S01E05 - Coachability

Welcome to The Herd FIT Podcast @herdfitpodcast with Coaches David Syvertsen @davesy85 and Sam Rhee @bergencosmetic. This podcast is aimed at helping anyone and everyone looking to enhance their healthy lifestyle through fitness, nutrition, and most importantly, MINDSET.⁠

Our next episode is with guest coach Adam Ramsden @w.a.ramsden. We talk about COACHABILITY. Both as athletes and coaches, how can we be receptive and make the most of the coaching we both receive and give as athletes?

You can find more information at our website, HerdFitUSA.com, and make sure to like and subscribe wherever you watch or listen to our podcast.⁠

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TRANSCRIPT
S01E05 - Coachability
David Syvertsen: [00:00:00] Hey everybody. Welcome to the herd fit podcast with Dr. Sam Rhee and myself, coach David Syvertsen. This podcast is, and that helping anyone and everyone looking to enhance their healthy lifestyle through fitness, nutrition, and most importantly, mindset. 
All right guys, today's episode is how to be coachable. I have Dr.
And coach Sam Rhee on my right, coach Adam Ramsden and our guests on our left. This is probably one thing that I think everybody could get a lot out of whether you're brand new to CrossFit or you've been with us since 2004. I check myself on this all the time. I pay my own coach. I have a personal coach right now as well, and I've done a poor job being coachable over the past few months.
He ripped into me for that. But, and I, and my excuse there, and it's not a real excuse. It's my own fault is I've been the coach for so long and I haven't had a coach for so long. And I think I'm so used to just controlling where when you're not coaching, you have to relinquish. Control and just be the foot soldier that says, yo, do this and not do this, but I'm going to put my spin on that or put my spin on that.
I want to make sure that we're on the same page. All of us through the three of us included, it was for both coaches and athletes that get coached, that we can all work on this. And I think that we have high level of experience between three of us, this applies to wasps, but it also applies to people that just started here at bison, or it started at your.
Anytime recently. I think the way we're going to do to start this off is transparency. Communication is rule number one, rule number two, that can not be negotiated. You have to be transparent with two things mainly. All right. What is your goal? Be honest about it. Don't be embarrassed by it. I've been embarrassed by goals before, because sometimes what I say embarrassed.
Yeah. You don't want to give a goal that you might not get to. And I think a lot of people don't put their goals out there because they don't want anyone to know that they failed. And I try to be as transparent with anyone that will listen that I haven't hit my goal as a competitor yet. And I'm still going for it.
And that's, but I'm not embarrassed if I don't get there. It's that's part of being humble, right? Is you don't be embarrassed. The next part about this is being transparent with what your lifestyle. And I think this is where a lot of people are not honest with things and it can go into. There are self-talk confidence levels.
I could do it, their nutrition, their sleep they don't actually convey what they tell themselves what they think throughout a day. And I've talked to nutrition coaches, a couple of which we're going to hope to have on the Hertford podcast. That's the biggest shuttle is that people lie about what they're eating, what they're not doing.
Sam Rhee: [00:02:47] Well, sometimes they lying to themselves. 
David Syvertsen: [00:02:49] Yes. Yep. Pathological liars 
Sam Rhee: [00:02:51] mean they just, it's hard sometimes to admit to yourself that you're not really good. You think you're doing 
David Syvertsen: [00:02:55] what I'm set. And again, we're all, we're big on uplifting people. We don't want to beat people down. But I just think that those are the two things and I'd love to get both of your thoughts on this is, transparency of what your goal is and transparency of what your lifestyle actually is be objective as possible. 
Sam Rhee: [00:03:11] Sometimes it's okay to not know the answer and just tell your coach and say, I don't know, I don't know what I want to do. I know vaguely, maybe this, but that's maybe what your coach is going to help you with is be like, okay, so wait, you want to be fitter, but like how, 
David Syvertsen: [00:03:29] One of the truest signs of humans. Which everyone needs is the ability to say, I don't know. And I think there's, it's almost like a personal insult to someone that they don't, that they don't know. I think that's actually a good answer because it's the first con conserve some really good conversation.
