0:05

Hey everybody , welcome to the Herdfit Podcast

0:07

with Dr Sam Rhee and myself , coach

0:10

David Silverson . His podcast is

0:12

aimed at helping anyone and everyone looking

0:14

to enhance their healthy lifestyle through fitness

0:16

, nutrition and , most importantly

0:18

, mindset . Alright

0:22

, welcome back to the Herdfit Podcast . I am Coach

0:24

David Silverson . I'm here with my co-host , dr

0:26

and Coach Sam Rhee . There's

0:28

two guys here chatting , just calling it a podcast

0:30

. It's called Pretty RC for the holiday

0:32

party , so

0:36

we're going to dive right into the topic today and

0:39

we're getting two episodes recorded for the next two weeks

0:41

, and then we have a few of us are

0:43

headed off to Legends next Tuesday

0:46

, wednesday , thursday , so we might not

0:48

be back for a week after that . We'll

0:50

try to get in , but today we're

0:52

going to kind of cram two in , and the first one is actually

0:54

something that I am taking

0:57

on right now for the first

0:59

time . Probably a little too late on

1:01

this . I probably should have done this in

1:03

official fashion a few years ago

1:05

, but this is the first time I'm writing

1:08

actual coach evaluations for

1:10

every coach . At CrossFit Bison there

1:12

are 12 of us . Really there's about eight

1:15

or nine of us that are on the every week schedule

1:17

throughout the year and I kind

1:19

of want to dive into without talking about them

1:21

specifically . This is all like private confidential

1:24

information . I would never throw them out

1:26

under the bus or even praise

1:28

them individually . I'll

1:31

add respect for them . If there are any

1:33

examples of good and bad , I'll just make sure

1:35

it's one of us and so you guys

1:37

can get a clear picture of what we're saying . But I want to talk

1:39

about why I'm doing this for the first time

1:41

and why

1:44

I believe I should have done it a few

1:46

years ago . Sam

1:48

, I know you're probably super nervous about your

1:50

coaching review that you're going to get , but

1:52

I will say this about Sam Sam has always

1:55

asked for criticism . He

1:57

doesn't really want to know what he did . Well , I'm sure he

1:59

doesn't mind hearing it , but he always wants to know what he

2:01

could do to get better at coaching , whether

2:03

it's clock management , class management

2:05

, parings , all this stuff . There's so much that goes

2:07

into it , and

2:10

Sam is a very well respected successful

2:13

surgeon . He's been around a lot

2:15

longer than me . He's much more educated

2:17

than I am . So what

2:20

is your response to someone

2:22

like me , sam , giving you a sheet of paper

2:24

and being like hey , sam , this is what you're

2:26

good and bad at at your part-time job

2:29

that you , if you

2:31

wanted to , could leave tomorrow , and

2:33

right off into the sunset . What's your

2:35

initial thought on me giving you a review based

2:38

on your performance as a coach ?

2:40

Why didn't you do this years

2:42

ago ? I think if you listened

2:45

to any of the coaching

2:47

or CrossFit , like Best Hour of their

2:50

Day , those two would have

2:52

been like dude , why haven't you ? This

2:55

is a given and I would

2:57

say I am

3:00

so used to being getting

3:04

constructive criticism , let's put it that way and

3:07

sometimes it was just absolutely

3:09

brutal in the day when

3:11

I was in training . Literally

3:13

it would come with expletives

3:15

and shaming and

3:17

you name it . So I'm used to

3:19

negative . I mean sorry

3:21

, feedback and you think it helped . Big

3:24

picture , I mean it doesn't have

3:26

to come with all the expletives . I

3:29

don't have any expletives , I don't have any expletives , all

3:31

the name calling , but absolutely

3:33

there's no way to

3:35

get better . And there is a

3:38

surgeon , atul Gawande , who's from

3:40

Harvard and he's written quite a bit and

3:42

one of the biggest things that he talks about

3:45

and he talks about surgery being

3:47

just like being an airline pilot or

3:49

many other professions , and one

3:51

of the things is feedback and review . And

3:54

you know me , I know when

3:56

you start a job , like especially me , like

3:58

I didn't know anything about coaching

4:01

, I didn't know anything about teaching

4:04

people how to move through space with

4:06

barbells and gymnastics and cart

4:08

All of these things . So

4:10

my knowledge was hugely

4:13

deficient and my application

4:15

of teaching this was also

4:17

really deficient . So I really needed as

4:20

much feedback as possible

4:22

to try to get better , and I

4:24

know that's the only way to get

4:26

better .

4:27

Yeah . So you're at a certain point where you'll

4:29

plateau in whatever profession

4:32

, whatever performance you're undergoing , if you

4:34

never get feedback . You

4:36

can get better on your own , you can self-teach

4:38

and self-critique , but if you never

4:40

have an outside voice , you're simply just never probably

4:42

going to get to your peak . Now , who

4:45

is that voice matters , right

4:47

. What is their agenda ? If you will

4:49

? That those are important

4:52

factors to consider when someone

4:54

is constructively criticizing

4:56

, slash , evaluating your performance . So

4:59

reason why I haven't done this in the past

5:01

is a few things . No

5:04

excuses here , just reasons , so you guys can understand

5:06

where I'm coming from . One

5:08

I have given feedback

5:11

to every single coach you have over

5:13

the years . It just hasn't been

5:15

in written

5:18

form , right , and it's just

5:20

been like hey , I think you guys need to get better at

5:22

this . Hey , dave , what can I do to speed this up

5:25

? And I've also developed

5:27

most of our coaches from

5:29

interning right . Every single

5:31

one of our coaches Minus Mike and

5:33

Chris and Ash , and Ash , I would

5:35

even say , did intern for a while . Were

5:38

interns here . Yeah , they

5:40

were interns before they started . We set them out free and

5:43

part of that intern process was we

5:46

have a process for it . I don't want to dive into it . But

5:48

there was a lot of critiquing there

5:50

. One thing we never did that Hoboken did

5:52

for us is we had to meet

5:54

on weekends and

5:57

teach each other how to do movements

5:59

and we would critique each other . We didn't

6:01

do that kind of stuff , but I did critique how

6:03

Sam taught a beginner a sumo dead

6:07

of hypo , or how they managed

6:09

the class of 24 at 6 am

6:11

prior to actually coaching

6:13

the class themselves . So to

6:16

me that was an evaluation and

6:19

then , building from there , I did give certain critiques

6:21

when something really stood out . The

6:23

problem with that is I would only

6:25

offer advice

6:28

or critique after something wrong happened

6:30

, and I think part of evaluating a coach

6:32

is that . But part of evaluating

6:35

a coach and developing

6:37

them is to prevent problems

6:39

from occurring , and I think that's where

6:41

there's an issue with the

6:43

way I handled it . The other side

6:45

of it is honestly I swept it under the rug

6:47

a few times where

6:50

I'm so busy here , I do so

6:52

many jobs and wear so many hats , and then

6:54

there's a life outside of here as well

6:56

that I always just said , hey , I'll do

6:58

it eventually , and it's one of those things

7:00

. It's like how I am with my laundry . Oh , I'll put it away

7:03

. Tonight , four days later , it's still there , and

7:05

that's on me . I should have been better

7:08

in that kind of leadership role where if

7:10

I feel like something needs to be done to make the gym

7:12

and coach better , you've got to find a way to get it

7:14

on . It's got to be a priority and I did not make it a priority

7:17

.

