Characteristics of a Good Coach....

Let me start this piece by saying, this is a matter of personal opinion! I know I am going to miss a few characteristics, so if you think of one I didn't write about post it to comments :). Also, I am writing this from the perspective of a strength and conditioning coach. Please take all of this into consideration while reading these characteristics.

So what are some characteristics of a good coach:

Educated - Know your craft and never stop learning! Try to surround yourself with people smarter than you, and learn from them.

Patience - You're going to deal with some situations and/or people that test your patience. Keep your cool!

Persistence - Your athletes are going to want to do it their way or they'll want to give up on themselves. As their coach you have to stay on top of this, even though at times your efforts may seem futile you must never stop pushing your athletes to do better or get better.

Integrity - Be honest with yourself and your athletes. This can be applied to many situations that occur within a training facility.

Good Communicator - You need to be able to coach using your words. Simply showing someone what you want isn't good enough. Communicate to your athletes what you expect from each and everyone of them.

Love for your work - A good coach LOVES what they do and the people they work with! If you don't love what you're doing, do something else!

I would not list these in any particular order of importance as I feel they are all equally important.

So what do you think? Which characteristics did I miss? I would really like to know what other coaches and/or athletes are thinking.

What do I do now?

Well, as most of you know my CrossFit Season is over. It ended in a fashion that I didn't think would happen, hands ripped to shreds, but it's time to move on for now.

So what's the game-plan for this year's preparation? I feel that I now have a good balance through all ten fitness domains but I am now at the point that I need to get the tasks, a.k.a. the workout, done faster. For lack of better words, I need to build a bigger engine. So how am I going to approach this?

For the next few months I am going to pull the reins back on the "faster" and "intense" met-con work. Don't get me wrong, I am still going to do some conditioning work, just not as much as I would have normally done in the past. (It's time for a little break) I am also planning on 3x per week of strength training keeping my rep range somewhere between 15-8 reps. (hypertrophy is the goal) The key is to not go overboard. I guess we could label this period as the "restorative phase". Towards the end of August I will reevaluate where I am at in terms of my overall conditioning and decide where to go from there.

For those of you who want to follow my exact training I will be posting my WOD and results to my Facebook account. Obviously I will discuss my training on here too, but I will also include some of my own opinions and ideas related to fitness and health. Who knows, maybe I'll in go off on a rant or two :).

Training Frequency

Lately, probably due to my preparation for the So Cal Regional, I've been getting questions related to my training frequency.

First of all I DO NOT train seven days a week. I don't think I could handle that volume, and I would venture to say that anyone who consistently trains seven days a week isn't performing as well as they could. It just isn't necessary to train that much.

I personally train, normally, about five times per week, with rest/recovery days built into the middle of my schedule. Now, depending on how you look at it, there are days where I do have multiple sessions or what others might call "double days". It may look like this:

Met-con session/strength session
-or-
Met-con session/Met-con session
-or-
Met-con session/endurance WOD

I usually try to make sure I have at least 1-2 hours between double met-con sessions. I also try to consistently mix-up my session. Sometimes I do strength first and sometimes I do it last.

I think it's important to remember "quality before quantity". This means if I'm tired I REST! In my opinion, recovery is the key component to improved performance. My goal is to always come into a workout as well rested as I can be, this allows me to attack the workout with everything I have.

Key takeaway points for training frequency:

• Don't train seven days a week, put rest/recovery days into your schedule 
• Multiple sessions in a day are OK, just give yourself sometime between sessions
• Mix your routine up
• QUALITY BEFORE QUANTITY, if you're tired REST!

Side-note: Here is a link to an article by Coach Greg Glassman written in January 2005, "What about Recovery?". Coach presents some interesting ideas on "recovery" and athletic performance. Funny thing is, in this article, he states, "If we clump the recuperative modalities together as “pampering” what my clinical practice suggests is that the pampered athletes are generally performing below the 50-percentile mark. Those most inclined, for instance, to yoga, meditation, and chiropractic treatment are not our fire-breathers. I don’t think that yoga, meditation, and chiropractic treatment are injurious to performance; I think that self-pampering and longing for comfort are, however, correlative with low drive and success. Why is it that those most inclined to worry and ask about “overtraining” are about as likely to set a new record in the Olympic Decathlon as they are to ever overtrain?" I'll let you form your own opinion :). 

