Workouts for Youths and Adults: Meet the Coach

The LONG story of my credentials and experience.

        In the Spring of 2000, I was a super scrawny, but active kid who played a lot of sports. The idea, which I believe was God-given, that I enlist in the US Marines after school had hit me hard that second semester. I waited for summer and then turned into a fitness infatuated 17-year old who hit the weight room for 1-2 hours every Monday through Friday during the summer at my high school's weight room. Like almost every kid back then I learned how to lift from other students. It was all bodybuilding (hypertrophy) type training and I was hooked. I was blessed to have students and eventually one teacher who knew what they were talking about. I gained around 30 pounds that summer and loved the muscle and strength gains. I believe everyone needs a Wow! moment like this to have lifelong fitness. I was at the perfect age (puberty) to see amazing and quick benefits from my hard work.

 

       I enlisted and served for 4 years in the Marines. Actually a big reason I did not stay for more than 1 tour of duty was that my unit (even though we were infantry) did not set aside hardly any time for physical training. Marine Basic Training (boot camp) was a very unique type of fitness training, which was good to experience but not meant to be a lifelong style. It is in fact far from an optimal style. But it did help re-enforce good form and technique. Drill Instructors screaming at you to keep your hips up in a push-up or not to put your hands on your lead knee when doing lunges will do that.

 

      After the military I found CrossFit. I loved the idea of functional movements and hard work. During my college years I got into the best shape of my life up to that point, including my time in the Marines, doing CrossFit at home. I did personal training for 10 months and I worked for 2 soccer seasons as the performance coach for a U12 Girls soccer team. Both taught me a lot, especially with how to work with a wide variety of abilities adn personality types. I got my first certification: ISSA-Specialist in Sports Conditioning in 2007. Then I found out that the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) was widely considered the best for sports performance coaches. So, as I was finishing up my schooling with no hopes of an immediate teaching position I got my NSCA-CSCS (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist) certification and my level 1 CrossFit certification. This is my most professional certification and since 2011 I have had to have the equivalent of 60 hours of continuing education every 2 years. This has led me to attend many conferences, read many fitness books and do webinars and all that wonderful edifying type of thing.

 

      A friend from church had asked if I would be his full time trainer if he were to start a CrossFit. So, in  October 2011, after building squat racks and an indoor and outdoor obstacle course out of wood beams, boards and metal piping I began my full time job for the next 7 years with FTX CrossFit. That was an incredibly challenging time but the most enjoyable job I'd ever had. I got to be apart of the business side of things, but taught 30+ 1-hour classes each week and helped with workout programming. Eventually I was doing all of our workout programs, which included classes for: CrossFit, Kids, Gold (senior citizens), Elements (basic level), a Competitors Group, BURN Fitness and a couple sports teams. I wanted to be the best coach I could be and I got 3 certifications in self-myofacial release for soft tissue care. I got a USAW certification to make sure I was teaching the Olympic lifts (Clean, Jerk, Snatch) optimally. I loved Kettlebells so I got a certification for that as well. I earned my level 2 CrossFit certification and then started to get the itch to use my teaching license . . . 

 

       It took two years but I got a job in another state to teach Physical Education and got a stipend to do Strength & Conditioning after school. For 2 years I worked to find ways to reach the students, no matter what their ability and level of interest. This was the hardest challenge of my life. I scrapped plans and started over several times and then realized I need to find a doable level and just stick with it. Unfortunately, I had been fighting cancer since the beginning of my second year teaching and then covid hit as the 2nd year was wrapping up and finally my doctor's wanted me to undergo a procedure that meant I had to quit working for a year. I did so and then started teaching a 3rd year, but with the knowledge that my doctor's wanted me to do a bone marrow transplant to give me the best chance of long term remission from the cancer. With the knowledge of how young my family still was (6 kids, the oldest was 14 and youngest was 3) I let the principle know that I would be leaving after the 1st semester to get that done, that I'd be out for at least 2 years so for now this meant I was done. 

 

      Sure enough after a near fatal transplant, tons of graft versus host disease (GvHD) and some long term nerve damage from the waist down I had got past the transplant, gotten back into decent shape after being at near infantile levels of health and applied for a new teacher job. For two years I did the same type of work as before, but now instead of 7-12th graders I worked with 5-12th graders. The struggle was similar no matter the age though. Getting kids who had viewed PE as essentially more recess and maybe even as optional any day they did not feel like participating was the hardest part. I while I could get good days out of them there was at least a half dozen strong reasons I could not see PE ever becoming what I wanted it to be in a modern school room setting.

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    So if you made it this far in the reading, well done! This is why I now seek to share what I have learned with as many people as a I can in a way I hope that minimizes the common threats to fitness habits:    - Intimidation     - Lack of Understanding       - Planning / Prioritization