self. What we think is not only limited by our biologies – it is determined by it. Change your biology and the way you understand the world will change with it too.

I now know at a very deep level that physics is descriptive. Natural sciences never explain why things work a certain way. The laws of physics are not the laws of nature, they are just sophisticated expressions of how our cognitions interpret the world.

Don’t read this in the wrong way; I wish all my athletes knew more physics, it would make their lives easier. This implies that when coaching you have to provide a context in which this kind of holistic learning experience can happen.

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4. Coaches make knowledge accessible

Coaches are information parsers. We live in the era of information. We have created a monstrous system that produces more data than our brains can handle.

We are at a deficit because the rate of information production and availability is way faster than the rate at which we turn that information into knowledge.

This is the root of our confusion. We live in confusing times; everybody is confused about everything. The job of us coaches is to parse information, to turn confusion into practice and into sense. This is possible for us because of the limited scope we have to cover.

Our project is not to create universal knowledge or truths (thank heaven!). Our objective is to parse all the available information relevant to our client’s project. That’s very contained and doable.

5. Coaching is a craft, but not art

Art and craft are two very different things. When we have a deep love for a discipline, we always want to see it under the romantic lens of art. This initially naive analogy hinders more than it helps when it comes to coaching.

Art is an expression of the relationship of the artist’s self with the world. Craft is the mastery of a discipline.

Coaching is a craft, but it is not art. As a matter of fact, to be a good coach you have to be aware of your own self, not to express it, but to put it to the side. This is, of course, an impossible task, but we should always try to get there regardless.

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6. Training is specific, coaching is broad

When you are training somebody, both at something physical or something behavioural, that training is very specific – it should be if you want it to succeed.

Coaching, however, is broad. Knowing the specificity of the thing trained is important but it is only step one. A good coach must see the complexity of the person as a whole in order to get them where they want to go.

Knowing the technicalities of a muscle-up is not very useful if you don’t know how to interpret a person’s body language. They might be telling you that today is the worst day to learn and you might not read it. If you don’t understand what drives them, you will never be able to help them get unstuck when the grind gets real.

If you are oblivious to what their inflexible shoulder is telling you about their fixed mindset, you might end up prescribing a physical intervention when what’s really needed is a mental one.

A coach who does not know enough mathematics and logic to be able to destroy narratives of self-defeat is a coach who will always be limited and hence limiting their athlete’s abilities.

This implies that a coach should always be going for breadth in learning and development and to specificity in practice. Grow horizontally, coach vertically.

7. Think high of your clients

Everybody is doing their best. This is where I think coaching is the most effective. Do you want to get people where they want to go? They are doing their best. Work from here and you will help them.

Assume they are doing less than what they can, and you have already lost the battle. It takes ownership, it takes patience, but it does produce effective coaching.

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8. Understand people’s motivations, but coach through their actions

Evaluate people’s actions, not their motivations. What moves you and what moves me might be very different things. A good coach must understand what moves an athlete, or a client. This is a given, yet you need to really get onto the floor with your client and understand what moves them.

But you don’t have to share it. What you must do as a coach is make sure you are presenting to your trainee the contrast between their motivations and their actions. We quite often cannot see these two things together, our egos get in the way.

The job of the coach is to bring this contrast to light. This should not be done from a moral point of view. It is not about correcting, it is about providing the perspective that only an outside person can.

Don’t put morals into coaching. People don’t need that. The job of a coach is not to decide if somebody has earned something or not. That’s a moral distinction. That’s the job of a parent or a priest.

The job of a coach is to help the trainee decide what’s the best next step and help them take it, that is all.

Of course, I have learned much more than this. But these are lessons that I think we all can apply. We are all coaching somebody, most of the time we are just coaching ourselves. Even in this case, you can apply these lessons.

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Juan Acevedo, PhD, is an experienced Level 3 CossFit Certified Trainer and Precision Nutrition Level 2 Coach. He is a humanist, destroyer of negative narratives, and constructor of positive change, and specialises in aligning the mindset, fitness, and nutrition habits of his athletes.

Find out more about him and his methods at Self Mastery Training or give him a follow on @selfmasterytraining.

To say that I know the minutia of the thing is an understatement. After a careful barbell warm-up, I asked my athletes to perform a set of muscle snatches at a very light weight–40% or less, I said. To my astonishment, when I looked at Jeremy, he had 45 lb plates on his bar and was easily muscle snatching them.

I immediately felt uncomfortable. “I cannot out lift this guy,” I thought. I felt insecure. It was not out of competitiveness; I feared Jeremy would not take my coaching seriously.

Fortunately, during that hour I worked with Jeremy on his first pull. His lifting got better, and his trust in me calmed all my insecurity. Years later when I started coaching my first high-calibre athlete, I felt the same way.

Some reflection and research made me realize I was having a little bit of impostor syndrome. Every new Level 1 CrossFit coach is familiar with this feeling. It expresses itself in a very simple question: “If I am not Tia-Clair, how can I coach, what do I know?” That question is fundamental and the answer will change the way you coach.

Get this: The job of the coach is not to be better than others. The job of the coach is to make others better.

In other words, the task of the coach is to be amazing at helping others maximize their potential. The task of being better than others is that of the competitive athlete.

Source: Stevie D Photography

Now, don’t get me wrong. You have to have a deep understanding of that which you are coaching. You have to be prepared and ready. That’s a given. It is hard to teach somebody to be efficient in their muscle-ups if you have never kipped.

But you don’t need to know it all or actually be an expert on every single aspect of the discipline. The best coaches have a team of experts to help them with the specifics. You don’t need to be the best athlete in the room, you just need to be the best coach.

What you DO need to know everything about is your athlete. What kind of learner is he/she? Why are they doing what they’re doing? What motivates them to keep going when it’s tough? In which contexts do they thrive? Or crumble?

The task is to help them be the best they can be. That requires a set of skills that are only tangentially related to your Snatch 1RM.

With that crucial information in mind, let me give you three characteristics for which every coach should strive, and which will ensure that your coaching has a truly meaningful impact.

Three Characteristics that Define a Great Coach

BUILD A RELATIONSHIP

Learn how to listen. Not just to what your athlete says, but to the way they move, the way they express themselves. Become a student of their behaviours, their movements, their emotional reactions.

Don’t solve their problems, instead, learn how to ask questions skillfully so that they will learn how to solve their own problems. An athlete who feels seen and heard is an athlete who will listen to you and hear your message.

BE ATHLETE-CENTRED

This is really not about you, my friend. This is about their goals and projects. The more you push your own agenda and the less autonomy you give your athlete, the more resistance you will generate in your athlete.

Instead of imposing your views, collaborate with your athlete. Empower them. Present your point of view, express your guidance, help them parse the information they are getting. And then let them decide.

LEAD BY EXAMPLE

Sending your athlete an email at 3:00 AM telling them about the importance of recovery and mobility will never work. The “do as I say” mentality will not cut it. Make sure your athlete knows your values and what matters to you. And then be true to those values.