Workout Log and FGB 6

I recently had a conversation with someone regarding workout logging, a.k.a. journaling. It made me think about my own approach to logging workouts and how others approach this habit.

Personally, the only items I log in my fitness journal are 1 rep PRs, benchmark WOD PRs (i.e. "Fran", "Jackie", etc.), and what I call "milestones" (i.e. new PR in unbroken pull-ups, double-unders, etc.) Everything is logged into Evernote on my IPhone and that info syncs over to my IPad. I will most likely never lose this data because it is all saved electronically.  

In my opinion it is good for beginners to log every workout they do. It gets them into the habit of tracking their data, and it allows them to gauge off of other workouts they have done in the past. 

However, as people progress in CrossFit and start to gain a sense of where their strengths and weaknesses are I do not feel they need to record every workout they do. Instead I suggest recording only strength training sessions and benchmark workouts. That is data that can be easily checked and used for future training session. I suggest this because more often than not we will not see the exact same workout again. What I hate seeing is this:

WOD for CrossFitter X is:

5 squat cleans 

10 push-ups

10 pull-ups

200m run

-5 rounds for time-

CrossFitter X records this workout and the weights used into their journal. Two weeks later this workout comes up and it happens to have squat cleans in it:

12 squats cleans

12 burpees

-AMRAP in 10 min-

CrossFitter X decides to look back in their journal, sees the previous workout with squat cleans, and some how tries to choose her weight based on that other workout. What CrossFitter X fails to recognize is that these are two completely different workouts. Yes, a squat clean is a squat clean but in this situation the rep schemes are different, the time-lines are different, and the other movements in the workout are different. I can't possibly understand how this CrossFitter can use the old data to determine what weight to use. (Again, this is assuming CrossFitter X is a more experienced CrossFitter.) 

Now I realize there are some positives to keeping a journal of every workout, I just think these positives are mostly good for beginners and not really necessary for more experienced CrossFitters.

I'm curious to know what other think about journaling and/or recording every single workout. Please share your thoughts.

Lastly, I've started my Fight Gone Bad 6 fundraising already. This year, for every dollar donated, I will do one burpee (I plan on putting together a small video for this event). My fundraising goal is only $300, but I've always wanted to try 1000 burpees for time :). You can donate at this link, and you can even join my team! 

 T - 1 week until "go time"!

Massage and My Training

After my 48 hours of rest and recovery I felt, for lack of better words, AMAZING! I attribute most of this to the massage I received on Thursday afternoon. I had three or four training sessions after this rest period and my performances were outstanding. Both my running and lifting form felt great, even during the longer/faster metabolic conditioning workouts. 

It has been probably a year since I last had a really good massage. The woman I am seeing for my massages, a.k.a. body-work, came highly recommended from a few good friends, all of whom train pretty consistently. If you'd like her info. please shoot me an email.

Here is a piece from Karma CrossFit on the benefits of massage therapy for athletic performance. This is also a good video clip of the 2009 CrossFit Games Female Champion, Tanya Wagner, receiving a massage while her massage therapist talks about the benefits of massage and working on CrossFit athletes.

We are about two weeks out from the Southwest Regionals and I feel pretty good about where I'm at. I feel strong, rested, and ready to go. I am not doing anything special in my training. I have tried most of the workouts for Regionals, and they are nothing I can't handle I just need to do them faster :). I am trying to throw in some of the movements we'll see in Regionals into my regular training sessions in order to get more comfortable with them while working at full speed. Again though, I'm not doing anything different or special. I'll probably take 48 hours off before the first day of events in the hopes I felt as good as I felt this past week. 