7:18

And , to be fair , like I said , you did give a

7:21

lot of verbal feedback

7:23

and coaching and I would ask you what do you think about this or

7:25

that ? The other thing is , is that not to

7:27

say that our coaches are so effing awesome

7:29

or anything but compared to other boxes

7:31

? But if you're

7:34

not getting a ton of negative feedback from the athletes

7:36

, from everyone else , then

7:39

it's more like

7:41

easy to let it go because

7:43

you're not putting out fires . You already have like 500

7:46

fires that you've got to put out . So it's

7:48

like , yes , should you be elevating

7:50

your coaching level , like

7:52

their competency and how they are ? Absolutely

7:55

. But if they're meeting a sort of a minimum

7:57

required to keep classes going

7:59

, that everyone is relatively happy and

8:01

everything's going well and the

8:04

gym is growing , it wasn't like

8:06

you're like , oh my God , I have to do this

8:08

or everything will fall apart , and

8:10

so it does sometimes get pushed

8:12

to the back a little bit .

8:14

Yeah , it's more about being less

8:17

proactive and more reactionary . So the

8:19

reactions were never there because we haven't had

8:21

a lot of complaints and , honestly , we have had a few over

8:23

the years and they have been addressed

8:25

. As recent as a , honestly

8:27

, last week where something

8:30

happened with a coach athlete , where

8:32

human beings were not perfect and something

8:35

did not get done the way it should have got done , and you go

8:37

right away to that coach and say , hey , this is what you

8:39

got . You always had the coaches back Like you're

8:41

never I'm never going to throw a coach under the bus , to another , to

8:43

a member especially , right , but

8:46

that coach does get talked

8:48

to . If something comes up and you deem it as okay

8:51

, that's a problem . My last reason

8:54

again not excuse something

8:56

that I've struggled with in leadership position here

8:58

is I'm friends with our coaches and

9:01

some better than others . I will say that

9:03

but I do consider all of them are friends

9:05

. I could give any one of them a call and

9:08

ask for advice . I could expect a call

9:10

from any one of them and be

9:13

asked for advice , and

9:15

those situations have come up over the

9:18

years and one of the most difficult

9:20

things in my position is trying

9:23

to separate business , slash boss

9:26

and the fact that we have a friendship

9:28

, our wives are friends with each other's wives

9:30

, all that stuff and we have a very tight

9:32

knit group here and you don't want to fracture that . It

9:37

can be really tough at times to

9:39

play both sides . I

9:41

don't think I've ever told any

9:43

one of our coaches I'm your boss . I don't

9:45

think that's ever come out of my mouth

9:47

.

9:48

Has it ? I don't know . I will say this I

9:52

think the number one thing for you and I think

9:54

for most owners , is they have to trust their coaches

9:57

Right Like trust

9:59

over everything . It doesn't matter how and I've

10:01

heard others high level

10:03

CrossFit people say this if you can

10:05

mold people into being good coaches

10:07

for the most part , not everyone but if

10:09

you can't trust them , then

10:11

it doesn't matter how much knowledge they have , how

10:13

much skill they have . At the end of the day and I've seen

10:16

you work

10:18

with and select coaches and it was

10:20

really hugely on trust and

10:22

who do you trust ? Your friends ? You

10:24

really really have to trust these people and if

10:26

you trust them , they're going to be your friends . So

10:29

I think that it's

10:31

hard , like you said , being

10:33

a boss trusting people who

10:35

are your friends and then

10:37

sitting there and saying you suck at coaching

10:39

, like coaching snatches or whatever

10:41

it is .

10:43

You need to be better at this Right .

10:45

And I think also , that's also why it's incumbent

10:47

on every box , every athlete , to

10:49

go to your coaches , go to the owner

10:51

and say listen , I

10:54

wanna give feedback , because that's the only

10:56

way , in a huge way , that

10:58

we're gonna get better . And I've said this

11:00

time and time again , I've posted it in our Facebook

11:02

group Listen , you have to hold this accountable

11:04

. Dave doesn't have eyes

11:07

on everybody , 24 , seven , right

11:09

? You might think he does , yeah , but

11:11

he doesn't , and so right . So

11:13

if you're in a class and you're like you know what , I

11:15

think this would be better if X

11:17

, then that's where

11:19

that goes to Dave . Dave

11:22

is allowed to give feedback

11:24

and then that's how we're gonna get better .

11:26

Yeah , absolutely . And again , that's where I

11:28

said at the holiday party which

11:30

always get uncomfortable talking in front of crowds

11:32

like that but we

11:35

do . We're trying to make the place better . There's

11:37

things that we're doing to this building to make

11:39

the gym better in the next year . There

11:42

are things that we're doing to our staff again

11:44

to make the gym better , and this is gonna

11:46

be part of what we do to make the gym better , and

11:49

we told the coaches about it . They're all gonna get one before

11:51

the new year , and to give

11:53

them also a written document helps to

11:56

look back on because we forget what things

11:58

say . You know , sometimes things get lost in tone

12:00

. You know where we can . Hey

12:02

, I'm gonna look back on these reports in six months

12:05

and be like hey , sam , did you fix X , y and Z or

12:07

is this still a problem ? Now you can

12:09

be like all right , what's up , what's going on . So I

12:11

wrote down . I have six things . I

12:14

didn't write down every single element to the coaching

12:17

eval template that I'm using , but

12:19

here are the five or six biggest ones

12:21

that I think we all have a right

12:23

to members as well

12:26

to evaluate a coach , because

12:28

I know members evaluate coaches all the time we

12:30

get oh this is my favorite coach . Oh , I hate this coach's

12:32

class . Even that to me it's not

12:34

good . That's not an evaluation of a coach , because

12:36

we don't really tailor the gym to

12:39

any individual person . If we

12:41

did , we'd be driving ourselves nuts . But I do think

12:43

, especially a seasoned veteran

12:45

and cross it , their words they

12:48

do matter when it comes to evaluating a coach . But

12:50

I wanna make sure you know what

12:52

to evaluate . First thing is by

12:54

far the most important . It's the personality component

12:57

, their level of care

12:59

for others , their selflessness

13:01

, their servant attitude and

13:03

the connecting with a variety of people . So

13:06

these are pretty basic elements that are

13:08

not easy to find in people . But to me

13:10

it's you have it or you don't . It's hard

13:12

to fake it for a long time . It's hard

13:14

to fake it in an environment like this . The

13:17

one I really wanna touch on is the servant

13:19

attitude To me . I

13:22

think a lot of people wanna become a coach

13:24

because they wanna be in charge , they wanna do things their way

13:26

, they do wanna help , they

13:28

wanna be a dictator . I think the best coaches

13:31

out there , they do know when to be the

13:33

dictator , when to be loud and mis-set rules

13:35

, all that blah , blah , blah stuff right . I think the

13:37

best coaches are servant attitude . They're

13:39

servant-based . You're there to serve

13:41

people . Especially in a business like this

13:43

where people are paying money to

13:45

come here and work out . You're

13:47

now kinda like their waiter

13:51

at a restaurant . You're there to serve them

13:53

, you're not there to only control them . Yes

13:55

, you're trying to change their movement

13:58

on a snatch or help them progress to a bar muscle

14:00

for their first pull-up absolutely , but you're

14:02

there to serve and I think that can be easily

14:04

seen in a person . Do you view

14:06

yourself as a when you're coaching Sam ? Do you view

14:08

yourself as serving ? Thursday 5

14:11

, 6 am .