Actively seek feedback. Let your athlete know you are always looking for potential points for improvement and your athlete will do the same.

These three characteristics are hard to implement. They are far away from the drill sergeant coach that bad movies have gotten us used to. Yet, they will create powerful results and powerful athletes.

Juan Acevedo, PhD, is an experienced Level 3 CrossFit Certified Trainer and Precision Nutrition Level 2 Coach. He is a humanist, destroyer of negative narratives, and constructor of positive change, and specialises in aligning the mindset, fitness, and nutrition habits of his athletes.

Find out more about him and his methods at Self Mastery Training or give him a follow on @selfmasterytraining.

CrossFit was first introduced to the fitness industry as a strength and conditioning program used to improve “fitness” as a whole by optimising the 10 general physical skills (i.e. cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance and accuracy), and has received great attention ever since.

Around 2007, though, since the start of the CrossFit Games, CrossFit has become something more than just a training system and it can almost be considered a sport. In order to become the “Fittest on Earth” it is not enough to be in a good shape and have good technique, but you also need to show great commitment, determination, courage, motivation and respect to the other people involved [1].

Because of the high intensity WODs, the rapid repetitive movements and high loads of weight, CrossFit has repetitively received a bad reputation regarding the potential injuries, especially in the shoulder, knees and lower back areas [17] it’s said to cause.

Others argue that CrossFit has lower injury risks compared to other sports, as the movements are more controlled compared to basketball, football or tennis, for example. However, epidemiological studies have shown that the injury rates of CrossFit athletes are very similar to related sports such as weightlifting, powerlifting and gymnastics [9], with competitive athletes having a higher injury incidence, probably due to the higher exposure to training.

Source: Stevie D Photography

Wherever we fall on this debate, we cannot question the impact that an injury has on a CrossFit competitor, both physical and psychological. Following a serious injury, athletes may need to rest and stop practising for a while, or keep practising but at a lower intensity. Others might need to have a surgery or even retire. How can this affect them?

 “I am mad, I am sad, I am disappointed… however this too shall pass.”

-Carleen Mathews after withdrawing from the CrossFit Games in 2017 due to an injury in her left arm [8]

“This is a tough decision and a tough post to make. The competitor in me can’t help but to feel like a quitter, although I know it is the furthest thing from it.”

-Kristin Reffett after retiring from competitive CrossFit due to some health issues [11]

“My self-esteem crashed a little bit after having to withdraw from the Games cause of my rib.”

-Sara Sigmunsdottir after withdrawing from the CrossFit Games in 2018 because of a broken rib (Morning Chalk Up interview, 2019)

Numerous studies suggest that a physical injury can result in negative changes in the athletes’ mood, lower self-esteem, intrusive thoughts and confusion about their (athletic) identity among others [3], [5], [6].

HOW CAN AN INJURY AFFECT CROSSFIT ATHLETES INITIALLY?

As mentioned above, injuries can have various consequences that can be divided into cognitive (thoughts), emotional and physical.

COGNITIVE CONSEQUENCES OF INJURY

When an athlete gets injured, they tend to think about and thoroughly process the event of the injury in terms of what happened, why it happened, the impact it had on themselves and their identity, and the possible future scenarios (e.g. “Am I going to train/compete again? Am I going to perform as well as before?” etc) [7], [16].

Looking back at this stressful experience can easily lead athletes to intrusive thoughts, ruminations and catastrophising [18].

Others might also respond with denial, which can be used as a cognitive strategy to cope with the distress and negative feelings caused by the injury. Usually linked with avoidance of feeling bad, denial is a form of “self-deception” and it can help the athlete to adaptively cope with a stressful situation and to protect their self-esteem.

In other words, the athlete avoids people, places and events that remind them of the injury, suppresses the negative emotional consequences of the injury and tries to console themselves by focusing on the perceived positive outcomes [6], [13].

That’s why it is very common for athletes to keep a distance from people close to them (especially from people related to their sport) and to avoid talking about the injury and their emotions about it [5], [7], [13].

EMOTIONAL CONSEQUENCES OF INJURY

A very important issue that most athletes face after an injury is a feeling of confusion about their (athletic) identity, as the new situation does not fit with their identity prior to the injury. For example, their capabilities might not be the same as before, their goals for the following months, season or year might need to change as they might be unable to compete or prepare for a competition, athletes might need to retire and stop competing.

Especially for athletes who are forced to retire due to an injury the confusion is more significant, as their retirement was not expected or planned. In response to that, athletes might either try to find ways to maintain and protect their identity, known as assimilation process, or form a new identity including a new role and goals, known as accommodation process [2], [10].

The above thoughts affect the athletes’ emotions. It is quite common for them to experience depression, anxiety (i.e. fear of the unknown) and negative emotions, such as rage, fury, shock, frustration, regret and self-pity, as well as loss of confidence [7], [12].

It has been shown that athletes feel that the injury increases stressors and demands, and that it has an impact not only on their athletic career and/or performance but also on their everyday functioning and on others’ lives, such as their coach, teammates, family.

Of course, the intensity of their emotional responses varies according to the injury’s severity [12].

PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES OF INJURY

Finally, athletes face physical difficulties after an injury, as in most cases they perceive that they are not at the same fitness level as before the injury, or they feel that they are unable or struggle to complete tasks that they used to complete with relative ease [7].

It is obvious that the first reactions to sports injuries are not usually positive and it is highly understandable.

Is it possible, then, for a CrossFit athlete who puts a lot of effort in their conditioning and training, nutrition, sleep and mindset to mentally and psychologically recover from such a setback in their career and/or performance?

The answer is yes. It has been shown that an obstacle or a difficulty during an athlete’s career might in fact be beneficial, as it could lead to adversarial growth and resilience.

WHAT IS ADVERSARIAL GROWTH?

Adversarial growth can be described as positive changes that benefit an individual’s level of functioning through the process of struggling with a traumatic, stressful and/or demanding event [6], [12].

According to a growing body of research, “people can grow following adversity to the extent that they report development beyond their pretrauma functioning” [6].

Specifically, most of the world’s best athletes experience some kind of sport or non-sport related adversity (e.g. an injury, a serious illness, mental health issues, bullying, bereavement or financial issues), which can work as a “developmental catalyst” in the athlete’s career and optimal performance.

Athletes who have endured a serious difficulty during their sports career have reported various beneficial changes in their attitudes, relationships and performance, such as a development of a greater appreciation of life, improved personal strength, enhanced relationships, but also improved performance and better engagement in their sport [6], [14].

Is growth always constructive?

Although growth is possible, it is not an easy and quick process, and some qualitative studies have proven that it might be “illusory” and not “constructive” growth [5], [6], [7].

