How Working In Change Has Made Me A Better CrossFit Coach

How working in change has made me a better coach

(Link To Full Blog Post https://a-crewandy.wixsite.com/a-crew-coaching/post/how-working-in-change-has-made-me-a-better-coach )

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Very few people in my professional circle know that I coach Part-Time at my local CrossFit Affiliate. It's something that I thoroughly enjoy and brings me a huge level of fulfilment. Maybe it's something I would consider doing full time in the future, but that's certainly not for now! While I am mostly working from home though it has been a fantastic way to both meet people and pursue a passion. Equally something not everyone I coach will know is that my day job is working as a Change Leader/ Project Manager, currently in the Financial Sector. For those that have read this blog from the start you will know that I took a long hiatus from coaching. What I can say with confidence, is that one of the reasons that I believe I am a better coach now than I have ever been, is because I have and continue to work in the business of change.

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Over the course of time, in other posts, I will go into depth around some of these subjects to really start to delve into the detail and into the links between the two but here are some of the top 3 ways that working in change has benefited my output as a coach:

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1. Understanding the impact Change has on people

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Change can be scary and if not managed well can impact people in a number of ways. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs defines this best by identifying the different levels of which people can be impacted by change (future blog posts will talk about its link to CrossFit's very own pyramid). Undoubtedly if you can understand how someone is being impacted by change or can identify the barrier that is preventing a change you can go about working with them to overcome that challenge. When we get to the Psychological and Self-esteem sections as well we can then begin to understand what is motivating people to change and lean into that. As a coach, especially when coaching a class I have to be able to identify these things in an instant (especially when starting out) and then see them develop over a period of time as you coach different people on multiple occasions. The knowledge of this model helps significantly and the more I coach the faster and more accurately I'm able to do this, it is certainly not something that is easy to do or that I get right all of the time.

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2. Understanding the Change curve Vs breaking down someone's technique

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Both as an athlete and as a coach the understanding that sometimes you have to get worse to get better is incredibly important. Conveying that to someone effectively can be difficult though. Inherently asking someone to lift less weight, go slower on a movement or perform a scaled activity brilliantly before going back to the full movement is something that can be a hard sell. The ability to sell that, quickly and in the right way, in order to convey that it will make them better in the long run is a skill. One that takes time to develop and one I certainly do not get right all the time. It's also a two way street, people have to have the want to get better and the want to listen. Sometimes this is coach dependent. I am often coached professionally about the importance of building a brand, this translates directly into coaching. The better brand you build, the more legitimacy you build and the more likely someone is to listen to you without questioning if you know what you are doing (something as a relatively new coach I am and will always be working on). There are no two ways about it, building legitimacy takes time but encouraging the right behaviours is something I consistently remind myself to persevere with.

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3. People having differing capacities for change

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At times, in a gym setting, this is a lot easier than in a professional setting. Typically people are at the gym, in a fitness or CrossFit class, because they have made a commitment to continually improve and change. This is clearly not always the case in the business world and I like to think that one of my skills as a change professional is being able to adapt my approach to get the maximum change from a person or a team that they have the capacity for at that time. Often, through that change, creating capacity for future change by implementing continuous improvement methodologies. From a coaching perspective being able to judge when someone can absorb more than one cue or if their capacity to adapt and change at that point has to be fully focused on one specific movement area. There are also the times where on that specific day, in that specific class, a person is there to blow off some steam and in reality, as long as they are not moving dangerously, they have very little capacity to absorb the information you might want to give them in order to help improve their performance. It's a fine balance.

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As I have said before in previous posts, every person, going through any change, is unique and their journey through that change will be also be unique. In any arena and for any project, whilst we continually learn and lean on prior experiences, as change professionals and coaches, we continually need to be able to adapt and change our approaches in order to meet the needs of the change and the people that we are trying to support.

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Andy