Adam Ramsden: [00:03:45] Yeah. I think being honest with yourself is important because it's going to give you an avenue to make those improvements. If you are lying to yourself, if you're saying, oh, no, I eat, I ate clean last week. I wonder why I wasn't doing well in the gym. Must have been, I wasn't coached very well or the warmup.
Is that really we can talk a million things, a lot of people when they get it and I'm guilty of this too, when I'm in class, and I'm next to a friend, I'm not putting all of my fault into the warmup. I'm not really working on mobilizing what I need to mobilize to get ready for the workout because we're having a conversation, and sometimes I'll miss what the coach has said about some it happened just the other day with.
And we were just in a side conversation and, so when I walk away from that work. Is it's on me that I didn't do what I was supposed to do, so you have to be honest with yourself in that, and be honest with whoever you're talking about or communicating your goals too, about what your goals are and how you're going to get there and what you're willing to sacrifice them before.
Sam Rhee: [00:04:39] It's hard to be honest with yourself. It's when you feel like this is what you're capable of, and this is who you are, and then to end to tell someone, especially a coach, this is really not, cause you have a self-image you have an ego you have who you think you want to be. And to try to be humble and honest with yourself. That's probably one of the hardest things to do, but you're right. It's very critical. If you're going to actually ask someone to help you to get better, especially as an athelete. 
David Syvertsen: [00:05:08] Yeah. And yeah, just to build off of what both of you guys said when it comes to the communication with the coach, that we're talking about how to be coachable, how to be honest, what Adam said is really important as be realistic, right? If someone's comes in here and. Says like we've heard this over the years. It's like someone that sort of crossed it last year. Hey, I want to make the CrossFit games one day.
That's a very typical goal of someone that has a competitive background. And they're like, and they're pretty good at a few things. How realistic is that? It's not necessarily up to the coach to determine, but the athlete needs to know. All right. Where are you in relation to that goal right now?
All right. And how far away are you from that goal right now? And now, like you said, now there's an avid. Of what needs to be done to get to that goal, right? It might not be a year's worth of work. It might be five. And now you start talking about like now, not in those five years, not two weeks. On two weeks off.
I had some friends, like I had some friends with my, I had some fun with my friends the other night, or like I can't sleep these next couple of months or I'm I have three different jobs a lot. You have to be realistic with what you're trying to pursue. And I think a good coach can be really objective with you.
And I think one thing that you have to be ready for is a hard truth answer that comes back to you because I think there's a big misc perception of a coach is supposed to make me feel good. And yes, that is part of their job. Part of our job as coaches is we should, we're here to build people.
But we also need to be honest and objective so that there isn't gray area. I always feel like a lot of the people's issues with their self outlook, their goals is there's a lot of gray area. Like I want to be really fit, but I also, and I want to work out hard on Sunday mornings, but like my friends go out every day, Saturday night, I want to get drunk with them and have a great time.
That's fine. You can't do both, like that kind of thing. Where I think that a coach can tell you. Where your friend might not, a friend will tell you, you need balance in your life. Let's go out and get drunk and then we'll work out tomorrow or let's go out and have this unhealthy meal and let's work out tomorrow.
I think that's where the disconnect between coach athlete relationship comes in. Is that right? Not your friend and they can be friend outside these walls, but I know when you guys come here and work. I don't care about friendship at all. And I, that took me a long time to develop yes, like we'll talk, like I'll make fun of the jets with him or something like that.
Or, but like when we are coaching in a class, like when the class starts, Adam's an athlete that, he's here to try and get better. And it's part of my job to get, help him get better. What is better? That's up to him and his goal and what he's communicated to me in the past, but that's so when I coach him, I'm no longer looking at it.
And the same with you. And I think that's a skill that a coach will develop over time that the athlete needs to develop that too. I think 
Sam Rhee: [00:08:04] one of the best things I love about our coaches and when you see coaches taking classes yeah. They're athletes, they don't sit there and act coachee in any way, shape or form.
