Why is My Coach So Mean to Me?

Let’s call her Courage because she embodies that name.  Courage hated skipping.  She found it very challenging.  So, when skipping figured prominently in her workout she begged her coach for alternative options.  After listening to her list of reasons why she should not skip, her coach took her over to the “Stages of Learning” poster on the wall and asked her which stage she was at. 

Courage looked over the choices: “I can’t do it, I won’t do it, I want to do it,” all the way to “I can do it.”  After considering the stages of learning she quietly said, “I want to do it.”  So, her coach held her to it and Courage stuck with the skipping through the workout.  Can you guess what happened?  She could do it.  Not well at first.  But with practice her confidence grew.  Skipping never became her favourite thing, but it went from being something she dreaded to something she knew she could do when it showed up in the workout.

Recently I met up with Courage for coffee.  She misses Empower.  Coming from overseas, Empower is the closest thing to family she has here in Vancouver and living out of town she feels lonely without the support of her Empower friends.  Life has given her a hard time since she left the gym.  Her sibling with whom she shared rent moved out, her child is off to university out of province and her partner of five plus years, the rock in her life, left her.  Courage has found herself suddenly alone in a foreign country an ocean apart from her family.

Compounding her challenge is the belief she has held her whole life that she is not complete, competent or capable without a strong partner in her life to steer her true.  She has always wanted to have someone she could trust to guide her and tell her when she was making an error.  And now, she finds herself all alone in the world with no one to take care of except herself.

Faced with all this hardship, Courage thought back to that skipping workout and her coach’s refusal to let her take the easy way out.  Life is hard but at Empower we have a lot of practice with hard.  If you’re doing it right, every workout is hard.  In the gym is where we forge the grit and confidence to face hard things.  Reflecting back on the stages of learning poster, Courage realized that life has handed her an opportunity.  And opportunity to discover her inner strength as an independent, confident, self realized woman who does not need someone in her life to give her permission, approval or assurance. 

Instead, Courage has decided to follow her lifelong dream of becoming a business owner.  She has always imagined opening her own business.  Courage realizes what a difficult challenge this will be with no guarantee of success.  But she also knows that she will regret it if she doesn’t take the chance.  Courage doesn’t know if she can do it.  But she is ready to try!

Courage is not someone who has made the top of the Empower leaderboard.  She doesn’t have pull ups or amazing double unders.  But she embodies the spirit of Empower as well as anyone I know.  If we awarded ranks in CrossFit, I would say Courage has earned her black belt because she has taken the lessons learned in the gym and applied them to her life. 

What did you think we were doing here after all?  Did you think it was all about double unders and handstand walking?  Who cares about those skills?  Those are not the point.  The character forged in pursuing those skills, whether you succeed or fail, that is the juice!

We are training in the gym to become champions of life.  Succeed or fail, every high box jump, or heavy snatch attempt you make is preparation for the challenges you are going to take on in your life outside the gym.  The resilience you develop in the struggle, in the ability to fail and try again, this is a rare superpower that gives you the edge over ninety percent of the population who avoid challenge like the plague.

I am humbled by Courage’s spiritual journey and the lessons she is carrying into her life.  Her bravery fills me with pride, and I am honoured to have played a role in her journey.  Not everybody gets it.  Not everyone appreciates the coach who is willing to hold them to a higher standard and push them beyond the limitations they have built for themselves. 

It reminds me of the story of the child throwing the beached starfish back into the surf and the man looking on at the thousands of stranded creatures.  “There’s too many,” he told the boy, “You can’t hope to make a difference.”  Reaching down the boy threw another starfish into the waves and looking at the man answered, “Made a difference to that one.”

You cannot save every starfish.  Not everyone wants the coaching.  Even among those who do, few will internalize it and fewer still will understand it enough to take the lessons learned in the gym out into their lives.  But as coaches we continue to push our athletes to discover the best versions of themselves.   

And every now and then, one takes the lesson out into the world and runs with it creating something beautiful.  Every now and then an athlete uses the discipline learned in the gym to transform herself into someone truly Empowered.  And when she does, her coach looks on with tears of pride and knew it was all worth it.  Every long coaching day, every disappointment, every unappreciated effort.  Because in that moment, the coach can sit back with a sense of fulfillment and say to himself, “I made a difference.  For that one, I made a difference.”

And that is what he lives for.  Thank you, Courage.   

Friday
To maximize access to the ropes, we will run 2 heats today. You may use WOD B as a warm up or a cool down depending on the order in which you complete the workouts.

Warm Up
2 Rounds:
A. 30 sec Battle Rope
B. 1 min Ring Row Squats
C. 1 min Ground to Stand Climb
D. 1 min DB Goblet Squats
E. 1 min DB Shoulder Pullovers
F. 1 min Wall Balls (light)

Tech
DB Thruster
Rope Climb

WOD A
12 min AMRAP
9 DB Thrusters @35#
1 Rope Climb

Use a dumbbell weight you can complete in unbroken sets
Use the most challenging rope climb progression you are able to safely complete

WOD B
1 min each:
Deadbugs
Egg Rolls
Windshield Wipers
Shoulder Pullovers
Glute Raises
Table Raises
Rocking Chairs
Upper Body Half Rolls
Lower Body Half Rolls
Bird Dogs
Elevated Rolls
Full Body Rocks