An athlete’s growth is illusory when the perceived positive changes are not reflecting true changes from within the athlete but are based on self-deception and denial. Illusory growth is usually associated with avoidance, denial and self-deception, and are often associated with:

1. Seeking meaning: an athlete might experience intrusive thoughts and rumination that cause distress. In order to resolve this distress, they might try to understand and make sense of their experience by looking back at the onset of the injury. Through illusory growth the athlete just comprehends their experience, which is not enough to reach constructive growth. The athlete just focuses on why the injury happened (e.g. “I did not focus on my technique”), and does not seek to understand and reflect on all the factors that impacted them (e.g. possible overtraining or other stressors that might affect concentration), their thoughts (e.g. “I am useless”) and emotions (e.g. “I feel depressed”) [6], [7].
2. Cognitive manipulation and denial: an athlete might use cognitive techniques in order to reduce and avoid negative feelings, such as disappointment and distress, and to protect some parts of their identity. These techniques are also called “self-enhancement cognitions” and include (unrealistically) optimistic language and downwards social comparison [6]. Another example of avoidance of the negative emotions resulting from an injury is not disclosing information about their experience [12].
   

   “Also, having everyone ask me how I was feeling was tough, because I really didn’t want to tell them that I feel like shit.”

   -Annie Thorisdottir talking about her recovery period after a herniated-disk during an interview with BoxLife magazine.

3. Derogation of the injury experience: commonly, athletes will try to lower the significance of their experience in order to reduce negative feelings. For instance, they might compare themselves with other athletes who are in worse situations to feel better [2] or compare their current situation with a worse one they have experienced before.
4. Assimilation: when an athlete experiences a traumatic experience, such as a serious injury, their identity can be shattered. In order to maintain and protect their identity, some athletes tend to use distorted positive perceptions that fit their already formed identity prior to the injury (e.g. “I am the same athlete as before, I have the same goals and aspirations, I am as capable as before” etc), rather than form a new identity using the new information after the injury [5], [6]. A common example happens during the rehabilitation period, when athletes might not be ready to go back to training, but instead keep training or even compete in order to protect their (pre-injury) identity and avoid negative emotions.

Although illusory growth can seem quite negative, some aspects can be considered as beneficial at the beginning of the process of growth. Specifically, denial can be used as a “short-term palliative coping strategy” when the athlete is unable to cope with the amount of shock and distress caused after the injury.

When denial is also accompanied by an effort to cope with the traumatic injury, it can work as a function to support them psychologically and to help them develop their performance later [5].

HOW CAN YOU CONSTRUCTIVELY GROW AND DEVELOP FOLLOWING AN INJURY?

Research has shown that there are personal and external factors that can facilitate constructive growth.

What you can do:

1. Reflection: making sense of and reflecting on your experience, your thoughts and feelings after the injury, and understanding what and why you are thinking and feeling the way you are. This way, you can find any maladaptive thoughts that affect your emotions and keep you from growing and start focusing on your sporting goals and aspirations. In turn, this will help you rationalize your thoughts, and finally regulate your negative emotions [7], [16].
2. Injury = challenge: seeing your injury as a challenge and not as a threat. It is your opportunity to take control, develop and become better based on what went wrong [12].
   

   “It’s crazy how our biggest challenges can become our greatest gifts”

   -Julie Foucher referring to her retirement and injury [4]

3. Acceptance: accepting your injury, what has happened and all its consequences, as well as the challenge to develop [7].
4. Perceived social support: having and/or creating a safe and reliant social network. Apart from the actual social support, the perception of having social support is very important as it provides you with reassurance and a sense of security that if you need support, you will have it [12].
5. Accommodation: a reformation of your identity, your role, your priorities and goals based on the new situation, all of which are very important in athletes forced to retire [2], [5], [7]. For example, an injured athlete who retires from competitive CrossFit might become a coach (new role) and set “supporting and training other athletes” as their new goal.
6. Personality: Mental toughness/resilience, confidence, creativity, openness to experience, optimism and emotional intelligence are some of the personality traits that are found to facilitate the process of growth [7], [12].
7. Prior experience: having already experienced (a more stressful) adversity (e.g. other injury, bereavement, illness etc) in the past, athletes might compare them and realise that their injury is not worth the distress [5], [7].

What you can use:

1. Physical and educational resources: reading, watching and/or hearing (e.g. autobiographies, documentaries, films, sport events) about other people’s recoveries, information on your type of injury, how you can heal, cope and recover can help and facilitate the process of growth [5], [7], [16].
2. Social support: emotional but also practical support from family, friends, coach and/or sport psychologist can be extremely helpful; you can be benefited by encouragement, talking about your emotions, and feeling that someone understands you [5], [7], [12].
3. Time: having an injury equals more free time which can be positive [12], [16]. Many injured athletes have mentioned that during their free time they were focusing on things that they didn’t focus on before, such as technique.

“I worked a lot on technique. I was doing Snatches and Clean & Jerks at 30kg (60lbs) for a month and a half. My technique has probably benefited a lot from that. Now that I’m able to able to add more load, my lifts feel the same or better. I also got to practice gymnastics movements that I otherwise wouldn’t have. The experience was good that way.”

-Annie Thorisdottir talking about her recovery period (interview with BoxLife magazine).

Other athletes might also focus on things irrelevant to their sport that they couldn’t before because of lack of time. For instance, Julie Foucher who retired after rapturing her Achilles tendon, focused on finishing med school.

IN WHAT WAYS CAN YOU GROW AFTER A CROSSFIT INJURY?

When an athlete experiences constructive growth, they can develop in various ways.

Particularly, some of the perceived improvements of previously injured athletes of different levels, from club to national level, are the following:

Intrapersonal development

1. Emotional regulation: increased ability to understand, express and regulate one’s emotions [7]
2. Increased sport confidence, motivation and focus [15], [16]
3. Improved resilience and personal strength [7], [13], [16]
4. Better coping strategies when faced with other problems [15]
5. Change in beliefs, values and attitudes [15]
6. Spiritual change [7]
7. Change of priorities and perspective: looking at the bigger picture [5], [7], [15], [16]

 Interpersonal development

1. Strengthened social network and enhanced relationships [15], [16]
2. Greater appreciation of friends and family [7]
3. Better relationship with coach [15], [16]
4. Increased levels of empathy and prosocial behaviour [7], [16]
5. Improved ability to speak to others and ask for help [7], [15]

Physical development

1. Improved physical outcomes [7]
2. Improved technique, strength, conditioning, flexibility [15], [16]
3. Lower risk of injury: there is an increased knowledge of anatomy and risk factors of injury [15], [16]

It is evident that a CrossFit competitor can grow and develop as an athlete and as a person, even after a serious injury that can affect their career. In fact, it is this adversity that gives them the opportunity to progress.

However, it should not be assumed that an injury or any adversity is desired or needed for someone to develop, nor that it is enough to thrive, as there are other aspects and processes that determine an athlete’s success.

It is also important to note that the psychological impacts an injury can have on an athlete should not be neglected or undermined, as these can be stressful, devastating and traumatizing. What is suggested is that despite the negative consequences, an athlete can benefit through an injury in many ways.

