Dear Newbie Logan,
I’m sure it’s a bit weird to hear from your future self, but hear me out. You’re reading this because you’ve recently taken on training CrossFit full time for the first time. Now, I understand that you’re less than 3 months out from a career as a professional athlete and you think you’re ahead of the curve. Well, in many ways, you are a highly trained athlete. In other ways, however, you’re as new as it comes.
Bernardin: A+ Student
I’ve got two bits of advice for you.
- Leave your ego at home. Or, somewhere else.
- No motivation should exceed your motivation to learn.
Spoiler alert! I’m going to save you some time and tell you how this plays out. Luckily, everything is fine as I write this (3.5 years later). You’re coaching people and your performance is head and shoulders above what you’re currently capable of. The early days were shaky, however. You were a stubborn student. Competition was your priority, and though over time you learned the movements and improved your biomechanics, it wasn’t until you because a coach that this took hold.
If you only had an athlete’s mindset from day one, you’d probably be held back by your desire to win each day and, to be honest, you only got good at this stuff because you had to learn it to coach it. Embrace the student in you. Sure we are all athletes, but we must be student’s first.
The truth is, maybe your students now didn’t have the same athletic background you did. But, that doesn’t change their desire to win and go fast. Heck, patiences is a virtue and I know YOU don’t have it, so they probably don’t either. Slow them down.
Share this with your students. They too might have a competitive fire in them. Stoke that fire. The competition aspect of what we do is a beautiful thing, but if people aren’t careful it can be the very reason things don’t work out (injury, plateau, etc).
Slow down. You are a student first… Never forget that.
Best of luck!
Logan Gelbrich
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Tuesday’s Workout:
5 rounds for time:
6 Deadlifts (225/155)
30m Broad Jump
