A New Coach’s Thoughts After Taking the CrossFit Level 1 Course

by Coach Lam

It’s been a few months now since I’ve gotten my CrossFit L1 certification.  I’ve had the great opportunity to coach a few classes at Kanna and these are a few things I’ve learned / picked up.

EMPOWERMENT
The act of imparting your knowledge and expertise to members is such an empowering experience.  I’ve spent the past 3-4 years providing tips and cues to members as “classmates”, but when I’m able to do it as a coach, it’s a completely different experience.  I value the trust members give me as I’m going over movements, scales and the purpose of the WOD.  I tell many members that walk through our door, “Everyone has a story to tell.  Everyone struggles with certain movements and yearns to improve on their fitness.  Everyone starts somewhere!”  I’m glad I can impart the lessons and knowledge I’ve learned from my struggles and accomplishments by coaching!

PREPARATION
If anyone has told you coaching is just about having a great personality and jumping in front of the class to adlib everything, I can very much assure you, that’s most definitely not the case.  All of our coaches (even our seasoned owner Chris Plentus) take the time to properly plan out the class cadence, time management, WOD explanation and proper scales for every movement on the WOD.  All of our coaches make the class seem fluid and consistently organized.  I can assure you that the proper amount of preparation has been done in  order to meticulously understand the WOD and its stimulus to give you the best experience possible.

TIP OF THE ICEBERG
The L1 certification is just the start of the journey.  There’s so much opportunity to develop my style and skills to becoming a better CrossFit coach.  At the L1, I was corrected on many faults with my movements that I felt very competent on.  Boy was I wrong!  As I’m able to identify more of those faults in my form, it’s also the opportunity to pass those learnings to our members.  On top of gaining more cycles in the coaching aspect, there’s so much opportunity for various certifications (Olympic lifting, Adaptive Training, Scaling) that can help me improve in a coach and ultimately improving our members experience.

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