Internal or External Motivation – What Drives You to Train?

Athina Papailiou is an MSc Sport & Exercise Psychology student at Loughborough University, you can find more of her work here.

References

[1] Claudino, J. G., Gabbett, T. J., Bourgeois, F., de Sá Souza, H., Miranda, R. C., Mezêncio, B., … Hernandez, A. J. (2018). Crossfit overview: systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine-Open, 4(1), 11.

[2] Day, M. C., & Wadey, R. (2016). Narratives of trauma, recovery, and growth: The complex role of sport following permanent acquired disability. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 22, 131–138.

[3] Forsdyke, D., Smith, A., Jones, M., & Gledhill, A. (2016). Psychosocial factors associated with outcomes of sports injury rehabilitation in competitive athletes: a mixed studies systematic review. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 50(9), 537 LP – 544.

[4] Foucher, J. [@juliefoucher]. (2017, May 31). [Photograph of J. Foucher at the CrossFit Games]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/BUu25WpDQ4w/?utm_source=ig_embed

[5] Howells, K., & Fletcher, D. (2015). Sink or swim: Adversity-and growth-related experiences in Olympic swimming champions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 16, 37–48.

[6] Howells, K., & Fletcher, D. (2016). Adversarial growth in Olympic swimmers: constructive reality or illusory self-deception? Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 38(2), 173–186.

[7] Howells, K., Sarkar, M., & Fletcher, D. (2017). Can athletes benefit from difficulty? A systematic review of growth following adversity in competitive sport. In Progress in brain research (Vol. 234, pp. 117–159). Elsevier.

[8] Mathews, C. [@teamcarleen]. (2017, August 4). [Photograph of C. Mathews at the CrossFit Games]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/BXWyM0tFrvO/

[9] Montalvo, A. M., Shaefer, H., Rodriguez, B., Li, T., Epnere, K., & Myer, G. D. (2017). Retrospective Injury Epidemiology and Risk Factors for Injury in CrossFit. Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, 16(1), 53–59. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28344451

[10] Muscat, A. C. (2010). Elite athletes’ experiences of identity changes during a career-ending injury: an interpretive description. University of British Columbia.

[11] Reffett, K. [@kreffett]. (2018, March 11). [Photograph of K. Reffett in the gym]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/BgMXfJkFtwW/

[12] Roy-Davis, K., Wadey, R., & Evans, L. (2017). A grounded theory of sport injury-related growth. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 6(1), 35.

[13] Salim, J., Wadey, R., & Diss, C. (2016). Examining hardiness, coping and stress-related growth following sport injury. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 28(2), 154–169.

[14] Sarkar, M., & Fletcher, D. (2017). Adversity-related experiences are essential for Olympic success: Additional evidence and considerations. In Progress in brain research (Vol. 232, pp. 159–165). Elsevier.

[15] Wadey, R., Clark, S., Podlog, L., & McCullough, D. (2013). Coaches’ perceptions of athletes’ stress-related growth following sport injury. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 14(2), 125–135.

[16] Wadey, R., Evans, L., Evans, K., & Mitchell, I. (2011). Perceived Benefits Following Sport Injury: A Qualitative Examination of their Antecedents and Underlying Mechanisms. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 23(2), 142–158. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2010.543119

[17] Weisenthal, B. M., Beck, C. A., Maloney, M. D., DeHaven, K. E., & Giordano, B. D. (2014). Injury rate and patterns among CrossFit athletes. Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, 2(4), 2325967114531177.

[18] Wiese‐Bjornstal, D. M. (2010). Psychology and socioculture affect injury risk, response, and recovery in high‐intensity athletes: a consensus statement. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 20, 103–111.

Box Latino Magazine had the pleasure to talk with the Argentinian behind the preparation of the various Latin American athletes that became National Champions at the latest edition of the Open – a direct qualifying route to the 2020 Games.

In the interview, he shares unpublished details about his personal life, motivations and professional expectations for the year, in addition to particulars on his online and physical presence with each of his athletes locally, nationally and internationally.

‘Maka’ is accompanying a fair few athletes this season. The following athletes all train under his wing and will represent the Latin American community after being crowned National Champions:

• Simona Quintana – Chile
• Piero Gorichon – Chile
• Guillermo Torres – Ecuador
• Andrea Rodríguez – Ecuador
• Maximiliano ‘negro’ Arigossi – Argentina
• Juan Manuel Seitun – Uruguay
• Lukas Osaki – Peru
• Laura Sánchez – Venezuela

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7BK_tqDYiD/

Who is Juan ‘Maka’ Coronel?

“I was born in Miramar, a coastal city en the Buenos Aires province in Argentina. I am a strength and conditioning coach for high performance athletes. Either as a coach or as a trainer, I’ve been in the sport and fitness scope for over 15 years in Argentina and other Latin American countries.”

What is the key to good programming for each individual athlete?

“There’s a quote by Pablo Picasso that goes: ‘Learn the rules like a professional, so you can break them like an artist.’ I think this defines perfectly what I see as the key in programming for competitive CrossFit – it’s almost like an art.

“I’m always asked how I plan or what I ask my athletes to do, but in reality there is no good or bad programming. You can have good and bad coaches, concepts, or ignored or badly applied principles, etc. There are hundreds of books on training, physiology, biomechanics, endurance, force, etc. – that’s what I consider ‘learn the rules like a professional.’

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2MmseFDvE2/

“When you have that theoretical and practical background you can ‘break the rules like an artist.’ You can give me the best paint brushes, the best colours, I could have the best technique with a brush and use the best canvas, you can tell me how many strokes I ought to do with each colour and in which direction and that won’t mean I can paint a Guernica.

“It’s essential to posses that internal process of utilising all the tools at your disposal and to be consistent in your training so as to know when to break away from the rules and when to lean on them.

“I consider it key to evaluate the process and rethink your own practice, as well as the results you constantly get; you change whatever doesn’t work and reaffirm what does.

“Competitive athletes have the same needs, they differ in degree but not type.

“An athlete with an ‘X’ weakness is a less competitive athlete. No matter their strengths, it’s the weaknesses that will get them out of the game; be it the CrossFit Games or a local tournament.

“They can all work on similar things or train in similar periods, but each of them to their own degree based on their weaknesses.

“Strengths are also worked on, but these are the things that help you climb up the leaderboard. Depending on the competition, your strengths might be incredibly good or simply acceptable – the important, and urgent thing, is to revert weaknesses.

“Each athlete has its own learning periods, as well as periods of physical and mental adaptations to the loads, it’s at this stage that training and work can be individualised to an even higher degree.”

What’s the process behind your online and physical presence with your athletes like?

“My presence is more evident with some athletes as I currently reside in Buenos Aires and many either live here or travel over regularly.

“I aim to arrange days where I meet up with them, to watch them train, make amendments, talk to them. I also really like it when they meet up amongst themselves.