14:12

Yes , my goal is to provide

14:14

the best experience for them that they can have

14:16

, or help them get that , if

14:19

I can , to help them get

14:21

better , avoid injury , cause

14:24

Thursdays by Thursday they're pretty many times and

14:27

then right and to have a good time and

14:30

feel good by the time

14:32

they've gone and that's all my goals are

14:34

. I

14:37

mean , you control a lot of that you do

14:39

as a coach , absolutely . You set the tone

14:41

, how

14:43

you connect with people . This is what CrossFit

14:46

calls relationship building , and

14:48

if you're not good at connecting about

14:51

help , like knowing how to

14:53

, like you said , serve people

14:55

in that relationship building business , then

14:58

you're not a good coach . And I've seen this in

15:00

other boxes . I don't

15:02

know if I've really seen it here in terms of issues

15:04

, but I will say this that's why I don't love

15:06

things that tend to put coaches

15:09

above athletes . Like

15:11

we've always talked about , how do you

15:13

get people to come in on time ? Oh

15:15

, 10 burpees every minute . You're late

15:18

. Like I understand why

15:20

people wanna do that as a coach

15:22

, but I also understand listen , that means I'm

15:24

a dictator and I'm like you

15:27

get punished and I never liked that

15:29

. You're my bitch . Go do

15:31

10 burpees , Right . So most

15:34

of what I try to do as a coach

15:36

is to make people feel comfortable and

15:38

good , and if you wanna call that being a servant , that's

15:41

fine . It's like I said . Like you

15:43

said , as long as I'm not thinking about me , I'm thinking

15:45

about how is my class doing

15:47

, what is it gonna be like ?

15:50

That's important Connecting

15:52

with a variety of people . This is something

15:54

I look for . Everyone always says are you always

15:57

looking for the next coach or looking for a coach , right

15:59

? One thing I do observe is

16:02

if someone I am looking

16:04

at as a potential coach , how do they connect

16:06

with not just their friends , but

16:08

everyone in that gym ? I

16:10

always tell our coaches do not be the

16:12

person that's coming here and you're always clinging to

16:15

the same person every time . It's a bad look and

16:17

it sets a bad tone for everybody

16:19

else . Right ? Can you show

16:21

up to a Saturday partner workout and literally

16:24

be cool if , no matter who the

16:26

coach is put with you ? Like I text you at Mike Del Tor

16:28

all the time on Friday nights . My

16:30

bro , put me with whoever you want tomorrow , put me with

16:32

someone new . I want that because

16:34

I want the coach and

16:36

I think I wanna evaluate this with coaches

16:38

. Right ? How

16:40

well do you connect with

16:43

every single kind of person at that gym ? Because , as

16:45

from the outside perspective

16:47

, you might look at this like white suburbia

16:50

, like everyone's just the same person

16:52

in Bergen County and Midland Park , ridgewood , glen

16:54

Rock , white Cove . I think it's a very wide

16:56

variety of walks of life in this

16:58

gym in my opinion . Yeah , all right

17:00

, a

17:03

coach should be able to connect , find a way

17:05

to connect , and that is a skill Not everyone

17:07

has it . Yeah , that they can have

17:09

a conversation with anyone in that gym and

17:12

at some point find some common ground , be

17:15

able to relate to them , ask the right questions

17:17

, know where to push , where not to push , and

17:20

that , to me , is an important personality trait to a coach

17:22

.

17:22

Yeah , it's interesting because you

17:26

have a skill . I know you love really

17:28

good athletes , you love people who perform really well

17:30

, but you also have

17:32

a good way of connecting with

17:34

the newbies , the ones who are

17:37

kind of scared to come into the

17:39

gym , who are worried about can

17:42

I even do a movement or even the scaled

17:44

version of the movement . Am I gonna like ? You

17:46

actually like , and that's a skill that I

17:49

think a great coach in terms of relationship

17:51

building can do . It's not about wow

17:53

, can you really connect to the dude who's

17:56

snatching 225

17:58

and doing 50 bar muscle-ups unbroken it's

18:01

? Can you work with the

18:03

athlete who has , like , can't

18:05

even go upside down for a scaled

18:08

wall walk Right , you know who is afraid

18:10

of a barbell Like that

18:12

, especially since we have a lot of pretty

18:14

new athletes . Like being

18:17

an athlete who , like a coach who cares

18:19

and understands those athletes . That's

18:22

probably as important , if not more important , than

18:24

connecting to your elite athletes in some ways

18:26

.

18:27

Coaches remember where you came from . Right

18:29

, you know , like remember who

18:31

and what you were when you came here as an

18:33

athlete , because none of us came in

18:35

doing muscle-ups and snatching and moving

18:37

well right , none of us didn't know what to do . Like

18:40

we have videos of all of us when

18:42

we first started it . They were train wrecks and I

18:45

think some coaches will lose track of

18:47

that , you know , because they've been doing it eight

18:49

years and , like this person can't even do a strict

18:51

press . Like this person can't even hold a front

18:53

rack . Like what do I do ? You know you

18:55

have to be able to rewind back to

18:57

your early days of CrossFit and be

19:00

able to like all right , I need to remember what I was

19:02

like when I started and relate

19:04

to this person Is that will mean the world

19:06

to that person If you can really help

19:09

them at the start . It's what we always say . It's hard

19:11

to start at an established gym . It really is

19:13

. Next part this is

19:15

a big one for me . This has grown on me over the

19:17

past year or two . Do

19:20

you love CrossFit coaches , and

19:23

I'm saying the workouts

19:25

? Do you research some of this

19:27

stuff on your own ? How much knowledge

19:30

of CrossFit do you have ? Do

19:32

you know the landscape of CrossFit Like

19:35

? Do you know who the CEO is ? Do you

19:37

know who they're hiring ? Kayla Ha

19:39

ha , ha ha ha . Oh

19:41

, but do you

19:43

know ? You know the

19:46

open is starting February 29th

19:48

or on February 26th . Are

19:50

you gonna be like , oh , the open's coming up ? You know

19:53

I

19:55

don't wanna put too much pressure on a coach on how many

19:57

times do you work out per week , because there's a lot

19:59

of reasons behind that . But I will say this a

20:02

CrossFit coach should be working out with

20:04

CrossFit classes if they're healthy period

20:07

. That shouldn't be debatable

20:09

. What can be debated is

20:11

how often and should

20:13

you be doing stuff on your own ? Can you be doing stuff

20:15

on your own because of X , y and C ? Right , we

20:17

all have reasons . I do it sometimes as well , but

20:20

I could say , since we began

20:22

CrossFit Bison 2014 , I

20:25

would say 80% of my workouts have been with

20:27

classes . Even when I

20:29

had hired my own coach for $330

20:31

a month to be on my own program for competition

20:34

reasons , I was still in classes three

20:36

to four days per week and I

20:38

want to set

20:41

that example . Be that example that

20:43

if you coach at Bison or coach at a gym

20:45

that I'm with , that should be part

20:47

of your weekly routine . If you're healthy

20:49

, do you love CrossFit .

