First Time Coach

Nora cheering on her team at a past North Georgia Affiliate League competition.

By: Nora Sweet

To be honest, coaching does not come naturally to me.  What does come naturally is the feeling of wanting to help others become better at CrossFit and see them get better at a movement that they’ve been struggling with for a while.  If I can pass on the feeling of how much CrossFit means to me, I’ve done my job.

CrossFit Max Kane has an intern program for those of us who are interested in coaching. I’m glad that this system is in place, because even though I got my CrossFit Level 1 Trainer certificate it doesn’t mean I was ready to coach a class all by myself.  Leading people in warm ups, technique, strength, and a WOD was intimidating for me, even though I know everyone at the gym. Everyone is used to me messing up my words and remembers me when I was shy, but I still tend to trip over my words and overthink everything.  I’ve even coined the term, “hand slap” instead of “high five” and accidentally changed “slow your roll” to “calm your roll.”

Finishing up a workout at her CrossFit Level 1 Certification.

I’m always trying to use these quirky personality traits of mine to help me get past the nerves and anxiety, as well as remembering that members come to the gym to listen, learn, and get better. That’s just how we roll at CrossFit Max Kane.

I work out four to five days a week so I know what it means to have a great coach who’s there to get you through that one hour where you want to push yourself.  It’s fun to be on the other side of the workout, cheering for everyone and pushing them to do better! I know that there are days when members don’t want to be there because it was an early morning or they just left work, so my hope is to always be the coach that has members looking forward to a class, even if it’s tough just getting to the gym. Even if they aren’t particularly excited about the workout, I want to be there to push people, no matter what.