“Yet each of them has two to three training sessions a day, so I can’t physically be at all of them.

“The same thing happens with the athletes that live abroad; we talk regularly and go through their training, doubts, go over videos… That’s why I like to create an open and trustworthy environment, so they know they can reach out to me constantly if they have any doubts or necessities.

“They know I’m there no matter the time if they need my counsel or want to send me memes!

“Equally, even if I’m at their disposition and totally committed to them, I look to always instil independence from me when it comes to their daily performance. From the responsibility to be strict with their diets, to keeping to their levels of intensity and rest. That way they’re not dependant of my constant presence to give their 100% or do what they have to do on a daily basis.

RELATED: How to Make Faster Progress in CrossFit by Becoming More “Coachable”

“I hope to induce awareness that it isn’t me they ought to answer to, but themselves. An athlete learns so much about him or herself that way. It’s a way to ensure that, when they’re alone at an event, they know they have themselves and that’s an incredible resource if it has been trained. It’s good to be prepared for that, I consider it a necessity.”

What does it mean to you to have so many athletes qualify to the 2020 CrossFit Games?

“For me it’s an honour and a huge pleasure. It’s a validation and a reward for many years of work and big efforts with these athletes.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B40BfEgDKeP/

“I believe that, year by year, I have convinced more people on how to train, what is necessary and what isn’t. It’s been hard but this is the result: eight qualified athletes to the Elite competition at my third CrossFit Games as a coach.”

What expectations do you have for the 2020 CrossFit Games?

“Expectations are high, but I don’t want to put a roof over my or anyone else’s head by setting a specific aim – we’ll aim for as high as we can.

“The minimum we hope to accomplish is that, within the athletes I work with, they become the fittest within Latin America again, which we achieved last year. I also hope we go through the first cut.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0RHlVGDuyl/

“I believe that I have positively capitalised on my past experiences and that trodden path is an added value, important coming into the upcoming Games.”

What has been the development like in Latin America like these past few years?

“The progress in terms of coaches in certain regions of Latin America is really good and completely void in others.

“It’s not something I like at all; on the contrary, I want to see Latin America better represented each year in CrossFit in general.

“I see a lot of training and little sense. I don’t see many coaches here really revealing their methods or coaches that can back up what they’re asking from their athletes or students through grounded criterion.

“There’s a lot of ‘I do it because I’ve seen it being done’ without a strong theoretical basis to sustain the training or what one hopes to get out of what’s being done. I believe that dies within itself; to copy someone else’s successful methods does not provide success.

“I’ve got no doubts that in every Latin American country there are many great coaches with incredible practical and theoretical capacities, but one does not hear of them or they’re not being consulted.

“There’s a certain mentality within the competitive athletes of Latin America that if your coach doesn’t speak English or lives in the US or in Europe, he/she’s not good. Or that if they’re not specifically CrossFit coaches o haven’t competed themselves they can’t contribute to anything – this is such a big lie.

“I believe that once we get over those types of beliefs, more research is done, and each country resorts to its professional and educational capital – and all of this is shared – then the competitive and professional level of the region will inevitably rise, both in quality and in quantity.

“Maybe this is a bit Utopian, but I like to see that horizon as my direction in my work.

“On the athlete’s level, things are evolving strongly and I love it. They’re travelling abroad a lot more and the possibility to access Sanctionals and rub shoulders with other Elite athletes is insurmountable.

“It’s a huge motivational boost for the athletes, which then carries over and reflects on their compromise and discipline in their daily work.

“On a competitive level, I see that national competitions follow an orderly criterion for what it is they want to test and what kind of fitness should be awarded. Whereas on a local level, I can tell there’s a lack of criterion of what’s being sought after.

“Now, I’m talking about CrossFit as a sport; if it were CrossFit as training this would be a completely different conversation.”

How do you balance you professional and your personal life?

“It’s a constant battle trying not to mix them up! But seriously, I understood a long while ago that, in order to be able to be efficient in my profession and be able to lead an optimal personal life, I would need to keep them apart and dedicate time to each one.

“They both feed and grow of each other incredible amounts, but separately, I try to take care of both equally.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7ltkgzj87f/

“I constantly work on keeping focused on the task at hand, mainly as a form of respect to myself and the people around me. If I realise I’m zoning out, or I’m not delivering mentally or need some time alone, I spend some time with my guitar and a pair of Coronas; clear the mind and be 100% there again.”

To finish off, Juan talked about his personal and professional sources of motivation.

“Surrounding myself with people who push me to surpass my current level really drives me. The people that I admire on a personal and/or professional level, they give me a hunger to learn and work more. This is key for me and that’s why I look to engage and build relationships with people like that – and hope to be that person to others.

“To continually study and learn, it keeps me active for most of the day. It’s very common for me to be reading four or five books at a time or training myself to acquire the information I need, or look for ways to be the best version of myself for the people that look for me, so I can help them achieve their goals. Having them achieve their goals is priceless and the biggest source of motivation for me.”

–

This article was originally published in Spanish by Box Latino Magazine, a publication covering athletes, coaches and events in the Latin American region. The original article was written by Nicolás Garzón, the BOXROX version translated by Caro Kyllmann. You can find the original version here.

BOXROX has partnered with Box Latino Magazine to grow the coverage of the Latino CrossFit community. If you’re a Spanish speaking reader or interested in knowing more about the scene in Latin America consider giving them a follow @boxlatinomagazine.

A Coach and their training plan:

1. A Coach will give you structure, systematic planning and long term goals

A Coach’s work is not based on their daily inspiration, it’s a process with long term goals that are clearly defined. You set a goal together and then later dig deep into macro-, meso- and microcycles. It’s about setting up periodization for your progress, and giving clear purpose to your efforts, and structure to your training.

2. A Coach’s focus is on optimizing your performance: Not simply helping you compete with your peers.

Competition can be fun and constructive, but while you’re focused on proving to others that you are better than they are, your coach is focused on you: On making you a better Athlete, and your performances much stronger. Their goal is not to aid you to compete with your peers, like your ego likes to do, but simply optimize your training output and competition performance.

Source: Chris Hinshaw / Tia-Clair Toomey

Source: Ben Bergeron

As Crossfit coaches go, Ben has an impressive reputation as the head coach of Crossfit New England, and runs ‘Competitors Training’. He has over 20 years of coaching experience, and just under 10 of those have been spent in Crossfit. The list of famous athletes and teams that he has coached is highly impressive, including:

• Katrin Tanja Davidsdottir (1st in 2015 and 2016)
• Mat Fraser (1st in 2016)
• Chris Spealler
• Lindsey Valenzuela
• Team Crossfit New England (2nd in 2013)

BECOME A THREE-HEADED MONSTER

According to Bergeron, your job as a Crossfitter is to become a three headed monster! This metaphor, symbolising the three important areas of Crossfit, consists of:

1. Strength
2. Skills
3. Conditioning

‘Your goal is to be feeding (improving) all three heads at the same time – every month, every week, every day.  If you have a serious weakness in one (one head is smaller than the other two), feed it more till it is as big as the others.’

