Author: Rob Shearer

Laura and I are very transparent.  

We don’t waste time with smoke and mirrors.  

We are old enough to be honest without fear. 

This leads us to an openness with gym members. 

We will share everything, and we enjoy discussing the front end and the back end of the business. 

Let’s talk a little bit about the role of a coach. 

Your Coach is not your cheerleader.  

Cheering each other on will always feel better anyway. 

Your Coach is not your motivator. 

Real motivation will always come from within. 

There are four parts of a coach’s job 

In order of importance: 

Safety, Service, Show, Efficiency 

Safety: 

This is the primary reason that the coach is there. 

Rule number 1 at CrossFit Bothell is maintaining the integrity of the movement.  

This is for safety and efficacy. 

While you are lifting, or in a WOD, your coach is watching you. 

They will always modify a movement or a weight, if something looks unsafe.  

This is unequivocally their most important job.  

Notice the rules in the wall.  

Leave your ego at the door. 

Listen to your coach. 

Service: 

It takes a heart dedicated to service to be a good coach. 

This is not a job. 

This is not a hobby. 

This is a passion for serving people. 

I never used to get this one.  

I did not understand.  

Some people are born with this drive as part of their nature. 

Some of us develop it later in life. 

Good coaches want you to succeed,  

and derive pleasure from your success. 

Show: 

Let’s admit it 

Your coach is in front of a group of people. 

Those people can be participants 

Or hecklers 

They listen intently sometimes 

And act like 5th graders sometimes 

Coaches are putting on a show  

They will make this the best hour of your day 

Play along 😉 

Efficiency 

This is a balance.  

The gym is a business 

You are getting very personalized training in a small group class 

The Coach’s role is to be efficient and effective as they help you 

What is that one thing that you need to hear today? 

How can they give you the perfect cue for your lift? 

How can they brighten your day with one comment? 

They get to see you for a small part of your week 

But they will make the greatest impacts in that time 

Where are you? 

We want to know. 

We miss seeing you at the gym. 

Maybe you only missed a few days in a row.  

We noticed. 

There are the excuses that we tell other people. 

My meetings ran late. 

The kids needed me to drop them off. 

I did not sleep well last night. 

Traffic was bad. 

And there are the deeper reasons. 

No one will notice if I skip just this once. 

I feel awkward there and don’t perform well enough 

I don’t like the WOD 

I don’t need *that* workout 

I am burnt out. 

But why are you coming to the gym in the first place? 

To look good naked? 

To feel better every day? 

To be able to climb the stairs without getting out of breath? 

To hang out with the community? 

To become a better, faster, stronger athlete? 

To be better than the “me” of last year? 

These are BIG reasons, these are important reasons, these are powerful reasons. 

Let the power of your intent defeat the tedious excuses.  

Consistency is the most powerful tool you have to achieve your goals. Come to the gym. Move. Do something.  

You can come in and row for 20 minutes and go home if you have to.  

You can come to the gym and talk to the coach about what hurts, they will help you with ideas to work on it, then you can go home.  

Just take that first step. Once you are there, you will feel better that you made it that far and there will be no guilt hanging over you later. Then maybe, just maybe, you might just jump in on that WOD after all… 

Many of you know that I was an avid long distance runner before becoming a CrossFitter.  

I spent twenty years of my life fine tuning my training regimen and diet to optimize for long distance running performance.  

Very early in my running career I was deeply inspired by a mantra from Dr. George Sheehan:   

“We are all an Experiment of One”  

As an Engineer/Scientist I carried this mantra into every aspect of my life. It added variety to my training, and enabled me to push beyond every limitation I found.  

When I quit running marathons and spent time in Triathlon and Weight training, the same mantra applied.  

Now, after six years of CrossFit, I can tell you that the theory applies even more than it ever has. 

We are all different. 

We all have very different bodies,  

very different responses to stimulus,  

very different reactions to foods,  

very different psychologies,  

very different schedules,  

very different backgrounds,  

and very different goals.  

CrossFit is about pushing you and testing you. Body and Mind. 

We experiment with different programming, and we experiment with different nutrition. It is constantly varied not only to provide differing stimulus, but also to help you find the best option for YOU.  