Every single coach I've seen taking a class. Just another athlete taking the class, maybe talking to Liz, but usually listening to, whatever to, following what, whatever it is. And I think that if you watched any coach taking a class here, you would realize. It doesn't matter if your coach or who you are, it's just like 
David Syvertsen: [00:08:35] no status.
Sam Rhee: [00:08:36] There's nothing there. 
Adam Ramsden: [00:08:36] Yeah. And as an athlete, if you're coming in and you're saying, oh, Y I asked Dave question, why didn't he, why was he like, concentrated on look, I like to think of it as like lifeguard analogy. So like, when I lifeguarded, was working with all my friends.
When you're up there and you're lifeguarding and your job is everybody's lives in the water. Like you can't be focused on other things you gotta be concentrating on here. And that's what I think our coaches do really well. Is that when it's time for the class to work out there in that a hundred.
So you have to, as an athlete, be able to say, okay I'll catch up with them after stuff like that, because you don't want to get, oh, Sam, didn't talk to me during while he was watching, the workout, like, why doesn't he like me? Why what's going on there?
We just have to be able to make that disconnect of it's two different people, it's when we're coach coaching, we're a coach, Then we'll get back to what it is, will not work. 
Sam Rhee: [00:09:27] I think one of the things I want to say is that, coaches are not perfect and this is as much directed to how we, as coaches can be better in terms of helping people be coachable.
Because remember, there's that old saying? There are no bad students, only bad teachers. There are no bad athletes, only bad coaches, kids only bad parents. Yeah, there are bad, but I will say this there is as much of a responsibility for the coach to help athletes be coachable.
Like you said, there is response, the athletes got to take their own responsibility, this is as much directed to us as coaches saying, how do we facilitate coachability.
David Syvertsen: [00:10:08] How do we facilitate coachability? 
Sam Rhee: [00:10:10] Let's, before we move on to that, let's move. I want us just to think about that as a theme, like a thread that goes through this.
Cause every time I hear how can an athlete be more coachable? I also think, what's the coach's role in that as well. Okay. But the first thing I wanted to say is so you wrote in our prep, the value of a coach who cares. 
David Syvertsen: [00:10:28] So truly care. 
Sam Rhee: [00:10:31] Okay. So talk to me about a coach that truly can here.
David Syvertsen: [00:10:34] So I, I can, every single one, every single coach on our staff, there's 12 of us, right? I've had individual, not group, but also group conversations with every individual coach about a member. Like breaking down videos of their squat, of their muscle, up of their mindset of what's going on in their personal life.
That's how it's going to impact them. We don't need to do that. We should, but we don't need to. We talk about, we have a lot of new people at the gym right now, so we're doing all these write-ups on our new people in our private staff page and Adam knows when this kid comes his name's Jeremy.
Like I know what his strengths and weaknesses are. I know that there's a little issue with his neck, that he probably shouldn't do any overhead squats, right? That is a sign of, we truly do care about people. And this is not a pump-up bison thing. This is what does a coach do? That truly cares. We communicate with each other about the people we're serving.
And I also think we all view our jobs as we're serving people. We're not in charge of. We're here to help people. We're not here to like direct traffic, even though it does look like that sometimes. Like we're telling you what zone to go into Saturdays. It's mayhem here. It's like bop. You're there.
You're there pop up. It looks like that's why we're here. We're here. We do this stuff on Saturdays. We pick the partners on Saturdays so that people have a good experience. No, don't care about friends. Don't care about your comfort level. We're trying to make, we're trying to like maximize the benefit, the value of your hour here.
So sometimes the athlete won't see that if a coach does not truly care, it's like, all right, who's in my class. All right. Yeah. Go wherever you want. Here's the warmup, here's the workout, best time of the day. So far is 10 minutes. Good luck guys. I always, I remember using that story so it's like one of the most prominent gin gyms in this country. If you saw the name on a coach's shirt, you'd be like, whoa, that person coaches there.
And I've said this story on a past podcast before, but we had, one of our members went to that gym, took a class from a celebrity athlete coach. That has a lot of Instagram followers because that's the marketing of a good coach now. Is. Literally did not introduce the person. Didn't ask the person what their experience level was, what the, if they have any injuries.