CROSSFIT COACHES: WORKOUT TEMPLATES

Bergeron uses a weekly template for all of his Athletes, but adapts accordingly for their goals, motivations and abilities.

‘Let the meat and potatoes of your program be your couplets and triplets, go long once a week, and go heavy one to two times per week.’

Here is the basic version of this template for Crossfitters hoping to do well in the Open:

Monday: Conditioning / Olympic Lifting / Gymnastics

Tuesday: Conditioning / Strength / Rowing

Wednesday: Conditioning / Olympic Lifting / Gymnastics

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Conditioning / Strength / Rowing

Saturday: Conditioning

Sunday: Rest

Now, don’t get me wrong, challenging your coach is cool, if the intent is to deepen your own understanding, or if you’re curious as to the thinking behind those dreaded assault bike intervals! Also, it’s ONLY cool IF you’re willing to listen to their answer, when it comes from a reasoned and well educated background…

So here are some things we can all do as athletes,that will help us get better!

Be Honest!

If you didn’t make the time cap, record that you didn’t make the time cap. If you can’t do muscle ups, say you can’t do them. By being honest with yourself, and with your coach, you will get the most out of your programme and out of the class.

Trust the Process

Just because you like lifting, and don’t like doing those gymnastic progressions, doesn’t mean you do more lifting and less gymnastics, and then wonder why you still haven’t got those elusive handstand walks. One of the biggest challenges I have as a coach, is people stating that X, Y and Z have said that by doing “this” I’ll get better at “that”

There is more than one way to reach a goal, yes but there is also a whole heap of old school, misinformed propaganda out there that won’t make you any better. There are probably at least 5 different studies, that prove or disprove every single training methodology out there, at the end of the day, it’s our job as coaches to help you get better and design the correct programme. So trust to help you on your journey. If you throw yourself wholeheartedly into the process, we will make it work.

Source: Chris Hinshaw

If we don’t, then move on…but you can only really judge the success of a programme if you have followed it, in it’s entirety, for a period of time.

Control the Controllable

Sleep well, eat well, train hard, rest when needed. Repeat. A lot of your progress will be down to doing the really basic, simple things, brilliantly.

You can’t control what your workout buddy is doing, or what the lad that your chasing in the open is doing. Turn that gaze inward, focus on your training, your body, your fuel, and YOU will have the success that you are after.

Scale appropriately

If Coach says it should be a 6 min workout, where you should be able to complete at least 5 reps unbroken, don’t take 15 mins doing 100kg clean and jerk singles at RX, because it feels “awesome, bro”

Chances are you’ve missed the aim of the workout, fried your Central Nervous System, and won’t now be able to hit the required numbers for the following two days strength work!

There is nothing wrong with scaling, there’s a plan in place.

Have fun, be on time, be ready to learn and ask questions

Finally, and possibly most importantly. Have fun, turn up, and be ready to learn!

Phrases like, I’ve always done it this way, Mat Fraser does it like this, Tia Toomey said….shows a fixed mindset, and some level of delirium! Try what the coach asks,   and always, always, ask questions…please don’t suffer in silence, no matter how trivial, chances are at least 1 other class goer wants to know the answer to the question you’re about to ask, so ask away…

Your coach should relish the opportunity to help you, and answer your questions, CrossFIt (and any sport) should be a learning experience, and should be fun!

Your coach is there to help not hinder, so make sure you let them do just that!

Following a job opportunity for his wife, Loris, who had lived abroad for longer periods of time but never outside Europe, took a sabbatical year from his work and he and his family moved to the capital, Hanoi.

“To be totally honest, our parents were not so happy about it, but we did it anyway,” he said.

SOURCING FOR THE BOX

Finding a place and sourcing the equipment for the Box wasn’t easy. “It was the hardest part,” Loris said. “Especially in Vietnam where you cannot go online and shop with your credit card on any website and expect things to be delivered at your door.”

CrossFit Tay Ho started on the top floor of a gym building. At the time, it was the only CrossFit Affiliate in the whole county. The beginning wasn’t easy; it took two months for the equipment for the gym to arrive from Australia.

“The plan was to first find a reliable and relatively cheap producer (the box was small, so I need only 7 bars as I could not do bigger classes) and I ended up choosing one Australian one. The material was so good that some of it is still used now at the box!” Loris explained.

“Step 2 was to find a local enterprise that would import the goods on my behalf and took care of all the custom and transport procedures,” he continued. “As I had never done anything like that in the past, I was definitely out of my comfort zone!”

THROWN IN AT THE DEEP END

The floor shook when athletes dropped weights – the first space being on the top floor – and after a few complaints from the neighbours the landlord moved CrossFit Tay Ho to the ground floor. “The ceiling was too low to do wall balls, so I built a structure outside, in the parking. Ring muscle-ups were another challenge. So, I made a steel structure on the rooftop.

“Sometimes you just need to be creative! The rig was done locally following my instructions and measurements and is the one that is still used at the Box,” Loris said. “It was smoking humid in some periods of the year and super hot in some others, so I had to adapt the timetable of the classes moving them to early morning or afternoons. It was not easy as I am not an early bird!”

Source: Loris Ditta

In terms of programming, decisions were also based on the different climate: “the movements I had to choose were influenced by the weather because, during the rainy seasons, we just could not go out running.

“But I must say that these challenges helped me grow as an athlete and as a coach, as everybody is a great sailor with easy wind and calm sea.”

“I must also admit that being an official affiliate – and at that time the only one in the whole country – helped me because I was the point of reference to all the CrossFitters that were passing by and to the expat community in the city.”

SHARING THE PASSION

We asked Loris what lessons he’d learnt owning CrossFit Tay Ho; it was Loris’ first time as an Affiliate owner.

“It does not matter how fancy your equipment is, but what really matters is the ability, as coach and owner, to transmit to your members the passion for CrossFit and your vision about it. CrossFit Tay Ho was a small community, so it was easier to have a kind of personal relation with my athletes, but this is how it should also be in bigger boxes.

“Coaches and owners should not only be able to teach the movements – that is the baseline – they should be mentors who guide the members into their CrossFit journey so that people show up at the classes half an hour before and stay after the class another half hour just because they like the atmosphere and they feel at home.

“CrossFit is about building a community. Not about building a Games athlete. If you build a Games athlete good for you. But you should remember that your rent is covered by the other 99% of your members (mothers, fathers, doctors, housewife, students…). Focus on them, the athlete is an extra that most boxes will never have even if they are still great places with great coaches and owners.”

CrossFit Tay Ho had (has) a magic atmosphere about it, Loris recalls. During his time as owner, about 95% of the members were expats, which meant the Box was a great place to meet friends. “Kind of like a second home that makes you feel less alone, as most of the members come from thousands of kilometres away. You can smell a unique sense of community and friendship,” Loris explained.

