At first, it was a big struggle. I take my professional life very seriously, so the first feelings I had walking into the gym after being hired as an intern was, "ok, so now this is my job too". I began to resent it a little because all of a sudden the place that I go to escape from work became work also. Luckily, that feeling only lasted about a month (which seems like a long time, but I think it was just my normal adjustment period).
Now I realize that being a coach at CFM is really pretty freaking awesome. I'm still pretty bad at it- I've coached 35 total classes, so I think that's ok- I'm still figuring this whole gig out.
Some reasons that I love this job:
- I have gotten to know more people at the gym in the last 4 months than I did in the year before that. I would say that when I first started crossfit I met tons of people. But then I got comfortable with my friends at the gym and didn't feel the need to be as social with everyone. Coaching forced me out of my bubble, and I've met some SUPER cool peeps as a result.
- I realized that I can actually help people with crossfit. Before I started coaching, I knew I had all this knowledge about crossfit, but I was pretty bad at expressing that knowledge (at least in my opinion). Coaching has given me the opportunity to practice talking about what I do know, and given me experience with watching people and giving suggestions for improvement. I'm still not great at this- my favorite disclaimer is "do as I mean, not as I say"! I also really appreciate being able to help out behind the front desk- coaches are so busy, and if I'm just hanging out before or after a wod, I can easily help someone purchase a t-shirt.
- It has pushed me to be a better example at the gym. I definitely consider myself an honest person, but there have been some occasions in the past where I maybe didn't quite get my chest to touch the bar during chest to bars, or maybe missed the bar with my toes during toes to bar... and still counted it. I think we've all done that? Well I certainly no-rep myself a lot more now that I'm a coach. People watch me, and if I could tell it wasn't a rep, they could too.
That's is a short list, and there are lots of other little things, but it's some of the big stuff! As I settle into my role at the gym, I feel better and better about it, and I really love it.
On a personal note, yesterday was fantastic. The wod was 3 rounds for time of 16 burpees, 8 toes to bar, and 4 muscle ups with a 1 mile run buy in. Last week, I managed to get through 10 of the 21 muscle ups in 'Nasty Girls', so yesterday I was determined to finish all 12 muscle ups. I paced the mile run a little so that I wouldn't be too tired, and got through the first round pretty quickly. The middle 4 muscle ups took quite a while... and the next class started their warm up. The last 4 muscle ups took forever. But I DID THEM! I finished my first wod with muscle ups prescribed. The best part was that the whole 6pm class was cheering for me through their warm-up, and a couple people from the 5pm class stayed to cheer for me. The on-ramp class was there cheering as well, and then I posted about it on facebook and got so much love! The community we have at CrossFit Marysville is truly wonderful.