Gave the warmup gave the workout, ate lunch while they warmed up. And while they worked out, 
Sam Rhee: [00:12:49] why are you ripping on Boynton beach? 
Adam Ramsden: [00:12:53] One thing I wrote down that, and Sam, you and I have had this conversation of what does it take to be a good coach? And I think that's important for anybody to know.
If you're gonna help other people in whatever endeavor it is, it's that you care more about that person's success than your own. So every bad coach I've had, I've been to dropped in at a couple of CrossFits that weren't where, Where the experience was not as good it's because they were on their phone.
They were worrying about their own programming. They were working out while doing a different workout than the class was while we were working out. It's if you're going to prioritize your own progress over the people you're working with, that's fine. But I don't think you're going to be a successful coach.
And you're not going to truly care. About the success of the people around you. 
Sam Rhee: [00:13:37] Say that this quality is the most important quality for a coach, not ability, not experience. And it holds for other professions too. And I'm sure if you're in education, if you're in medicine, I see surgeons or doctors all the time.
They don't, they're not the most experienced. But if they really care about a patient or a student, like they'll find a way to really help that person. I've known very experienced, very skilled people, but if they really didn't care, I wouldn't want them taking care of me, if they really, it doesn't matter all the knowledge in the world, if they really don't have a vested interest.
Yeah. You then they really should quit their profession right there. And that's how I feel very strongly about that. And I also feel as a coach, you should always care because that's your responsibility. That's what you're supposed to do there. You're supposed to make these athletes better, whatever way you can.
And I know Ben Bergeron has all this stuff about what good coaches are and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The first thing is really the caring. Yeah. That's the baseline. 
Once you get the caring part, it leads to you wanting to know more about your athletes. It leads to wanting to know more about the progressions of how you're going to get through or help them to get through certain movements.
So all of a sudden that translates to what you're doing outside of the gym, in preparation for that hour, you're going to coach that athlete, and, 
David Syvertsen: [00:15:07] The amount of times you guys have sent me things that you've come across. On the internet and a book conversation with someone, Hey, like the amount of stuff that you sent me about like pistols or strict muscle ups or the stuff that you sent me with, like lifting that can be applied to other people and you guys are spending your free time.
Trying to enrich your mind in relation to cross it so that you can help other people, it wasn't for you. And that's, again, you're sacrificing your personal time for other people here. And honestly, like they never know about it and that's not why you do things, you don't do things so that you can get a thank you from someone.
You do things because you're genuinely here to try it. And there's a lot that you'll do to help them, that people won't ever know about. 
Sam Rhee: [00:15:50] So if I'm an athlete and I have a coach and they're telling me anything, how can I be receptive? Or to that feedback. How are we in general? That's just a universal thing.
How are we as people receptive to feedback? How do I take feedback? How do you take feedback? Me personally, I've always been in a pretty hierarchical job. Like you've always had people senior to you. So I'm very used to taking orders, like from, senior surgeons or whatever other people like, from a coachability standpoint, I would say I'm fairly coachable only because I'm just pretty used to taking orders. The problem is not always thinking about those orders. So maybe I'm always leaning almost to the to just doing whatever it is someone's telling me to a fault. How do you, as an athlete incorporate feedback, I know you just talked about your coach, how 
David Syvertsen: [00:16:47] you took his yeah.
It's, a lot of the times you don't listen, you don't pay attention to your feedback or the actual coaching until something goes something went wrong performed really badly over the course of, whatever. And, that's when you start going, like, why did this happen?
I'm big on like, why did this go wrong? What happened? You break this down, you break that down. And that's when you start to really, you have the conversation with the coach and the coach at that moment. It's best case scenario. If that coach is really honest, And you can take the feedback from him about what you did as an athlete and say, all right, he sounds harsh right now, but he's being real.
And this was like, I think everyone needs to turn off the sensitivity switch. And I say that with caution, because I know that everyone ticks differently and some people respond very well to positive reinforcement. Other people respond well to objective, remarks, whether they're positive or negative.
