teaching
As I embark on completing my 20 % project to become a better CrossFit coach, I need to complete a pre-self-assessment of my coaching abilities. I will use 10 point scale where 1 means that I have little or no abilities in an given area, and 10 means I am as good I as possibly be in that area at this time. I will also include a pre-peer-assessment, which is basically the coaching direction that has come from the owners of the gym that I coach at. At the end of the project I will self-assess and I will include an assessment from the same owners at my gym. This is a little background on how I came up with the points on the self assessment. Before I started coaching, the one of the head coaches, who is also one of the owners, at my gym spent time with me over a few days to explain the standards of coaching at the gym. At the gym, the focus is on providing a place where people enjoy coming to every day; doing CrossFit should be the best part of their day. Part of that is great coaching, and the other part of that is upholding the community aspect of the gym. As a coach, I need to be able to be great at protecting each athlete by ensuring they are moving properly and that they are avoiding any movement that may cause injury. This involves scaling workouts to fit each person’s physical needs so that they feel like they are getting a good workout without feeling like the workout was too hard to accomplish. Each athlete should feel like they are progressing and improving. I also need to be connecting with athletes on a personal level. Asking each athlete how they are and checking in with them is an important part of building that rapport that is needed to coach them and to help them feel like I have their best interest in mind during the workout. This will also help me feel like I am coaching friends rather than strangers, which will help me feel more at ease and confident. The points that I created below to assess myself on are based on the things that I worked on with the head coach at my gym. These are points that are important to being a good coach. Self Assessment: 1) Feeling comfortable running the warm up: 7 2) Feeling comfortable going over Olympic weight lifting progressions: 5 3) Feeling comfortable going over gymnastic and other progressions: 6 4) Feeling comfortable talking giving athletes feedback: 6 5) Feeling comfortable identifying movement problems: 5 6) Feeling comfortable giving correcting cues: 4 7) Checking in with all athletes before class starts: 3 8) Feeling adequate connections with athletes in class: 4 9) Feeling like I can “be myself” while coaching: 4 10) Overall coaching confidence: 4 Peer assessment: The awesome part about this coaching experience is getting good critiquing and feeling so supported at the same time. It makes working on weaknesses feel comfortable and helps me feel motivated to work on them. The feedback I have received from two of the owners/head coaches is that I need to be louder and that I need to have better overall confidence when directing a class. I should be definitive and decisive about what we are doing.
My hope is that through this 20 % project, I am improving my ability to explain and correct the more complex movements of CrossFit, the clean, jerk, and snatch, that I will feel more overall confidence that will translate into definitive and decisive speaking when I run a class. I also feel like I am being loud, but I think my opinion might change when I see a video of myself going over the progressions for the lifts. I am hoping that a video of myself will help me identify and understand more of what I can do to change and improve. I am confident that with practice and familiarity I will become a better CrossFit coach.
2 Comments
Candace Linscheid
2/28/2015 11:57:40 pm
Good for you! For how long have you been a CrossFit coach? Coaching and teaching go so well together, and I've found that being a coach has also helped me to be a better teacher. I can totally relate to your trouble being loud enough (I coach swim, and when I started my swimmers told me that they couldn't hear me!) The loudness and assertiveness will come, and if you keep working on the things you listed you, you will be more decisive and confident in no time! Keep it up :)
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Becky Kainec
3/5/2015 02:02:27 am
Thanks for the advice Candace. I have only been coaching for a couple months, and not even that often. My schedule has been kind of inflexible as you can imagine. But hopefully I get a chance to coach more real soon. I could use the practice.
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May 2015
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