Here’s what we need: everybody to act like kids.
Seriously.
In attitude and deportment. The kids in this class? All have their “listening ears” on. They are focused on the coach and doing what she says. Matt isn’t trying to coach Chili and Christina isn’t talking over Jen. Christina’s bar is too far back, but it’s up to Jen to correct that motion, not the other students.
We LOVE that there is so much expertise at CrossFit Watertown. Love it, love it, love it. But we need to reign things in a bit. The coach is the talker. Not the assistant coach and not the members or the coaches who are taking the class. We need to pay attention to the HMFIC.
I know it’s not easy, when you’re so excited and you want to share what you know. Heck, I have to bite my lip until it bleeds somedays in class because I sooooo want to share what I know. But if it’s not my class, I need to zip it. Hard lesson, but essential to running a top-notch program. (As always, feel free to kick me in the shins if I start running my trap during a class.)
Thanks for listening. Now, time to give each other wedgies and blow orange soda out of our noses. See you at the gym.
February 24th, 2010 at 9:56 am
Anybody snorting pixie sticks? Or was that just me?
February 24th, 2010 at 10:00 am
That was just you. But I ate paper in the third grade for a while. I think that’s a “bad” carb on the Zone.
February 24th, 2010 at 10:10 am
Eric, I was ate pennies and paste!
February 24th, 2010 at 10:24 am
I used to eat the paper along with the cupcakes. Now, fig newtons by the sleeve. Not sure which is healthier.
That explains the typo (#3)
February 24th, 2010 at 10:25 am
I was a pixie stick snorter. On the wagon 30 years now!
February 24th, 2010 at 10:32 am
A kid at my lunch table in school snorted salt once and his eye almost exploded out of his head. i will never and have never snorted anything because of him!
Lis it took me five minutes to figure out HMFIC — love it — I want a shirt made that has it on it – so i can wear it to school
and around the house 
February 24th, 2010 at 10:47 am
I did NOT eat pennies and paste. That was Jen using my laptop. I only ate dollars. Still do.
February 24th, 2010 at 10:52 am
too rich for my blood
February 24th, 2010 at 11:32 am
My sister used to eat these when she was little and she would drink the juice.
http://tinyurl.com/ycg7y5b
The picture does not do justice to what these things looked (and smelled) like. It was like taking a band-aide off a festering wound after three weeks. Don’t be fooled by the “meat” either. I think that’s some sort of brand name but I guess lips and buttholes are technically meat. I can’t believe my parents actually bought these for her.
February 24th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
I used to east powder laundry detergent when I was younger…turns out I wanted to be cleaned inside and out….
February 24th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Going back to the blog, I find this very important specially during oly lifting. If I am in there middle of a front squat for sake of example, I can’t correct my form once I’ve started the lift. So I encourage feedback once I completed the lift.
February 24th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
btw that TT is sooo dammmmnnnnn cute!
February 24th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Good Point Jackie! I feel the same way, I can do better fixing the next movement. I can’t fix while doing a lot of the time.
I also used to eat dog food!
February 24th, 2010 at 4:28 pm
Okay, but here’s the rub to that. If you’re front squatting and you’re in the bottom and struggling to come up, if I tell you “High elbows” and you pull them up, then you are likely to bring your chest more upright too, and more likely to be able to complete the lift. If I am your coach and I say nothing but wait until after you have failed the lift, is that helpful?
Similarly, if someone is in the bottom of a back squat and has not gone deep enough, I will often hold my comment until they have finished and then tell them that they needed to go deeper. But there are those people who then say “Why didn’t you tell me when I was in the bottom? I would have gone deeper. I didn’t know.”
Many situations, many different answers. I think the important thing here is for a coach to coach and to choose that timing of his or her instruction. They need to choose it well, but that comes with experience.
Does that make sense?
February 24th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
I love that we have so many members who have taken their level one and have experience with all the lifts that we do. If you pay attention to all the trainers, listen carefully…typically it is ONE cue that we give for the athlete to work on…the one we feel is most important and will be most beneficial. Most poeple cannot process and respond to multiple cues at once and that is why it is so important to let the trainers do the training. Feel free to come over and make your own observations to one of us or to yourselves, but let the trainers be the ones giving the verbal cues. To much input from too many people is oftentimes very overwhelming to the lifter, especially a new one.
February 24th, 2010 at 7:07 pm
WOW!!! Lis, Meliss talk about conversation swings. Rock solid on training. Trainers train, athletes learn (hopefully).
BTW, I once ate rabbit rasins
February 24th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
Learn
February 24th, 2010 at 8:11 pm
Rich — LOL — we’re trying to keep you guessing.
Rockstar and I talked about this subject after the 5pm tonight and we’re in total synch. Well, actually she and Jen were in synch earlier in class but I forgot to grab the camera in time. Darn it.