Memorial Day WOD & Being Human

This past Monday, Memorial Day, CFMG hosted a "Team Murph" WOD. It was a great time as we all had fun working in teams to tackle our own version of "Team Murph". 

Prior to beginning the WOD I approached Geo, co-owner and coach at CFMG, and told him I wanted to say a few words about remembering why we were there celebrating Memorial Day. I figured it would serve as a good reminder to all and even myself. Boy, was I right :).

Not even a sentence in I was overcome with so much of my own emotions. (Even as I write this I'm having a tough time composing myself.) Most of you know I served in the USMC and those even closer to me know the things I've experienced. Having all of these participants here at our gym that day to honor our brothers and sisters in arms, remembering my own brother who serves currently in the USMC, and remembering my fallen brothers simply choked me up.

It gave me a weird feeling, as I do not often get choked up, but I am glad it happened. A situation like that in an environment I usually dominate brought out the "human" in me. It also showed our group that was gathered that day at the gym why Memorial Day wasn't just another day.

I am thankful for everyone who is in my life weather in a small way or a big way. It has always been an idea of mine that each person we encounter, weather for 1 min or for 10+ years of our life, shapes who and what we are today.

On a side-note training has been going good, as usual :). I competed in an Oly. Weightlifting meet at CF Invictus (Saturday), did Regional WOD 11.1 & Amanda (Sunday), tackled "Team Murph" (Monday), and knocked out WOD 11.2 (Tuesday). Body needs some good recovery so here's a look at my recovery for the next two days (Wednesday & Thursday): 

1) No training for ~48 hrs

2) Massage scheduled for Thursday morning

3) Keep my nutrition "tight"

4) Foam roll sessions twice per day

5) SLEEP!   

First Olympic Weightlifting Meet

I lifted in my first Olympic Weightlifting meet yesterday. It was quite the experience. It was pretty much just as nerve racking as performing a WOD.

My first attempt at the snatch was 80kg (176#). I wasn't as warmed-up as I would have liked to be but the opening lift went well. I moved up to 82kg (180.4#) for my next lift and missed. I was still feeling rushed and I let the bar get away from me, making it tough to receive it in a good position overhead. I decided not to try for a new PR and simply try the 82kg again. I made the lift, though not a PR, I was happy I made the lift.

I feel much more confident with the clean and jerk. I opened with109kg (239.8#) and made the lift. Second attempt was 112kg (246.4#) which would have been a new PR but I missed. I'm not sure exactly what happened but upon jerking the bar over my head I felt my left elbow fully extend, slightly bend, and then re-extend creating a "press out" which is a no-go in Olympic Weightlifting. For my final attempt I decided to go up to 113kg (248.6#). I made the lift and set a new PR. The only thing I was really unhappy about was with my clean. On all three attempts I was doing this weird sort of collapsing forward movement at the bottom of my clean. I've never done that before but it may be due to the fact that I haven't been clean and jerking with max weight for a while, and/or I was not tight enough through my mid-section.  

My total for the meet was 193kg and I made 4 out of the 6 attempts.

For those of you who don't know what a snatch is or the clean and jerk, see the video below.

Lessons learned:

1) I need to get used to lifting in kilograms. Even though I was able to make the conversions it just made the actual lifting that much harder. Not much else to say about that, but if you've never had to deal with kilograms during your lifting I suggest you try.

2) Olympic Weightlifting is just as much a sport as CrossFit. Though the general public (mostly Americans) think it's just a bunch of guys and girls working out, there is major strategy involved. I was taught how to count the attempts in front of you in order to time your warm-up properly. There can also be some going back and forth with the attempt choices (the amount of weight a lifter will attempt to lift) in order for another lifter to pull ahead in ranking.

All in all it was a great experience. Thanks to everyone who came out to watch/support, it meant so much to me. Special Thanks to Mark and Jesse for helping my out where I needed it, you guys are awesome.

Well it will be back to regular CrossFit Training from here on out. I have to prep. for regionals. Here's hoping I can make it through to day three :)!