Humble Coaching
This past weekend we had a pretty intense coaches clinic and I was amazed at the level of dedication our coaches brought to this fun but humbling event.
Each coach was assigned a three minute WOD and had 15 minutes to run their “class”. They were responsible for adding in specific mobility options or skill work to prepare their athletes (the rest of us coaches) for the WOD.
Each coach had 2 or more athletes playing specific roles such as the new athlete, the athlete that wants to RX+ but has unsafe form, the terrified athlete, the super sore or immobile athlete, the injured athlete and the athlete that has no kinesthetic awareness.
Playing these roles was so fun but having to coach them was a different story. Levi had us rolling with laughter as he continued to push Coach Joe’s patience by being determined to handstand despite his pretend lack of upper body strength and ending up a lump on the floor and Steve put Coach Em to the test as he acted as my 14 year old son who wanted to go heavy and lift just like his high school coach tells him.
The most challenging part of the entire exercise, though, was knowing you were being evaluated over every small detail of your 15 minute coaching time by fellow COACHES. It takes a lot of humility and courage to put yourself in a position of review and critique. But that was also the most rewarding part as well because while we all work very hard to be good coaches, there is always something we can improve on.
We evaluated one another on the logistic flow of the instruction, use of the very limited time, ability to modify and adapt movements to the individual athlete’s needs, the coach’s eye and ability to see no reps or poor form, the cues used to fix positioning, how clearly the WOD was explained, the excitement and motivation the coach provided to each athlete and even clock and music management. After each 15 minute class we would break away and take down notes about what areas that coach excelled in and what areas could be improved.
Then after we were exhausted and starving and finally done with all 10 WODs we sat down together as a team, shared a meal and took turns listening to feedback from our teammates about where we are killing it and where we can improve. But the important part came from not just receiving constructive criticism but receiving it from the same people fighting in the arena with us all working for the same purpose and willing to share solutions and alternative options for the sake of the whole.