I think the athlete's responsibility in that situation is if you trust your coach, do not evaluate how nice or how mean they're being in that moment. Because I think sometimes that coach is saying things a certain way or with a certain tone or with a certain choice of words that, I don't want to say it's above you or over your head, but they're thinking big picture where I think sometimes the athlete was only thinking about this.
Like my thought was this workout went solo. And I thought I was going to crush it. What happened? Where he's thinking bigger picture, he was like, you didn't do this. You didn't do that. You didn't do this. She didn't do that. We talked about this two months ago. You haven't done thing, and I think that's times where it's like, all right, No, this is where I need to be the athlete, not the coach and stop putting your own spin on things.
I think we all do this. We put our spin on a coach's remark. Why can't we just take the objective remark from the coach and just go, 
Adam Ramsden: [00:18:44] and you realize that you could get the same exact feedback from me and Kayla and it's going to come out and be received in two totally different ways. I was thinking the sale because I'm very take the emotions out of it. Like I'm going to give you that objective feedback. Yep. And, I think we're saying the same things and we're coming from the same place of caring. It's just going to come out in two diff two totally different ways. So you have to be receptive of that and just try and strip everything away from what the information that the coach has given 
Sam Rhee: [00:19:13] It's hard and that's why you're exactly right. You're exactly right. That you have to strip the emotion and take the objective, appreciate the honesty. Yeah. But that's also why so many times people are like, as coaches, it's a little frustrating, cause you're like, I told him this, like how many times?
And then they went to someone else and they said the same thing. 
David Syvertsen: [00:19:33] Are we talking about this? Oh yeah. That Asheville come home from much. Adam told me to do this. And Adam told me to do that. I'm like, I would tell you to do that for the them, but it's about this. There are athletes that are going to respond to certain types of coaching better, and you have to not get offended by that.
There are people that respond to Tafaro his music and his laid back style. I am not that, but they liked that better and they learn better from him where Ash will say, Dave, you haven't helped me with this. And ever, and Adam just helped me like that. It's you can't get a coach can't get offended by that.
I think that's a big thing. We're only talking about athletes here. Coaches need to not like, know what you, ain't the best coach, right? If you think you're a good coach, good for you. You're not the best coach for everybody. There are people that prefer Liz's coaching style over yours and yours, not mine, but Vietnam's, but that's that's but she has a way.
Taking over a room that makes it like more like positive and fun. And some people need that. Where other people like some of us I think when we coach we're a little bit more get this done, do it right. Blah, blah, blah. Some people respond to that. They don't like the bubbly atmosphere.
So I think coaches need to know. You're not going to be the best voice for everybody. 
Sam Rhee: [00:20:46] We had a podcast about coaching styles and I would say we have, you can't change it, who you are as a coach. But you can also try to you, can't tailor it a little bit to the particular athlete. And I know you do on oftentimes is if it's this person you're gonna approach them this way, this person this way.
And if you feel like if I feel like I'm super dry maybe I need to see how I can. Be a little more Liz, like in some situations. As opposed to more Dave, like in our situation. 
Adam Ramsden: [00:21:15] And I think that's where the communication between the coach and the athlete helps, I remember Evan P who unfortunately moved away, but whenever I coached him, he would say after the class, oh, I like that coaching because Adam's good.
But I would only yell at him because he and I had this conversation and say, I was like, do you respond well to this type of motivation? I always tell my classes that if somebody comes and gets, it doesn't matter if you get in my ear or slap me upside the head, like I'm not going to move any faster.
That's just, I don't respond that type of coaching. It doesn't mean that it's good. It's not good coaching. And it's not that, the cheerleader way of coaching is the wrong way to coach. It's just, that's personally not something I respond to. Whereas, if it's just stop me mid workout and say, this is what you need to do.
And, I'll respond better to that. But that communication happening, is we can learn that from an athlete by observing them over a long period of time. But I think we can fast track that by having that conversation. 
Sam Rhee: [00:22:12] So one of the things I did read was that as to be coachable, obviously you should never stop learning. But as an athlete, I know there are certain things that I do that I'm not. I'm really good at this. I don't need to take advice about this. I'm good. Can you filter things? Yeah. So can you, so how do you get to athletes who are like, you know what, like you said, I've always done it this way.