20:52

You know . What's funny is I pulled a CrossFit

20:54

journal article from an L4 and they

20:57

list all the things that a great coach has

21:00

, and love for CrossFit

21:02

or enthusiasm was not in there , but

21:04

it's probably one of the most

21:06

important things that a coach needs and

21:08

I would actually probably write CrossFit and say

21:11

, hey , listen , when you write your next one , like

21:13

you better include this , because you can have all the knowledge

21:15

in the world . You can know how to apply

21:17

it . You can know how to build relationships

21:19

. You can know , you know how to manage

21:21

. You know all the stuff that we're gonna be talking

21:24

about . But if you don't

21:26

truly love what you're doing

21:28

and thuzed about it , then all

21:31

of that is a complete waste . And

21:33

I have seen this professionally on the other side

21:35

as surgeons . Like , if you don't love

21:37

doing or any job , honestly , you've

21:39

probably known people at your own job

21:41

where People are

21:43

really good at it , they're burnt out . They

21:46

just don't really find enthusiasm

21:48

in it anymore . And when

21:50

you get to that point you're not . You know

21:52

, as a surgeon You're really dangerous and

21:55

as a coach , you need to step

21:57

back and be like why is it

21:59

that ? I don't find that and

22:01

it's it's not like it's an on and off switch

22:03

. That's the problem . Like some

22:06

people , you know , can find

22:08

little things here and there , that kind of get them boosted

22:10

up . Maybe it's their group or

22:12

this or that or you know . But

22:14

like , if that flame is flickering

22:16

for you , it's a bad

22:18

sign . It is , and I see that time and time

22:21

again and I'm like , dude , I don't know

22:23

what it is in your life or in anyone

22:25

else's life where you don't have that

22:27

enthusiasm , but you have to find it

22:29

. I've seen it in athletes . You see , in athletes

22:31

we see , oh geez , they get burnt out . Yeah , we talk

22:33

about burnout a lot all the time and and

22:36

we see it in coaches and I'm

22:38

like I listen , maybe

22:40

it's because , like I've done CrossFit

22:42

for a while but I'm a relatively new coach when it comes

22:44

to stuff like that Mm-hmm , that is still

22:46

like if I ever lose

22:48

that like Anticipation for coaching

22:51

or that like I really want to do a

22:53

good class or or any of that

22:55

, then I know like this

22:57

isn't for me at right you know , like we

22:59

have a coaches chat sometimes and

23:01

we and someone will throw a cue out there that we saw

23:04

and like it'll turn into a 20-minute conversation

23:06

about pulling yourself underneath the barbell

23:08

using the PVC on the J hooks right , and you

23:12

know no , I'm not taking notes on who

23:14

responds who doesn't again , because we should

23:17

be on our phones last period and we

23:19

talked about that often as well .

23:21

But I do find it interesting that

23:23

either in a chat like that or

23:26

if I'm at a , at a competition

23:28

and I'm around a bunch of people that coach , you

23:30

know someone's like who's Hiller ? Like

23:32

? Well , I don't want to pump Hiller up right now because

23:34

I don't always love what the content he content

23:37

that he puts out there , but if

23:39

you're into CrossFit you should know who Andrew Hiller

23:41

is and you know you're welcome for that shout

23:43

out If you , if you ever hear that you should

23:45

know who Savanna's . You should know that Dave

23:47

Castro has been Director

23:50

of the games CEO fired

23:52

. Now he's back . You know running the games again . You

23:54

know Rx plus version of this . He

23:56

gives the weekly updates every a 15 minute

23:58

video on his YouTube channel and

24:00

he really dives into a lot of detailed oriented

24:03

stuff with CrossFit and I'm not

24:05

gonna Tally who

24:07

watches them , right , I don't think I've ever watched

24:09

as a coach if they watch them . But

24:12

if you come to the gym and be like , hey

24:14

, did you hear about x , y and z ? Did

24:16

you hear that Brooke Wells left proven and now

24:18

he's with hard works pays off , that

24:21

to me is like all right , you're in this stuff and like

24:23

all right , dave , I don't like the sport , I don't want to pay attention

24:26

to Andrew Hiller and Brooke Wells

24:28

. All right , then come in and tell me , like

24:30

you know hey , dave , there's an L1

24:32

in Waldwick in a couple weeks . Did you know

24:34

that ? Like , I was surfing and I was following these Instagram

24:36

accounts ? Or hey , I found this

24:38

new queue for the for the deadlift

24:41

. We should try to implement

24:43

this next time . That , to me , says

24:45

You're not only here for the

24:47

couple hours that you're required to be . You're

24:49

actually in a CrossFit lifestyle

24:52

, and a part of the reason why I've hired

24:54

every person on our staff was

24:56

they were in it at that time . The

25:00

fire can go up and down based on your

25:02

life situations , but , like Sam

25:04

said , you should have

25:06

the emotional intelligence

25:08

to be able to tell that your light

25:10

is flickering and it's on you To

25:13

do one of two things Find

25:15

it , light it back up . Find a way or

25:18

be honest and upfront that the fire

25:20

is not there anymore , because a lot

25:22

of people are going to feed off your love for CrossFit or

25:24

not every class . Yep , now

25:27

we've just been talking about for about 15 minutes on this

25:29

stuff , 10 minutes on it . We haven't even talked about

25:31

coaching . You know , a coach

25:34

needs to be eviled on how well they coach . I

25:36

don't think it's the most important component

25:38

. We have some really good coaches on our staff

25:40

right now that I think for the first year and

25:43

myself included my first year I

25:45

was awful at coaching classes . I was never

25:47

on time , I had terrible warm-ups , I

25:50

was not good at seeing problems with

25:52

movement , right . That

25:54

doesn't make you a good coach . Eventually you had to get there , but

25:57

that doesn't make you a good coach , especially early on . But

25:59

let's talk about some of these things . All right , I could

26:01

have done an entire podcast on just this

26:03

, but I didn't want to make this the focus

26:06

. This is just part of it . Here a couple things

26:08

I want you to focus on with coaching . Again

26:10

, members , you can kind of take notes on this as well . If you

26:12

want to eval coach timeliness

26:14

, that's sorry . Timeliness , starting

26:16

and ending on time . Organization

26:19

All right , just in terms of the

26:21

format of the class , the equipment that's being used . Logistics

26:24

that's a huge thing . When you coach big classes , your

26:28

cues right for for movement

26:31

correction , warm-up how

26:33

are you prepping people to get ready for a

26:35

workout ? And then intra-wad

26:37

action All right , I

26:40

want to touch on a few of these . All right to

26:42

me . Timeliness , organization , logistics those

26:44

all kind of tie together . Same . You coach big

26:46

classes so I think you've actually developed

26:48

Faster because you had to

26:51

. You're being thrown into the fire . Yeah

26:53

, I'll say this Because I coach

26:55

all classes now morning , midday , night , morning

26:57

to the hardest , the 5 , 6 am , it's the hardest

27:00

. Two classes of the day to coach Saturdays can

27:02

be thrown into that mix as well . What

27:05

was that like for you to

27:08

go from Coaching

27:10

at night right , that's when you started off . Very

27:12

small classes mid days and then nights to coaching

27:14

yeah , that probably the most intense

27:17

two-hour period in our gym Group

27:19

from this , from this from group management perspective

27:21

.

