Barbells and Bacon

We’ve all heard the common reprieve about Crossfit not caring about form or taking the time to teach the movements correctly. Like so many critiques, there is the whiff of  truth to the accusations. It can be very difficult to teach complex movements properly when there are more than about 10 people in a group. To add to that, who says are athletes are interested in what you happen to be teaching? Despite what many might try to tell you, not every athlete is interested in learning how to Pose Run or do a Back Lever.

Enter Focus Sessions.

At PCF, our Focus Sessions are small group sessions – meeting a couple times a week – designed to give people more exposure to a particular topic. At PCF, we’ve had focus sessions in Olympic Lifting, Power Lifting, Gymnastics, Women’s Upperbody Strength, and Pose Running. I am currently coaching a bi-weekly “Beginner’s Olympic Lifting Class” for four weeks.  In this class, the athletes do hundreds of reps of snatch balances, snatch lands, push presses, front squats, split jerks, and a million other drills. I usually end the class by getting the athletes’ lifts on film – it’s a nice routine for graduation day.

When the athletes get rereleased into the general population after completing the class, they have a new level of skill and appreciation in the Olympic lifts. I tell my athletes that their goal in four weeks should be to become an advanced beginner. I define this as still having a bunch of weaknesses, but knowing what they need to do to improve.

The Focus Sessions are additional to the monthly membership . I guess you could include focus sessions in a monthly membership, but I don’t like that model quite as much. Charging people to join the group almost guarantees that they will show up, and be mentally invested in the class. With free classes, if there is a good episode of “Friends” on, chances are athletes won’t bother to show up to do 100 heaving snatch balances with a PVC. Focus Sessions are also a great way to develop coaches in a particular subject matter.

Give “Focus Sessions” a try, especially as your facility starts to get bigger. The worst that can happen is that nobody signs up. The best that can happen is that you’ve created a new way for athletes to challenge themselves,  coaches to refine their skills, and owners to deliver a new service to their members.
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“I do my best to limit the amount of compromise in my life so I have more time to do what I want. Not hanging out with many people really helps. I am not a people person and I spend a great deal of time on my own and in this environment, I get a lot done.”
Henry Rollins

Bottom Line: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles”

A couple weeks ago, I had the fine opportunity to train in a Gold’s Gym for a couple hours. I went in, squatted a bit, then messed around with some dumbells for a half an hour. It was a fairly standard workout for me, and I left feeling good. What left the lasting impression on me wasn’t the workout though. What left the lasting impression on me was the people around me and my realization about how interesting it was to have been back at a “Big Box” gym for the first time in more than a year.

Now I don’t want this post to quickly turn into a bashing on Gold’s Gym rant. That’s just lame. But after watching some dude do – literally 15 different types of curls  in five minutes – I left with a new appreciation for how to talk to new athletes when they walk through the door. This is the environment that they are coming from. Total silence. Acres of brand new machines. TVs on every elliptical machine. You “know” what one looks like, but when was the last time you trained in one?

The Crossfit community can be very inward looking at times. You train at your local gym, you read Crossfit blogs, and every now and then you go down to the High School track for some running work. You need to occassionally remind yourself of the types of “Gold’s Gym” facilities your new athletes are emerging from.

Here is an example of how a trip to Gold’s Gym can change the way you talk to new athletes.

“Now I know we do things a little bit differently then what you might be used to. I also recognize I might sound like a crazy person when I tell you that a 25 lb dumbell is light for a woman. But stick with me – I promise that there is a method to our madness, and in the end, you’ll be able to achieve your goals much better if you give us a shot”.

Homework assignment: Buy a one day pass to the local non-Crossfit gym and go train. If you are feeling especially squirrely, tell one of the associates you are interested in hearing more details about membership. Listen to the points they try to sell you on, take notes, and leave with a new appreciation for your “enemy”.

Yes, damnit – A Middle School Gym teacher. Allow me to explain.

I like to coach weightlifting. The power lifts, the Olympic lifts, whatever. I consider myself solid at coaching most weightlifting movements. However, I work exclusively with beginners. This isn’t a comment on my coaching ability, it’s just a statement of fact.  I am a master of getting someone their first snatch, drilling them with PVC pipe, and getting them well on their way to a 100 Kilo Clean and Jerk.

Quiz me on how an Olympian should design her training to taper for the American Open. I have no clue.  Ask me how the Russians or Bulgarians used the assistance exercises to set world record in the 1976 Olympics. (Empty buzzing in Jon’s head continues).

Middle School gym teachers don’t design plays for the New York Jets. They also don’t know how to train athletes for a sub 3:30 Marathon. My point is, that doesn’t really matter. Middle School gym teachers get people excited about being physically active, introduce kids to new sports, and shape their young athletes into adults through athletics. Middle School gym teachers have some of the most important jobs in the world.