I'm not going to change this. 
David Syvertsen: [00:22:41] More for like stubborn athletes are more like, Hey, they're experienced, they don't need help on this subject. 
Sam Rhee: [00:22:47] I don't know. It could be a couple of different things or they're just resigned to, you know what, I, you know what, I've never really been able to do this.
I'm maybe I'm just not built for that and I'm not going to do it. 
David Syvertsen: [00:22:57] I do. I do think coaches need to know that they don't have all the answers for everybody. So if you do go to an athlete and say, Hey, do it this way, do it that way. It might not work, and especially if there's someone that already moves well, right?
There's a couple of people here that I'm trying to change their squat a little bit foot position with how wide their feet are, but if it doesn't pan out, it's not that, they're being stubborn, right? Like sometimes like you can't coach an athlete the same way can't coach every athlete the same way.
So I think a coach needs to know that there isn't one way to do everything and. I think that's more mechanical. What I'm talking about. If you're talking about a personality issue, like there are some ego issues with some athletes. They're not going to do the full range of motion. They just want to go fast, get a good time, go home.
Sam Rhee: [00:23:42] I'm glad you have athletes that can actually say, you know what, I've always squatted this way. I'm good at it. And then you're like, okay, let me just open up your feet a little bit that they're like, okay. Yeah, I'm going to try that. Let's do it. Be coachable and never stopped trying to do things that even they feel like they're really good at it.
Yeah. 
Adam Ramsden: [00:24:02] Yeah, I think it's a, like we said before it's a constant process and we don't have an end goal. And even though you might say, oh, I'm really good about, how I back squat. I shouldn't be worried about that. Like just getting that outside perspective, just those little tweaks can help or, over the course.
David Syvertsen: [00:24:19] Yep. This comes back to something we originally talked about is this is a two-way street. And I think if the. Here at bison, your coaches, like we're talking to each other all the time, we're doing our own research on our own all the time is we're always trying to enrich ourselves as well.
If the athlete does that as well, that's when you start seeing some significant gains from that relationship, right? If the athletes, the only one doing the research and the coach isn't, or the coach is the only one doing the research and the athletes. That's where I think these results are very limited in terms of what and who can benefit.
Sam Rhee: [00:24:49] Yeah. And that's what I read was they termed it. Giving the athlete ownership. So it's like when the coach gives you advice, you take that advice, but you're also using it. So it's not just okay. Put your feet a little bit wider. Yeah. You do that. And you're like, okay you know what? It also makes me feel this way.
What do you think about. Yes. Yep. And then the coach is okay, then let's do this. And then you're like, okay, that is helping here. But how about this? And so that's the kind of thing that the athlete has to take upon themselves as when they take that advice. Like you said, they're going home, they're they're working with it. Some thought into it. They're also giving feedback back to the coach saying, This is what it feels like for me instead of just trying and be like, didn't really work. So that sucks. Yeah do you ever feel like you have to give your athletes a break in terms of coaching? Yeah. So how do you know when, cause coachability, you can only be so coachable for so long, right? 
David Syvertsen: [00:25:49] So I think part of this is part of the reason why we started hiring coaches. Was it wasn't just oh, we need to take a load off our shoulders. It was, I actually remember saying, I was like, I think people will benefit less if I'm coaching 35 classes a week.
It's the same person I can imagine you came here, you were coached by the same person every time, even if you like that person, that coach has a bias. All right. They have a certain way of doing things. That's that's why when I work out the classroom, I always try to get to a different coaches class.
Because it just, it wakes up a different perspective of CrossFit or of certain movements. And I think that if you have the same voice all the time, it actually could be a detriment because as good as that coach might be. He, or she is still limited in my opinion. And I think that if you add in a gym like this, where you have some different coaches, you have different backgrounds, different styles.
In most cases you're going to be able to see different people. That's why we've rotated the schedule over the years where you have basically a different coach. For the most part, not every day, but like at a certain time, if you come every day, you're going to have a different coach almost every day or every other day, I should say.