27:21

Right , group management skills are critical

27:23

when you're when you have large classes . If you have like six

27:26

or five , it it's it's

27:28

exact . I mean , I have some margin

27:30

to play with right and I love that , but me

27:32

too I do . Yeah , but when you do 25

27:34

or 30 some days , like it's

27:37

not so much about the knowledge

27:39

application scene correcting , it's about can

27:41

I provide a reasonable experience for 30

27:43

people and get them out on time ? And it is . And

27:46

I've gotten burnt . Where I wasn't very

27:48

good about time management , I you

27:50

know , and regardless of how good

27:52

I coached the workout or how

27:54

I was correcting people Listen , if

27:57

you don't get them out on time , they are pissed

27:59

. The piss like in the next class is , and the next class

28:01

is pissed because the parking situation is a nightmare

28:03

coming in and out . So I have sat there

28:05

several times and apologized to my classes like I'm

28:08

really sorry it was not supposed to run this late , and

28:10

then I cursed day for programming 25

28:12

minute work or 30 minute work out , 25 minute

28:14

running workouts . People are still outside right

28:16

with like five different equipment things and

28:19

everyone's like with their toys . I'm like . So

28:21

hey , I gave you a lie up this way , by the way

28:23

, I love it . Actually it's a good one and

28:25

I wasn't gonna work out today , but I was

28:27

like to silver call me . I was like , alright , I'm gonna

28:29

do this one because it was a tempting one . I like

28:32

it . But I will say this you

28:36

do learn trial

28:38

by fire is one of the best ways of learning

28:40

, and when you have to

28:42

figure out how to get 30

28:45

people moving , how do you get really

28:47

efficient ? You're like , okay , I'm not gonna use

28:49

this PVC pipe if

28:52

I can sub something else in , exactly

28:54

. Or if I am gonna use the PVC pipe , I'm gonna use

28:56

it for everything . I'm gonna use it for the warm-up , the demo

28:58

, the stretching , everything . Like , like

29:00

you start figuring out how to get . Like

29:02

, I'm not gonna make them get all the toys first

29:04

, because that's gonna be too long . Let's do this part

29:07

, then they'll pull that stuff out .

29:08

If you could save two minutes here , one minute there , it makes

29:10

all the difference .

29:12

So honestly , that comes down to experience . So the

29:14

more you coach those classes , the better off you're

29:16

gonna be . Yep .

29:18

And I think the biggest red flag from an eval

29:20

perspective , right , because that's what we're talking

29:22

about how to eval a coach if

29:25

you see them making the same mistakes

29:27

, like week after week , month after

29:29

month , year after year , even

29:31

in some cases , despite

29:34

the fact that they know they made that mistake , and

29:36

now they're getting an eval from

29:38

the head coach owner , whatever you wanna call them . That's

29:42

the red flag , because you can't

29:44

always but kinda get tried hard like good

29:46

job , like if your 5A

29:48

in class is constantly ending the one

29:50

at 5.57 , and we're telling you to try to be

29:52

done by 5.50 , 5.52

29:54

latest , right , and

29:56

a year later it's 5.55 . More

29:58

often than not you

30:01

need to make a change and if not , maybe

30:03

you can't coach those classes . Right , because

30:06

that's a really important element to the coaching

30:08

the

30:11

. What we have , a coach that does really well here . She'll

30:15

coach a busy 4.15 sometimes like

30:18

same thing , 25 , 27 people . Right

30:20

, she will get that person's

30:22

zone prepped completely before

30:25

the WAD starts like walk around the throw , abandon

30:27

every zone , throw a PVC in every zone , because

30:30

that shaves off five minutes . It's amazing . You

30:32

tell a class to get a red band and PVC . It

30:34

will take five minutes . It will Because

30:37

they chat and you want that , but you take that out

30:39

. So that's what being organized

30:41

and forecasting . And that coach I know

30:43

has been burned before where like train

30:46

wreck schedule , really late , and she

30:48

knew that that would take off a few minutes . So

30:50

that's what you wanna see . When you eval

30:53

a coach , give a critique and now

30:55

what do you do to fix the problem ? Okay

30:57

, in terms of actually coaching

30:59

, like the warm up and like we have a podcast

31:02

coming up with a guest about warming up I don't wanna get

31:04

too deep into that , but here's two

31:06

things . One thing , the intro

31:08

, wad action . What do I even mean by that

31:10

? Okay , if

31:13

I gave myself an eval , this would be my biggest

31:15

red flag that I need to fix is

31:19

you have your phone out too much

31:21

during a class . I

31:23

am not good at setting up my playlist prior

31:26

to the class . I just kind of pick one

31:28

and then , if I get to a song I don't like , I pull my phone

31:30

out . I find a song , do that . Or you

31:33

get to the end of the playlist . Now there's no music and

31:35

people are freaking out like put that music on . So

31:37

I'm like scrolling through something else is slow sometimes

31:39

, so like freezes right . That

31:43

perception could be bad If someone's gonna look

31:45

at me wanting a deadlift cue and I'm on

31:47

my phone scrolling . You don't know what I'm doing . I might be

31:50

looking at scores from last night's games , so

31:53

, but that look is bad . And

31:55

I can fix that by

31:57

setting up the music prior too . I could cue

32:00

15 songs or get a playlist

32:02

. That's hey , every song on here is good

32:04

, like we're good to go . Don't even have to look at it once . And

32:06

then what happens when you have your phone out ? Someone texts you . Hey

32:09

, dave , I'm running late for the 6 am , so

32:11

I start texting someone back . Or Ash

32:13

will text me about Brock . Now I'm texting

32:16

during a class . Again , the perception

32:18

is bad . I might be able to justify it

32:20

, but I think the more you

32:22

keep your phone in your pocket or even away

32:24

from you while the

32:26

WOD is going on I'm not gonna tell a coach

32:28

especially with coaches that have families

32:31

that you can't have your phone on you . But maybe

32:33

the second the WOD starts , it's on the box and

32:35

you're walking around the gym , and

32:38

that's an example of an intra-WOD

32:40

action . Another

32:43

one would be are you sitting on a box chilling while

32:45

they're suffering through an 18 minute workout . I've

32:48

had athletes tell me that before that . Hey

32:50

, my coach sat on the box all the time . Hey

32:54

, maybe that coach just hurt , or maybe that coach is

32:56

lazy , it's not feeling it today

32:58

. That's an intra-WOD action . I think a

33:00

coach should make a lap , should just be

33:02

making laps the entire workout

33:04

to make sure that they

33:06

show the people hey , I'm looking at

33:08

you , I'm paying attention to you , because that is what a lot

33:10

of people want .

33:11

Absolutely . I notice when a coach is coming up

33:13

around me . I'm like , oh wait , am I ?

33:15

doing . Okay . No , the funniest thing

33:17

I ever do . It's like clockwork , like if

33:20

you walk around and you walk behind

33:22

someone that's rowing and you know that

33:24

they're noticing that you're walking , their pace

33:26

goes from like 1,000 to 1,400 .