There has been a lot of research on optimal fitness, but none of it was performed on you. OK, maybe a few of us did some wild experiments in college, but those don’t count … I have some great stories from my days in Biomedical Engineering in college that I’ll share in another post.  

The CrossFit Bothell community is a unique mix of people. This is why we don’t just follow main site WODs. The programming will be catered, as best as possible, to serve THIS community, OUR people.  

You are an experiment of One. Take an active part in this experiment with us, and help us adapt it to your needs, your body, and your goals. At CrossFit Bothell, you are an individual, and you will receive personalized, attentive, caring coaching from a staff that knows how to help you optimize for your goals and your body where it is at today. They will help you modify and scale down, or up, based on YOU. 

You are an experiment of One. Come in and try something new.  

I have been in both. 

I am in both right now. 

The principles that make one successful apply to both worlds. 

People get frustrated in one and think the grass is greener on the other side. 

It’s not. 

The grass is still full of weeds, and you have to fight and work the same either way. 

If you are a person who thinks and behaves like an entrepreneur, you will act like an entrepreneur in either world. 

Don’t blame your environment. 

Take responsibility for your reality. 

We have heard this question over and over since we took over ownership of CrossFit Bothell. Usually asked in the short time between CrossFit classes, or by our non-gym friends and family. No matter who asks, it is usually with big, wide open, eyes and a look of pure disbelief and shock. Are we crazy?!?!? 

Our lives were already full. Laura and I already work well over traditional full time hours at our “day jobs,” and we have two teenage daughters with their own activities that we attend and cart them around to. It’s not like we had a bunch of free time that we were looking to fill.  

What we did have was a desire to give back to the community, and to take advantage of a new opportunity to serve the people who we have grown to love as family. 

The latter part deserves a little explaining, because I was just as surprised to realize it, as those of you who know me may be to read it.  

Two years ago, while I was judging a member in our gym during their open WOD, I was struck with a powerful realization. I love these people, and I care deeply about their achievements… I was floored.  

I am not known for being a sensitive guy, or being any good as a care giver. If you are sick, I’m the last guy you want to be taking care of you. I’ll tell you to “Suck it up Buttercup” and toss you a puke bucket. What I am, is very protective of the people in my community circle. I care deeply about the  longevity, health, and fitness of the people close to me. I am a fervent believer in the constant quest for improvement at all ages, across all domains. I am convinced that CrossFit is the most flexible, adaptive, method to improve physical fitness; providing balance between life, family, and fitness; and extending healthy life beyond “old age.” 

I also wanted a business to run. I have been studying small business for many years, and I have been leading successful teams of people at my day job for even longer.  

Laura and I are overly ambitious. We have always found that we can take on a just a little bit more. We have been itching for something new and different for the past year. A new learning experience, an investment opportunity, a way to give back. 

I have a general rule in life: Whenever something is scary and exciting, and I don’t really know what I am doing … I jump in. Both feet. With commitment and drive. This has never failed me, and now I just can’t help myself. When this opportunity came up, we did not labor over the decision; we just leapt. 

CrossFit Bothell just *felt* right from the first day we visited three years ago. We have grown to love these people more than they probably know. With talented, dedicated, coaches and an incredible blend of amazing members in the community, we have confidence that we can keep CrossFit Bothell serving the larger community, and growing it to have even greater impact. We also trust the members. We trust you to help us by telling us when you see something that needs attention, and trust you to be patient as we figure things out. 

In short, we are excited by the opportunity to give back to the community that has given us so much over the years. We are here to serve you. Help us help you. Tell us what you need, and we will do everything we can to help. Tell us where you can chip into help your fellow members, and we will bring you into the circle to give back. CrossFit Bothell is a fitness community. That community is here for each other, let’s carry the torch forward.  

Sometimes innovation involves recovering what was lost 

Corner bars, human connection, accountability for your words, integrity 

Bringing people together based on common goals, ideologies, and interests instead of random chance of co-location 

But we are missing some element of connection.  

Is it the physical touch? Only a little 

Seeing their reaction to comments so that you can get an idea what they really think? Largely 

Is it the speed of interaction? Partially 

Is it the random interactions? 

The unplanned conversations? Some of my best times were unplanned  

Is it just looking in someone’s eyes and feeling a connection even in silence? Yes! 

The joy of watching someone’s body language. 

The sexual tension 

The unknown. 

