I’ve wrangled on occasion with the question of the importance of what I do as a coach. On the one hand, I recognize that thrusters, for example, really aren’t important in the grand scheme of things. Unless your profession (pro athlete, coach to pro athlete) depends on thruster ability, their significance is pretty much nil. On the other hand, I recognize that everything that we do in the gym is connected. Individual movements are connected to each other, they are connected to movement and physicality as a whole, and they are connected to behaviors that have nothing to do with movement. Thrusters are really just an implement that we can manipulate to address things that are far more significant than thrusters. So yes, in some sense, they really do matter.

Life is not a neatly divided series of isolated events or unrelated elements. As nice as it would be to put “work” in one neat bin, “family” in another, “health” in another, “hobbies” in another, and so on, it’s more akin to a tangled web where everything’s tied with fishing line to everything else, and so when one piece moves, so do all the others. What this means for me (as coach) and you (as student), and for me and you (as humans) is that training that may take place in the gym is a lot bigger than what takes place in the gym. Translated into real-life terms, this looks like opportunity and responsibility. As a coach, I have the opportunity to have a meaningful impact -- though perhaps an impact I’ll never see or know -- on every student through this language of movement. At the end of the day, the heavier thruster doesn’t have its own value, but the process behind it is a transferable skill that may earn a promotion, or may manifest as increased self-esteem and confidence. On top of this, I have the responsibility to use my platform to create momentum and energy daily that carries far beyond the gym walls.

As a coach, I can’t help your finances or your family life or your workplace environment, but I can help your movement (capital M and lowercase m). I can provide the guidance and resources to help you invest in, improve, and pursue mastery in this element of life, and that change could just be the tide that raises all boats. The superficial goal of being a coach is to provide the guidance and tools to improve movement, and that is something that I enjoy; but the real meaning of it is to be a teacher of excellence, and that is something that I believe has real significance. The coach’s raw material is movement and athleticism and sport, but the coach’s true aim is the person as a whole.

- PS

6/11/18

• Back squat - 5,5,5

Then...

• 10 min EMOM

• 15 KB swings (AHAP)