33:29

I'm like , oh , I was gonna take a little more rest before I

33:31

pick out the barbell . I guess I'm gonna have to go a little faster

33:34

. But yeah , I think what

33:36

you do in the WOD is very important

33:38

as a coach and I try to move around

33:41

as much as I can . I try

33:43

to see

33:45

how everyone is moving . I think

33:47

my biggest efficiency for sure

33:49

and this is something that

33:52

I wanna coach some smaller classes too

33:54

, because the whole knowledge

33:56

, application , teaching , seeing

33:58

, correcting this is what CrossFit L1

34:01

and L2 , is they hammer so hard

34:03

like they don't care about so

34:05

much of the other stuff , but it's like can you

34:07

see faults ? Can you correct them ? And

34:09

I have always had an

34:11

issue with that and I'm still having

34:14

issues and I need

34:16

and listen . I

34:18

don't . I understand . I'm

34:21

giving myself a little grace because when you have 30 people

34:23

, you're not gonna sit there and teach , see

34:25

, correct all these people .

34:26

And I'll take some of the responsibility too . Sam , if

34:28

you had someone giving you

34:30

evals more often , I think you'd be better right

34:32

now as well , so I could take that as part of my responsibility

34:35

.

34:35

Right . So I know that as a deficiency

34:37

. That's what I have and I need to practice

34:39

on maybe smaller groups so that I can

34:41

apply it better to a bigger group , but

34:44

in a middle of a wide , it's

34:47

a challenge for me to say

34:49

, all right , I see a fault here and this is what

34:51

I would suggest how to correct

34:53

it . I work on it , but it's something

34:55

that every coach . You shouldn't be looking

34:58

at your phone . You shouldn't be texting

35:00

, you should be scrolling , you shouldn't just be sitting on a box

35:02

like . You should be applying what

35:05

you know as a coach to

35:07

help your athletes .

35:07

The only time I would say the phone is okay is

35:10

if you're videotaping someone For

35:12

critiquing . We've gone back and forth

35:14

with the debate . Should a coach be filming a class

35:16

and then putting it on Instagram like I do that ? Liz

35:19

has done that a lot in the past . I think every coach

35:21

has done this right . Where you film something

35:23

in class , you put it on Instagram and

35:26

that's debatable . That could probably be a topic

35:28

for another time because you are trying to market the gym

35:30

and run a business at the same time , and

35:32

I do think people love seeing themselves on Instagram

35:34

. They do . They really post that stuff

35:37

. That's free marketing there . But that's

35:39

the only time I really would say it's okay if they're

35:41

videoing someone . That

35:44

would be the time I really think it's only the only reason I have your

35:46

phone out . I'm

35:50

gonna skip over the next one because it kind of ties into

35:52

the next bullet point the attention

35:54

to detail . And here

35:58

we go the spelling of names , your

36:00

music variety , the avoiding

36:03

predictability to a point right

36:06

. This is a

36:08

problem for coaches that have coached

36:11

for a long time . They are set in their ways

36:13

. They

36:15

want to do what works and it works and

36:17

it provides a good product , a good experience , right

36:19

. But I

36:22

think it's a bad look for a coach

36:24

that if , every time you squat , you're doing

36:26

the same squat warmup , even if it's

36:28

a warmup that works , all right , because I'll tell you what it

36:30

probably doesn't work for everyone , so you should be switching it

36:33

up and again . I think it shows members

36:35

that you are trying to find different ways without

36:37

being over the top . I hate the coaches that do

36:39

warmups that are just like so over the top

36:41

and it just takes way too much

36:44

away from the actual class . So don't try

36:46

too hard on trying to impress the class

36:48

with a fancy warmup . But

36:50

I have coaches that do this

36:52

at a really high level . They

36:54

will find different ways to warm the coach . That's something

36:56

I do . I don't know if I do this at a high level

36:58

. Maybe I need to be valid . Maybe members

37:01

, I get invalid all the time actually . So , but

37:03

you can tell me like , hey , I wish

37:05

you did something a little different . But

37:07

if you're deadlifting and you're doing the same

37:10

stretch for the same three weeks in a row , what if there's people

37:12

in that class that don't get a benefit from that

37:14

stretch ? And it's

37:16

gonna give this image perception that

37:18

you're just kinda checking boxes

37:21

here rather than finding ways to make yourself better

37:23

.

37:24

This is really important and I have found

37:26

I've gotten into ruts too , like

37:28

I like three major stretches

37:31

that I always try to do and I'm like , okay , I really

37:33

have to change it up sometime . Sometimes I'll go

37:36

back to different things , but yes , if you

37:38

imagine if you were the athlete and you had

37:40

to come in and it was always the

37:42

same , it's really , it

37:44

stinks , and I

37:46

feel like it's as

37:49

a coach , it's incumbent

37:51

on you to spend

37:53

some time and think about the athlete

37:56

experience . I know , for

37:58

example , there are certain coaches

38:00

who , oh right , we're doing these

38:02

three movements double unders , cleans and

38:05

box jump overs and so they

38:07

pull out their teaching points

38:09

for all three and they're always the same . But

38:11

you know what it's this ? This workout

38:13

is really a box jump over workout . The cleans

38:15

and the double unders really don't almost play

38:17

any role . So why are you teaching so

38:19

much about the double unders ? Like , really focus

38:21

on yeah , it sounds like you're a robot Right , right . Focus

38:24

on the box , like , look at the like , literally

38:27

look at the wad and figure out

38:29

what the stimulus is and

38:31

coach to that . Don't just coach

38:33

the three movements , coach to the stimulus , which

38:35

is why I do the workout a lot because

38:38

it really helps a lot for me to understand

38:41

what the stimulus is for that workout . And

38:43

I have , like we have coaches at

38:45

our gym who don't have to do the

38:47

wad to figure out what the stimulus is . They

38:49

know this is the sticking point right here . You

38:52

gotta really focus on the heavy cleans because

38:54

that's a big deal on this workout . I'm

38:57

not there , which is why I still

38:59

I use that as a crutch , but

39:01

I know when I get better , like I

39:03

should be able to look at workouts , mix

39:06

up my and you

39:08

don't even always have to mix up your warmups

39:10

, you just it's mixed up by definition

39:12

that the workout is different . Like you

39:15

might have done a heavy power clean workout last

39:17

week in this one , but it's totally different . That

39:19

was an EMOM . This one is like a

39:21

you know , 10 minute like

39:23

speed workout , like that

39:25

. Your warmup is gonna be really different for

39:27

that , just by virtue of the way the workout is

39:29

Absolutely so you need to look at

39:31

the workout , you need to coach to the workout and

39:34

you need to custom the experience

39:36

to that workout and if you just focus

39:39

on that , you're gonna provide

39:41

a much , much better experience for your athlete

39:43

.