A COMMUNITY-RUN BOX

He owned the Box for almost two years and, when it was time to say goodbye for sure, he gave the keys to the members. “I let them run it as a community-run box. I found the idea a little naïve and unique, but it is the best example I can imagine of the strength of a community,” the former coach said.

It’s all done on a voluntary base; the admin team manages the cash flow and run the day-to-day activities. All big decisions are made by them and by athletes that had been members for more than six months. “I used to say that I just planted a seed, and they water it every single day with their sweat,” Loris said.

He went back to the Box once in 2017 and had an amazing time training with the old members and being introduced to the new ones who’d all heard stories of him. On the whiteboard, still closed, waited a letter for him from his days at Tay Ho.

Source: Loris Ditta

While he was running the Box, Loris finished 3rd in Asia during the Open and was eligible to take part in a competition which he then couldn’t attend as he left the country. The envelope contained the official invitation to the competition.

“Nobody had touched it. Nobody had opened it. But they keep it because they wanted me to get it. It was like the closing of a chapter of my life. I get goosebumps every time I tell this story,” Loris said.

The Italian man started CrossFit in 2010 in Belgium with a Danish coach called Emil. “It [CrossFit] gave me so much in terms of fitness and general well-being that I regret not having started it before. It has also allowed me to meet people all around the word and realize that it does not matter where you train, but that you can really feel at home in any box,” he said.

Loris now trains at CrossFit BINK 36 in the Netherlands and CrossFit is part of his day to day life, he enjoys his job and training days but also remembers his time as a coach fondly. “Who knows what the future will bring!” he said.

This is what CrossFit Tay Ho in Hanoi, Vietnam, looks like now!

Let´s have a look at some of the best CrossFit coaches to follow:

C.J.MARTIN

C.J. Martin is a Level 2 CrossFit instructor, USAW Club Coach and former member of the CrossFit HQ training team. CJ coaches, and has coached, many games level athletes including: Lauren and Garret Fisher, Josh Bridges, Aja Barto, and Michelle Kinney. His secret to train athletes is to get them training together. They push each other.

“The intensity level whether you want it to or not is going to go up when you are side by side next to somebody.”

C.J. Martin believes that it is important for athletes to be surrounded by the community and their peers as well as to have a coach who gives them right directions. A coach who gets them closer to their goal. In his opinion, crossfit is not only about achieving a certain goal. It is about enjoying the process. Balancing training with recovery is very important. It is not only reps and sets. For C.J. Martin fun is to see all the like-minded people who are creating one community. Crossfit is life lessons. He is also doing online coaching.

C.J. thinks crossfit is much more sophisticated than in the past years and that there is no other sport where you have to manage as many skills and strength qualities as in this one.

“One thing which I won´t fail on is my kids.”

CrossFit takes many sacrifices but C.J. would never sacrifice his kids for the job even though he sometimes feels uncomfortable because of not being in the best shape.

He is also co-founder of Kids Helping Kids, a non-profit organization that has raised nearly $4 million for neo-natal intensive care and pediatric units throughout Oregon, and he currently serves on the Board of Directors of San Diego Youth Services.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXfgbScg7H4/?taken-by=cjinvictus

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As an older athlete, with multiple mobility/health issues (triple bypass open heart surgery, major shoulder rebuild, inoperable rotator cuff damage, hip replacement, knee replacement, both upper biceps detached), there are Crossfit movements that I cannot personally perform or demonstrate.

My days of back flips, walking down the street on my hands, power lifting, and running marathons are well behind me.

Source: BOXROX

I often use experienced athletes and/or videos to demonstrate.  However, my favorite method is to pick an inexperienced athlete and “talk them through” a movement.  We then spend teaching time correcting the athlete’s skill, so everyone can learn together.

At CrossFit BearCat, in Bunnell/Palm Coast, Florida, we have a great team of owners and coaches, all with our unique skill sets, strengths, and coaching philosophies.  At 71, I’m the box senior citizen, and these are some of my thoughts on coaching:

Earning the right to be called “coach,” requires a positive answer to three very important questions:

1. Can I Trust you? Trust doesn’t happen the day they walk in the box, but the process does start then.  Confidence in my coaching builds with time.
2. Do you Care about me? Does the new, overweight athlete learn quickly that I care about them and their goals, every bit as much as the box competitive rock star?
3. Can you Help me? This is all about competence.  Do I take time to study each athlete’s form  and technique every day?  Are my cues effective?  Do I read, study videos and pursue training seminars from credible sources?  Am I current and relevant?

Source: Frank Zedar

Perfection is un-achievable and it is psychotic to chase it.

The goal is not always to become a champion, it’s about “excellent pursuit.”

I don’t coach an athlete to achieve “my” goal.  I help them along to what “they” want to get out of it.

I believe that the athlete is paying for – and deserves – a full hour of coaching effort.

It’s my thought that the warm-up, skill practice, and strength work is equally important as the daily WOD.  I let them know if I think they are cruising and “saving themselves” for a hot WOD time on the whiteboard!

Adverse conditions teach discipline and build morale

Even though there may be griping going on… it’s the good kind.

I enjoyed a 20 year Army career and I don’t ever recall hearing the Captain or the First Sergeant announce that training was cancelled “because it was raining, or too hot, or too cold, etc.”

Know the difference between your recreational Crossfitters and your gamers.

Give gamers extra competition box time.  If they ask for more, expect more from them.

Source: Chris Hinshaw

Help your athletes spend more time on their strengths than their weaknesses.

Whoa!  Did I just say that?  So, CrossFit is a journey and it starts with the basics.  Pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, squats, running, rowing.  Then there’s the trickier Olympic and power lifts.  On to “Murph” with a 20# vest, muscle-ups, handstand push-ups, pistol squat burpees over the bar… peg boards, etc.  Don’t make every WOD one where the majority loses interest because they will never be in red and they feel disenfranchised.  Face it, many will never get a muscle-up and that’s OK.

As coaches, our aim has to be on teaching the athletes:

• Form, technique and mechanics before load
• Focus and concentration
• Strong mental attitude

Timing, rhythm, proper load and pacing holds it all together.

If the WOD is “Fran,” 21-15-9 of thrusters and pull-ups and 95# is Rx… and the guy insists on using 95# and it takes him 30 minutes… Well, that just isn’t the spirit of that sacred workout…

When they leave the box after the WOD, I want them to think, “That was hard!  But it was fun!  And I learned something today!”

The debate on whether it’s okay for athletes and coaches to take their relationships to an intimate level surfaces now and again, often in the wake of more scandalous encounters such as when the relationship is an extra-martial affair.  Or more concerning, when an athlete is coerced or groomed into a sexual relationship by a more powerful and respected coach.  In the aftermath of these kinds of incidents, sporting bodies issue statements and policies which generally damn the whole idea and forbid anything other than professional relationships between coaches and athletes [i][ii].