And I think that's where, Hey, should you stop being, should you stop coaching someone? If I have a one-on-one person, like that's a little bit of a different situation, but usually that it has a very specific goal in mind where you can coach the person all year, but you coach them differently throughout.
Where there are certain times where as competition gets closed, I'm a little bit more like top of that person where it's like right now, you're an off season right now. It's like, all right get this done. And if you skip that one or if you have to dial it back, because something doesn't feel right.
Or you have some other personal things it's not going to be like, Hey, like, why didn't you do that? That kind of stuff, 
Adam Ramsden: [00:27:32] yeah. I think we need to we need to avoid saying, if I, if my cue to you is always get your elbows through and bring your elbows up on your cleans and they don't get there.
We have to realize that it's an intense situation. Maybe the way we're saying it, it's not clicking, and so you can't get frustrated with, oh, why aren't they getting their elbows through? It's like we have to be patient, but then the athletes also have to be patient.
Understanding what the coach is trying to tell them and really putting it into focus rather than just saying I'm chasing a good score. Like we talked about before, 
Sam Rhee: [00:28:03] It's hard as coaches, especially now with all the new people, because it there's so much time suck with working on technique as coaches.
How do you, what is your strategy for a class? Do you try to. Give everyone, advice. Do you just give some people advice sometimes? Like I know, and it's a skewed because it's always about me. So they're always like that coach never gives me any advice or this coach only gives advice to that person.
And when I objective objectively, look at it, I don't necessarily think. That's the case. At least not consistently. I'm not sure. I would say that the kinds of advice that, for example, I'll see you give Ryan Ratcliffe is certainly different than the newbie at 6:00 AM. You're talking about pacing and like what time that Ryan?
Yeah. Fairly high level sort of stuff, because Ryan is. 
David Syvertsen: [00:28:59] Will benefit a clinically is there is consistency. Is there right now? It's about a tensity, like what he talked about previously, mechanics consistent. 
Sam Rhee: [00:29:06] So what do you try to do in terms of giving coaching for a particular class?
David Syvertsen: [00:29:11] You always start macro. So like the whole class has to be on the same page with what the workout is, what needs to be scaled. What's the stimulus. What can you change to achieve that stimulus? And then you do like your group warmup, your group stretch or group technique work. Like I like to have a focus of the day on every movement.
Right? There's 10 things. You could focus on every movement, you can't get to them. All right. And then once that kind of breaks up or you're like, Hey guys, five minutes, six minutes, workout, blah, blah. You do get, you can gravitate towards people that like during that macro level session, you start taking scope of the room of alright, who seems like they're a little uncomfortable right now.
Who's not getting it. Who's not clear. And then you go to that person and athlete coach, athlete, 50% kosher, 2% you come in like, all right, this is what you need to work on today with this lift. All right. So you gave this person that's like level tension, but now it's on the athlete to take it in, not just be like, got it.
It's take it down. What are you now going to do with this information that the coaches can. That I need to like, keep my knuckles down on lifting. I need to not hitch, like what the coach gives us suggestion, whether it's good or bad, are you trying to use it to help yourself out?
And then throughout the class, like I've always made an effort. Like every class, everyone gets like a significant look. If it's a three minute workouts, a little different, you have 20 people here, but over the course of most of our workouts, that average from 12 to 18 minutes, usually in that range, you can get to everyone at certain points. Whether it's a tip. Some people don't respond well to temps in the middle of a workout. It could just be some support too, that are tight. But I do think it's important for the coach and on every class. It's your job to get to everyone during that class.
Sam Rhee: [00:30:45] I know when you come around to me, cause I'm like, all right, am I squatting? Yeah. And now he's gone. All right. No problem. All right. I'm good. Yeah. 
Adam Ramsden: [00:30:52] I try to check in with every athlete during the class when it's people that are more comfortable with the movements, almost it takes more time and more time spent with them to find that one little thing that you could try.