39:44

Yep no , those are great words and really sound advice . I don't even

39:46

have anything to add to it really . How

39:49

about some other little things beyond coaching , though ? I

39:52

have a critique on a coach's report right now . You're

39:54

spelling names wrong on the whiteboard . A lot

39:57

of them Like in

39:59

a matter of four classes , like 15

40:01

names , are spelled wrong , and

40:03

it I don't

40:06

think it would make someone angry . I

40:08

mean , I have had some people like come over and

40:10

like I used to write

40:12

Michelle Frusciato's name back in the early days with

40:14

two L's and she would come and like , oh , it's one L

40:16

, dave , it's one L , next , dave

40:18

, it's one L . And then one time

40:20

she came over and erased one of the L's , I think . From

40:23

that point on I've never spelled her

40:25

name wrong and

40:27

you can get some grace with this . Like Colin

40:30

spelled with a one L instead of two , cory

40:33

does not have an E before the Y . Like you

40:35

can get it wrong . But I'll tell you what was

40:37

Zen Planner ? Now , you should never get

40:40

that thing right Because it's literally written

40:42

on there . But we're programmed . We

40:44

do this a lot . We have it in our head

40:46

that it's spelled a certain way . Here's

40:49

another one that I think part of the reason

40:51

why we write names on the whiteboard is to connect

40:53

coach and athlete . Like I am writing

40:55

that Sam is here today , you know

40:58

he might not know that . You know an

41:00

athlete might be like she doesn't even know I'm here , I'm

41:02

just sitting in the corner in zone 15

41:05

. And he hasn't even said anything to me

41:07

. I wrote your name on this and I

41:09

wrote your name and your score on the board . Right

41:11

, there's some thought that goes into that

41:13

. That means a lot to me and that's why

41:15

, like we've been offered , like , hey , let's

41:18

get a keyboard and type them , it'll look cleaner

41:20

on a TV screen , it probably would , and

41:22

it'd be a lot easier to erase that damn whiteboard

41:24

. Right , you could just blank it . Blanks

41:27

, bleed it . But I

41:30

like writing . Even with my bad handwriting

41:32

and some coaches have really bad handwriting

41:34

too that means something

41:36

when you write their name down . But

41:39

if you're writing that name incorrectly over

41:41

and over , even if the person's not sensitive

41:43

, it does send a little bit of

41:45

a message . Right , we have at some

41:47

point I think we had like seven

41:50

lores in the gym yes , l-a-u-r-a

41:52

, you can't write that on the board . I'm

41:54

sorry , you can't . You gotta write Laura

41:57

C , laura L

41:59

, laura M , you have to . Right

42:02

now we have two Rob

42:04

SHSCH

42:06

, there's Rob Schick and Rob Sher . Yes so their name

42:09

is Rob , and then I'm like all right

42:11

, just write Rob SC . No , I can't write SCSCH

42:15

, can't write that either . So the other

42:17

day I'm writing Rob SCHE

42:21

and then I'm writing Rob SCHI

42:24

. Okay , I

42:26

said that this is a tension

42:28

to detail . Yes , it's not gonna

42:30

make or break your ability as a coach

42:32

, but I'll say this I'm the

42:34

one doing the evals . I will notice every

42:37

single time you do that Attention to detail

42:39

is what the focus is here .

42:41

Right , and I have made

42:43

mistakes For a long time . I misspelled

42:45

Jasmine's name , yeah , like

42:48

Z S , but I now take the 10 seconds

42:50

it takes to look at it . Ben , it is a two Ns

42:53

, two Ts . I can't remember , I gotta look . It's

42:56

always about attention to detail . That's why , and

42:58

it's about a connection to the athletes . That's why

43:00

, when I start the class , I test

43:03

myself and

43:05

I , I do .

43:06

I'm the only one that does that anymore . I'm like afraid to do

43:08

it .

43:08

I need to because it's a test for me to

43:11

see if I can remember and connect the name

43:13

to every face , every time People appreciate

43:15

that too .

43:16

I've had people critique me and say , Dave , if

43:18

you used to say her name , she'd no longer do Like

43:20

. That matters to people .

43:22

Yes , I don't always get it right . Sometimes

43:24

I call Nick Squire something else once , but I

43:26

don't care who cares about it . My brain was

43:28

, yeah , like fogged a little bit . It

43:30

was early , but yeah , I

43:32

think , whatever way you can find to

43:35

pay your attention to the details , like you said

43:37

, like on your like

43:39

as a boss , like when you look at me , you

43:41

gotta say , is he really paying

43:43

attention to the little things ? And that's a little

43:45

thing , that it means a lot to someone If you get

43:48

their name wrong , like it literally

43:50

almost means like you don't care about that

43:52

. So you're right .

43:53

And , lastly , this

43:56

is something that's at the

43:58

end of my eval for the coaches and

44:00

it's not even hey , I'm going to evaluate

44:02

this man , I'm spoiling

44:05

this R&I , but whatever , this

44:07

is the last part of the coaching you've got

44:09

. That everyone's going to get from CrossFit Bison is

44:12

if I came up to you at any point in class

44:14

because I'm going to start doing that more is

44:17

come to classes not to work out , just to watch you

44:19

coach . And if I came

44:21

up to you and asked , why did you do that ? You should always

44:23

have an answer . Every single thing

44:25

you do , whether it's a cue , whether it's

44:27

a warm up , whether it's how you explain to work out , whether

44:29

why you put that person there and not there , you

44:33

know how we always zone with pull-up bars and boxes

44:35

and wall space . So , like we

44:38

have some people that here's an example we

44:40

have some people that do not go upside down .

44:42

Yeah , which is fine .

44:44

No , absolutely . If anything , I prefer it Right

44:47

. A

44:49

coach will sometimes in a big class . A

44:51

coach will sometimes put that person

44:53

in a zone with available

44:56

wall space . There's a few zones in our gym that

44:58

don't have ideal wall space . Yeah , you

45:01

should always put that person in that

45:03

zone that's not going to use the wall . Right , why waste

45:05

it on someone that's not using the wall ? Right ? Right

45:07

, like , why did you put that person there

45:09

? Why did you partner these two people

45:11

together ? Those

45:14

are things . There should be a why , and I

45:16

challenge myself on this every single time I warm

45:18

a class up , especially why

45:21

I write the workout , which I'm unique , in that

45:23

fashion . Right , so I'm the one programming . Why

45:25

, why , why , ask yourself

45:27

coaches , why am I doing this ? And I actually think that

45:30

will provide some eval self-eval

45:32

for yourself .

45:33

Yes , you should always have

45:35

a purpose for everything that you do as a coach

45:37

, Even if

45:39

it's sometimes a little bit of a frivolous reason

45:41

, like the way I program my

45:43

music for the class . Sometimes

45:46

it's just because I want to hear a song

45:48

that I haven't heard for a while . So if you ask me why

45:50

, it's like yeah , I just want to throw it up . I

45:52

haven't heard 90 stuff . I figured some people might

45:54

like it , so I'll throw it in there . It

45:56

doesn't have to be a dead series .

45:58

No , it doesn't have to be philosophical at all , but

46:00

I would love that to be an answer . Why did you play this

46:02

place today ? I don't know . We have a lot of people that grew up in the 80s

46:05

and 90s and they like this kind of stuff and

46:07

, honestly , they should probably get a lot of positive

46:09

feedback , probably . But again , you know

46:11

what I think it is . Now that I'm just talking about it it

46:14

makes . One thing I want to trust about

46:16

a coach is that they're thoughtful . They're

46:18

putting a lot of thought into running that class . They're not

46:20

just here checking the box , and

46:23

that's probably the biggest thing that I'm talking about . I can really

46:25

understand . That Is are you a thoughtful

46:27

coach ? Are you a thoughtful person ? So

46:31

that's going to sum up how to evaluate

46:34

, how I'm evaluating our coaches at CrossFit

46:36

Bison . There's

46:38

a few things I want to talk about in terms of

46:40

what to avoid when you're evaluating a

46:42

coach , though , because I think that can be . There's only

46:44

a couple here , but I think that's something

46:46

just as important . When you're evaluating a coach

46:48

, you have to make sure that you're

46:51

coming from an unbiased perspective

46:53

. It's not just about what you want

46:55

. It's not just about what you like . You

46:58

have your favorite coaches , I have my favorite coaches

47:00

, so do all of our members . That doesn't necessarily

47:02

mean that coach is doing a good job . Really

47:04

Like , if the best thing you

47:06

could tell me about a coach is that they play your favorite music

47:08

, that coach is probably not doing a good job

47:11

. So that's why you can't

47:13

always use every

47:15

opinion . You can't weigh every opinion

47:18

the same when it comes to evaluation

47:20

of a coach , but you're unbiased

47:22

. The style of the class , the music , the personal

47:24

desire , all this stuff like the pull-up bars , the boxes

47:26

, like who you're partnering with on Saturdays that

47:29

can't be a part of your vow . Yes , you got to agree

47:31

.