While this knee jerk reaction offers potential protection from any unscrupulous coaches, it doesn’t address the common occurrence of long term relationships and marriages arising from coach-athlete liaisons.  It may feel too prescriptive and dogmatic to adult athletes who feel perfectly capable of deciding whether to pursue such a relationship.  For the CrossFit community, these questions are perhaps more pressing.

Source: Tia-Clair Toomey

Our training structure is more flat and our coaches see a greater range of athletes.  There is often more crossover between the box and daily, community life.  As coaches, we also train athletes  for whom there may be reasons other than sporting achievement; personal issues or emotional needs have driven them to the box.  While this is a credit to the CrossFit community, it is also a potential ethical minefield for affiliate owners and coaches who are not 100% clear on where their boundaries lie on the issues of sexual relationships formed through time at the box.

THREE PERSPECTIVES:

1. WE ARE ALL CONSENTING ADULTS, SO WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?

The innocent question arises – We are all consenting adults, so what’s the big deal?  Maybe nothing, but without this topic becoming an open, transparent topic questionable ethics can arise even in a best case scenario.  What’s the worst case scenario?  Damaging relationships that border on exploitation.  Those that fall on the ‘consenting adults’ side of the debate cite that fact that many respected and successful athletic careers have been built on a coaching relationship that turned into an intimate one.  Also, the vast majority of coaches are interested in only furthering the success of their athletes and are not the predatory creatures that prohibitive policies on sexual relationships seem to suggest.

Bela Karolyi, the former United States national gymnastics coach, spoke candidly about an unspoken coaching phenomenon – that male coaches get more out of their female athletes when they feel at least some attraction to their coach[iii].  It’s this emotional tie that perhaps drives the athletes to do more and get approval from a special coach.  He notes that attractive young male coaches inspire better training in his stock of female athletes. Interestingly, however, he doesn’t necessarily condone sexual relationships between coach and athlete, so much as acknowledge that they happen.

2. SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN COACHES AND ATHLETES ARE UNPROFESSIONAL

Then there’s the ‘Don’t ever go there’ camp which takes a different tack. The argument here is that establishing consent within any relationship where there are inherent power imbalances can be tricky. From this perspective, when there is a relationship where one member is a helper, teacher or expert, a sexual encounter can never be equal[iv]. One member of the relationship will always, even if unintentionally, be acting from a less powerful stance.  While the other – even innocently – will be exploiting a position of power.  Sounds terribly sinister, and although it is extreme, this perspective demands a deeper consideration of the nature of relationships in order to behave ethically.  It’s this approach that views sexual relationships, even if consenting,  between doctors/patients, therapists/clients or employers/employees as unethical, even if both parties make it a goal to shake off the previous roles that defined their relationship.

This perspective is based on the idea that once you’ve established a relationship where you are the expert helper, to engage in sex is abusing that position.  Even if you try to see each other as equals, you are not.

This perspective doesn’t hide from the fact that feelings can – and will -arise from both parties in part because of the trust, intimacy and time spent with each other.  Rather, it views these feelings as both a natural reaction, but also as a possible response to a state of dependence on another or a feeling of being needed or powerful which may not be immediately conscious or clear.  An article in the CrossFit Journal waxes poetic on the transformational, therapeutic relationships between coach and athlete[v].  The article describes how personal tragedies and struggles led people to become box members and how their experiences as athletes healed them.  While the article is touching and resonates with the life transformations I’ve also witnessed in CrossFit, without clear ethical standards, these relationships are encroaching on dangerous territory.  As the article highlights, the people being coached are often vulnerable in some way.  They might be shy, body conscious, depressed, lonely, in bad health or traumatized.  They pay a membership to be helped and look to a coach for guidance.  A well placed word or approving smile can spur them on, and a harsh critique can crush them.  To appreciate that power is to become a professional and to appreciate that a sexual relationship, even a mutually consenting one – is betraying a trust; an unspoken contract between you both.  Because when we commit to helping another – as a coach does- that commitment runs beyond the hour of the class or membership fee.

3. FINDING A MIDDLE GROUND

A middle ground perspective is to acknowledge that deep feelings are natural and may or may not be ethical.  If you are pretty conscious individual and respect your role within this transformational relationship between coach and athlete, and you meet what you believe is your soul mate as their coach, then maybe that’s not always wrong.  Some coaches suggest that finding ‘the one’ is different than viewing your box as your own personal match.com/Tinder.  See a CrossFit.com forum discussion thread on this topic here.   Erin Kelly, of CrossFit 1Force in New Jersey, shares her personal love story (Click link to view) of ‘falling in love over a barbell’.  But she also cautions coaches in doing the same, even with other coaches.  She also strongly advises box owners to make clear policies on sexual relationships to avoid the hornets’ nest of gossip, lawsuits and negativity that follow when coaches shrug off the professionalism for the sake of casual sex.  It’s useful to note that even if the coach and athlete feel fine about the relationship, their connection will affect the dynamic of the whole box.

Favoritism, jealousy and cliques are always destructive to a box and are more likely when a coach is involved with an athlete or another coach.  To be safe, coaches with experience in these issues suggest being open about feelings before taking the relationship further to ensure the relationship won’t be damaging to the box, the athlete, other athletes or the coach.  Talking to managers, box owners and more senior coaches will help to troubleshoot any potential difficulties and make more certain that the relationship is ethically sound.

PROFESSIONALISM AND THE COACHING RELATIONSHIP

Ben Bergeron posted a meme on Instagram the other day reminding us that professionals don’t gossip about their clients; saying doctors, priests and lawyers don’t talk about clients and neither should coaches.

I suggest that this call to professionalism is apt and I would take it step further.  Lawyers, Doctors and other professionals also don’t sleep with their clients.  It’s my belief that coaches should follow suit if they want to be credited with a similar level of expertise.  Clear ethical boundaries can only add to credibility of our sport.  However, I also appreciate that my background influences me to fall on the ‘don’t ever go there’ side of the argument perhaps a little too vehemently.  I would at the very least propose that affiliate owners, coaches and athletes consider their stance on the issue with more than their hormones and beyond the argument that people who spend all their time at the box can’t meet anyone else.  I hope that this can inspire some open discussion which in the end will make us all better, more effective and essentially ahead of the game in the world of sport – as ever.

[i] Brake, DL (2012). Going outside Title IX to keep Coach-Athlete relationships in bounds.   Marquette Sports Law Review, vol 22, 2, pp 395-424.

[ii] International Olympic Committee, Press Release, Feb 2007. IOC ADOPTS CONSENSUS STATEMENT ON “SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ABUSE IN SPORT”.

[iii] Bondy, F. May 2,1993. When coaches cross the line. In New York Times.

[iv] Fasting, K (2014). Women in Sport: Sexual Harassment and abuse in sport, prevalence and prevention.  Scientific Report Series, SISU Sports Books and World Village of Woman Sports.

[v] Saline, B (2014). Coach, Counselor or Both? CrossFit Journal, Dec 2014.