You know that you can give to them. With your more experienced athletes, once they hear that cue, they're more likely to put it into practice, whereas a new person or somebody that struggles with movement might need more. More check-ins right in a say, okay, make sure you keep keeping your elbows in or anything like that, 
David Syvertsen: [00:31:21] and then also like you have to, as a coach in real time, differentiate between there's a safety cue. You need to give someone like, Hey, you're about to get hurt. If you keep doing this or more of like a mechanical efficiency cue, right? If someone is doing TOSA bar and you can tell that they're not pulling the bar down, they're not getting this arm angle.
They're just kinda like wrapping their legs around, touching the. That's like a mechanical Hey, that person's not going to get hurt. I'll go give them a quick cue and then I'll leave to the next person. But if that person is at the deadlift and they keep rounding their back and they're not bending their knees at all, and they're only lifting using their back lift the barbell, there's you got to go there and stop them and be like, yo, get your breath back. Let's talk for about 30 seconds. Yes. I know you're in the middle of a workout. We've got to correct this. So that's where it's such an individual case by case class, by class basis. At that point, 
Sam Rhee: [00:32:12] I think some of it is also coming on the athlete.
So as me, depending on how I'm feeling that day, I'm going to scale or I'm going to do something slightly different. And I know the coaches will notice, if my shoulders. It's a little wonky, they'll note it and more often than not, the coach is like, is everything good with you? And I'm like, yeah, it's just this.
And then they're like, okay. Yeah. And, they're just checking in, so self-regulate a little bit, yeah. So I think, the coaches have a good touch most of the time about figuring out, who's where and what needs most. And I think if, and I think if you're a pretty experienced athlete and you've been here for a while, don't.
You know that you're going to get like personalized trainer, like for that session, it's tough, 
Adam Ramsden: [00:32:52] you know it's okay for you to say, Hey, can you, Sam, can you keep an eye on my, just for an individual movement and say, oh, can you make sure, like any, anything on shoulder overhead?
Can you see if you notice like me not getting my head through or anything like that, 
Sam Rhee: [00:33:06] and I love the athletes that do that. They're held there. They're meeting you more like halfway, basically. They're there, they have a concern. They want you to make your you're checking it out and making sure that you're good with that.
Yep. 
Adam Ramsden: [00:33:17] And that goes back to coachability of being able to say, okay, I want to improve. My coach wants me to improve. Let's work on this together. It's not just, okay. Coach, man. 
Sam Rhee: [00:33:27] Don't look at me, but then how am I doing? 
David Syvertsen: [00:33:29] Yeah, don't put me on Instagram.
Sam Rhee: [00:33:31] The last thing I almost forgot before I forgot is to be coachable, you should also have a positive attitude, right? You need fun. Like it's not all so serious.
David Syvertsen: [00:33:42] It happens a lot here, but myself and you guys, and it's taken too serious sometimes. And that impacts how coachable you are, because if you're high, strong, And you're stressed out.
The coach is no longer trying to help you out in your positions. They're like, all right, I got to calm her down. I got to calm this person down and I need to make sure there's nothing going on in your personal life. There's a time and place for those kinds of discussions. It's not the middle of a workout.
All right. And I think we all can do a better job of controlling our emotions. I can't help it. That's a weak statement, you can't help it. And I think that one thing we could all do is separate your life from the 15 to 20 minutes, you're here to work. Because this can act as an escape for a lot of people, but if you let all these outside things come in and impact the workout, what is a coach supposed to do there?
Especially a lot, most people would come here. I don't know their personal lives that well. So another, do you guys, so how can you help that out? In addition to the mechanical stuff, for the pacing stuff, for the safety stuff, I think it could be the athlete's responsibility to know that no matter what.
You're in here to do that workout for that hour. All right. Not that we don't care, but we don't care about what's going on because we need to help you out. We need to focus on the workout. Not what's going on outside, 
Sam Rhee: [00:34:56] you don't have to be sunny, the sunshine, but having a positive attitude goes a long way for anyone interacting with you.
Like you're enjoying it. Yep. They're going to enjoy working with you. And as a coach, that makes all the difference. 
David Syvertsen: [00:35:11] Thank you everybody for taking the time out of your day to listen to the HerdFit podcast, be on the lookout for next week's episode.