47:31

Yeah , I cringe when people tell me , oh , I love

47:33

your music so much because I'm like , if that's really

47:35

how you're how , if I snatch them out

47:37

Right , then

47:39

that's the best part about me , then I'm a pretty sucky

47:42

coach . But you're

47:44

right , it's hard to eliminate your bias and

47:46

you're never going to eliminate

47:48

it completely . You picked all of the coaches

47:50

. Yeah , you chose

47:53

them based on your knowledge

47:56

, but also your biases as well . So

48:00

there was a certain sort

48:02

of orientation , bent sort

48:05

of group think that you were

48:07

looking for when you picked your coaches

48:09

. So you might emphasize

48:12

one quality about coaching more

48:14

than another . And so when you talk

48:16

, like if someone else were to evaluate

48:18

this whole group of coaches , they might evaluate

48:21

and place more importance on another

48:23

factor as opposed to this factor . Like

48:29

if we had Adrian Bosman come in

48:31

and evaluate the coaches , I bet you his

48:33

evals would be totally different from your evals . Very

48:35

true . And so , of course , you're going

48:37

to be biased . But you know what ? This

48:39

is your gym . Yeah , you're the owner , you

48:42

run it . So if you own a gym , you have your

48:44

coaches . Feel free

48:46

to judge them

48:48

and evaluate them based on what you think is

48:50

important . It may be right , it may not be

48:52

100% right , but it's your business

48:55

. Be consistent with it . That's the other

48:57

thing you can't be like . Well , I

48:59

really like Sam , so I know he's

49:01

not so good at this . I'm going to let it slide , but

49:04

this guy's been kind of not . He's been on my crap

49:06

list so I'm going to just hammer him Right

49:08

. So you're right , you've got to take some of that

49:10

out of it and really and it's

49:12

hard that's probably one of the hardest

49:14

things to do .

49:15

Yeah , and just like , in addition

49:17

to that , the lack of ability to separate

49:20

friendship and business . If

49:22

you have a really hard time doing that and you're

49:24

not aware of it , you probably should stay

49:26

out of the E-file process , right

49:28

? Like Sam just said

49:30

, if you have a really good coach but

49:32

you're not friends with them and

49:35

you're hammering him Sorry

49:37

, you're not confronted , you're hammering him but then you have

49:39

a bad coach but you're really good friends with him and you

49:41

let him or her kind of skate by , that's

49:45

a red flag for the evaluator that you probably shouldn't

49:47

be doing this . You probably should give this to

49:49

an unbiased party . Someone else

49:51

should be in charge of evaluing the coaches

49:53

, because

49:57

I'll put this out there before I give it to

49:59

the coaches . Like there's no friendship

50:02

included in these , like it's almost as if

50:04

I don't know you guys . I'm just going to evaluate

50:06

you guys and you

50:08

have to try your best not to get personally

50:10

offended by it . Right , are

50:13

there ? How often

50:16

should a coach be eval ?

50:19

Ackerman and those guys say monthly . They

50:22

said it depends . They also

50:24

kind of split up between part-timers

50:26

and full-timers .

50:27

Part-time .

50:28

Yeah . So I would say I

50:31

thought that was a lot when I listened to them . I

50:35

would say as often as you feel like

50:37

you are helping them

50:39

.

50:41

I want to give them time to make corrections too . I

50:44

think some of these issues that coaches have , it's

50:46

not fair to expect them to fix it in

50:48

some cases .

50:50

I'm only coaching two , maybe

50:53

five classes a week at top Right

50:55

. So if I'm doing Saturday too , that's not

50:57

that many reps . I need more reps before

50:59

you can say OK , he's getting better or worse at this

51:01

.

51:02

So I've tallied up this is part of

51:04

the eval I've tallied up how many coaches

51:07

every coach has coached in 2023

51:09

. And it's an interesting

51:11

number . It's very interesting to me

51:14

to see that and it helps me move

51:16

forward with some of the stuff I need to get better at as

51:18

running the staff . But

51:20

I think , instead of saying time , like

51:23

I was thinking twice a year , but

51:25

if you want

51:27

to say an amount of classes , I think every 40

51:30

classes , 40 to 50 classes

51:32

, a coach should be eval . That's a great way of putting

51:34

it . That gives . I mean that for

51:36

a full-time coach would be monthly , yeah

51:38

, close to monthly

51:41

Part-time . That could take

51:43

most of you part-timers . That would be about four

51:45

to six months , yeah , yeah , you're

51:47

right , and I think that gives you

51:49

an objective like , hey , you've had 50

51:51

classes to fix this stuff and it's still

51:53

a problem . We need to have

51:55

a more serious conversation now .

51:58

That also means the part-timers . It's

52:00

going to be longer and harder for us to

52:03

get better . Yeah , it is . We just don't have enough

52:05

reps as the full-timers Yep , but on the other

52:07

hand , the full-timers better and get better a lot

52:09

faster , yeah .

52:11

I could see a five to six week eval

52:13

for a coach . Yeah , every five to six weeks

52:15

, and it doesn't have to be extensive and long . It could

52:17

just be like , hey , did you fix these two things , or

52:19

is this still a problem ? All right , thank

52:21

you , guys . I hope you had a good time . Owners

52:25

or head coaches coming

52:27

from someone that hasn't done it in official

52:30

fashion like this , don't make the mistake

52:32

I made . I think you should get on it ASAP

52:34

. Start a process right now . Moving

52:36

into the new year , maybe put it on

52:38

your new year's resolution list . Coaches , don't

52:41

be afraid to be evowed . It's probably

52:43

, at some point , the only way you're

52:45

going to be better as a coach . So if you truly

52:48

want to get better as a coach , you have to get these

52:50

evals and swallow some hard pills and

52:53

be comfortable being uncomfortable and

52:56

all of us are uncomfortable when we get critiqued

52:58

, myself included . But CrossFit

53:01

has taught us this you will never get better if

53:03

you avoid discomfort . And

53:05

members , I think you guys

53:07

have a voice in this . You guys

53:10

are around the coaches more often

53:12

than some of the owners and head coaches

53:14

are . You see them in action . You

53:16

see them at their best , you see them at their worst

53:18

and if you are good at removing

53:21

some of the stuff we said to avoid your personal

53:23

bias , your friendships , I think there's a lot

53:25

of value in your word . So if you have things to share

53:27

confidential with

53:29

the person that's doing the evaluating , I think

53:32

your words should be heard and you shouldn't hesitate to reach out

53:34

. All right , thank you guys . See you next week . Thank

53:38

you everybody for taking the time out of your day to

53:40

listen to the Herdfit podcast . Be

53:42

on the lookout for next week's episode .