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Why does this matter? I’m trying to convince you to stop trying to pass yourself off as some Jedi Master – and to recognize what business you are really in. Think you are able to work on the professional level on mobility issues? Go to 4 years of school, then get back to me. Are you a hardcore powerlifting coach? How many 1000 lb  squatters have you worked with? What was that? Zero?

Stop trying to be something you aren’t and focus on what you really do – help average Joes make positive changes in their health and fitness. For my money,  it’s  more important than what they do in the NFL anyway.

Not to feel exasperated or defeated or despondent because your days aren’t packed with wise and moral actions. But to get back up when you fail, to celebrate behaving like a human–however imperfectly–and fully embrace the pursuit you’ve embarked on.” Meditations Marcus Aurelius

Coaches need to be students of human interaction.

Besides a few of the more obvious choices, I’d like to recommend “The Gift of Therapy – An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients” for inclusion on any coach’s bookshelf.  The author Irvin D. Yalom is a 35 year psychotherapist who has compressed some of his best lessons into eighty-five personal “tips for beginner therapists”.

Here are just a few of the similarities I see between the psychologist – patient and coach – athlete relationship:

- Both start with an appraisal and diagnosis of where the patient/ athlete is

-  Both should see measured improvement over time

- There are patients/ athletes that are way harder to work with than others

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Here is an example of  the type of thing Yalom writes about. The applicability to coaching should be pretty obvious:

Chapter 5 – Be Supportive

“Question – What do patients recall when they look back years later, on their experience in therapy? Answer: Not insight, not the therapist’s interpretations. More often than not, they remember the positive supportive statements of their therapists. ”

“Often the therapist is the only audience viewing great and dramatic acts of courage. Such privilege demands a response to the actor. Though patients may have other confidants, none is likely to have the therapist’s comprehensive appreciation of certain momentous acts.”

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Case in point. You’ve been working with a women wanting to lose weight for more than a year. Despite your begging and pleading, every time she goes out to eat with her family, she makes bad choices and her training takes a giant step backwards. After struggling for months, she finally confronts her family members – and ultimately enlists their support in her weight loss efforts. This is a big deal. This woman’s coach is the only person who can bear witness to this breakthrough. Recognize it, encourage it, celebrate it – because no one else will.

I was recently reading a great essay called “Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus’s Doctrines in a Laboratory of Human Behavior” by James Stockdale. Stockdale was as held as a prisoner of war in the Hoa Lo prison during the Vietnam War for seven years. Locked in leg irons in a bath stall, he was routinely tortured and beaten. When told by his captors that he was to be paraded in public, Stockdale slit his scalp with a razor to purposely disfigure himself so that his captors could not use him as propaganda. Dude is a certified badass.

In Stockdale’s essay, he describes three types of prisoners. All three react differently to interrogation at the hands of the North Vietnamese.

1)  The “Right On A’Murica” Prisoner = This prisoner was in almost zero danger of compromise. His response to any evidence that painted America in a negative light was “F off”.

Interogator: You know America did XYZ bad thing, right?

Prisoner #1: F off

Interogator: But what about this incident from 1915, how could you support this?

Prisoner #1: F off

There is zero chance that this guy is ever going to get himself in trouble.

2) The Intellectual Prisoner = This prisoner was intelligent enough to hold different viewpoints in his head, but remain true to the cause.

Interogator: You know America did XYZ bad thing, right?

Prisoner #2: Of course, but that was a different time. The standard of living globally was not what it is today.

Interogator: But what about this incident from 1915, how could you support this?

Prisoner #2: Well that is an interesting example for a variety of reasons, but that still doesn’t change my loyalty.

This prisoner also has zero chance of ever getting himself into trouble.

3) The Most Vulnerable Prisoner : This prisoner has some education/experience, but not enough to mount a successful defense.

Interogator: You know America did XYZ bad thing, right?

Prisoner #3: Wait, what? That can’t be true. America would never do that.

Interogator: But what about this incident from 1915, how could you support this?

Prisoner #3: I can’t believe I’ve never seen these facts before. I’ve been lied to my entire life.

Stockdale claims that Prisoner #3 was  always the target of the North Vietnamese interrogators. They could be compromised every time. They had enough knowledge to understand, but not so much to be able to successfully rebuff, the interrogations.

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Why should you care? Because the same thing happens with athletes, coaches, and owners. Here is one example – People sometimes get hurt doing Crossfit. Don’t bury your head in the sand. It’s the truth. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t recognize that reality, and still be able to talk intelligently about why you do the things you do. Be like Prisoner #2, not #3.