In a past life, I worked as an education consultant and would travel around the country working with teachers. I worked with a lot of Language Arts teachers at the primary levels where they were teaching kids how to read.
As they grow, kids need to learn how to read before they can read to learn. You may need to read that sentence again so here it is: Kids need to learn how to read before they can read to learn.
As adults, we take for granted being able to read something for the information or the entertainment, or both. But at some point, we had to learn how each letter sounded, how each letter was written and read, and then put those letters together to form words and then put those words together to learn sentences and then put those sentences together to form paragraphs, etc.
The point is that it was a learning process that took years. Kids don’t just pick up a book and start reading it. They have to start with the foundation and work their way up.
Much of the same can be said about the way we exercise at Kanna. Our workouts consist of complex olympic lifting, gymnastics, and even technique as it relates to running, rowing, and other “simple” movements that are not actually simple to do properly. It can take years to learn something like a clean or a snatch, and yet people get down on themselves for not “getting it” right away. There’s no reason you should expect yourself to be “good” at something that takes years to master. That’s like sitting down at a piano and feeling bad about not being able to play Mozart.
Kanna coaches are your teachers. They are there to guide you along the way and make sure you’re doing the appropriate progression to learn the next step. With so many types of people in our classes, it truly is differentiated instruction! We modify the workout and offer at least six different versions so that you can do the appropriate version for you and your goals.
So while kids need to learn to read before they can read to learn, adults sometimes need to learn to move before they move to exercise.
-Coach Chris