As a coach, it’s my job to teach athletes how to move well, avoid injury, and become fitter. What most people don’t realize is that in the process of coaching, I am constantly learning from them, too. Lately, I have been taking a page from the book of some of our newer/ beginning athletes. While there is a lot that beginners can learn from experienced athletes, experienced athletes can learn a lot from beginners. Here’s a few things that beginning athletes do well that we could all learn from:
- Listen to the coach and be coachable- there is no-one who listens better during a warm up than a newbie, mainly because they’re not sure what anything means just yet. Yes, coaches repeat themselves a lot, but as coaches we are constantly trying to learn and improve ourselves and our coaching. Listen intently to what your coach has to say no matter how long you have been CrossFitting. You might learn something new. The second piece of this is to be coachable. When your coach gives you advice, how do you respond? Do you say a) “thanks coach, I’ll try that” or do you say, b) “that way is harder.” If you want to get better, your response should be something along the lines of response A. Sometimes beginner athletes catch onto technical movements quickly. It can be frustrating to see someone who’s only been at the gym 6 months master something you have struggled with for years. From my experience coaching, the new athletes who catch on quickly do so because they listen well, take advice, and practice. If you have been struggling with the same movements for years, ask yourself if you are really taking the advice of your coaches and putting in the work to master the movement.
- Don’t beat yourself up- When you are a beginner, you are proud of yourself for simply surviving a workout. When did we all get so hard on ourselves? I have heard many athletes refer back to a time years or months ago when they felt stronger. If you are consistently coming in, and not hurting yourself in the process, you are always getting stronger- Remember that. Just because you don’t feel strong in a particular workout, doesn’t mean that you aren’t still getting stronger in the process of completing it. Start celebrating your victories, no matter how small.
- Abandon your pride and scale/ modify – just because you are capable of doing a certain movement and certain weights, doesn’t mean that you have to go RX or RX+ every single workout. Don’t be afraid to scale or change up the weights or movements on a workout on a given day. Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean that’s what’s best for your body on that day. Doing ring rows in a workout still helps you to get better at pull ups even after you can do pull ups. Sometimes taking a step “back” is what helps you to move forward.
- Step outside of the box and try something new – at one point CrossFit was new to you and probably took a lot of courage just to step into the box. If you don’t get that feeling anymore, it’s now habit/ lifestyle. So when was the last time you tried something new that was outside of your comfort zone to improve your fitness? Trying out new physical challenges helps grow our fitness and it also keeps us humble.
- Don’t be afraid to finish last – this goes back to the previous points of not beating yourself up and abandoning your pride. If you finish last in a workout it means that you challenged yourself and didn’t give up.
So there you have it. No matter how long you have been doing CrossFit, there is something we can all learn from newer athletes. Welcome them with open arms and take their lead when it comes to listening, staying humble, and having the courage to try new things.
Written By: Alexa Pancza