Real conversations have to have the opportunity to happen, they build up and happen after many other discusstions  

They can not always be planned 

Sometimes we have to talk, then go our separate ways to think, then come back together 

This has to be enabled and free to happen 

How do we make safe conversations and let people come together to talk? 

They need to be nurtured 

We need the personal animation and hand/body language 

Group conversations where some can observe. 

Allow people’s personalities to come through 

Democracy is the best government option that exists in the world today. 

Lets concede that point. 

Does that mean that we should leave it alone? 

Does that mean that it can’t be better. 

Those who are successful know that the same level of thinking and same behaviors that got them to where they are, will not advance them further. 

Are we happy with the world around us? 

Don’t we still want to improve? 

I am not happy with the status quo. Maybe that is the problem. I think we can do better. 

I am only concerned that things have to collapse before people will be willing to make a change. 

Great leaders will inspire followers in their own time and beyond 

Great leaders will know what drives their people and will target their message appropriately 

MLK and Jesus both drove people to follow them. 

Do I believe that Jesus was the one of the great leaders of our time, just like MLK 

He knew what the people needed, and he gave it to them. 

He  knew how to communicate, and took advantage of the time and the situation. 

A perfectly reasonable end to a means 

I wanted to personally explore how I felt about this article. Should we not allow embryos to continue, or just cure them after they are born? 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/breeding-out-disease-with-reproductive-genetics/

Should we limit suffering? 

Should we do everything that we can to extend life? 

Should we remove a child’s struggles so that they can focus on their contribution to the world? 

Yes, I’d argue vehemently so.  

Should we be selecting only the best embryos?  

Should we filter mental illnesses? 

Should we “fix” things like autism? 

For these, I don’t think we are ready to make the call. Our capabilities to detect and control the human body and mind is unfortunately slightly ahead of our ability to predict the impact of our meddling.  

I will always drive to advance human capability and science’s ability to improve the human condition. I also recognize that we may normalize ourselves and kill off future advancement if we are not careful. How many brilliant scientists were children who would have been identified as deficient? How many ideas have been borne out of human suffering? 

Should we really tame the human experience until it we are all the same? Sanitize our genome and remove the disturbing variations? 

It is too early, and we are far too ignorant for this. 

One day, we will all have the capability of being everything and anything we choose to be. We will be able to choose the experience causing the right pain to trigger the poem we feel lurking inside. We will be able to suppress our hearing and sight so that we can experience the world through heightened touch and sculpt the graceful flow of love that we feel in our heart. 

But until then, some of us have to accept who we are. Accept what fate chose us to be. My request to you: push against your limitations and help build the world that allows us all to break through. 

When I was in high school, I read a book of poetry titled “Some Men Are too Gentle to Live Among the Wolves.” 

I still clearly remember the feelings I had and the effect that this book had on me. It made me realize that it is ok for a man to have strong feelings.  

Empathy is not a bad thing. 

There are people in the world who will try to take advantage of you because they will misinterpret caring for weakness. 

Men can be gentle and strong at the same time. 

I am firm in my commitments and flexible in how I deal with other people. 

I have learned over the years how to be myself, and succeed because of it. 

Empathy can be a superpower. 

Those who know how to read moods, emotions, and needs can control both their own and others. 

This is my source of power. 

I know myself, and I read others. 

I wrote a children’s book when I was in high school called “Edmund Learns How To See.” This book was about a boy who lost his sight, but gained the ability to “see” peoples auras. He was then better able to communicate with people once he could see them more clearly.  

This ability to see who people really are, and what they are feeling, is a very underappreciated skill. 

We forget how to really see people and work with them directly. 

We live in a world where decisions are rarely logical and technical, but we try to force them to be so. We have forgotten that it is relationships and communications that make the world really turn. 

This leaves us frustrated and exhausted at our ineffectualness.  

For as long as we are still meat-bags in the wild, we must maintain these connections to make progress. 

The complexities of the human experience is still beyond our capabilities to describe or define.  

We must go through our lives learning every day how to better work with the people around us.  

What does this have to do with coaching? I’ll let you decide.  

To me – it means that it is ok to care.  

To me it is the difference when we are coaching between seeing if someone is hurting or *hurting* during their workout.  

When someone pushes themselves physically, you can see their soul as they fight their demons.  

Does the athlete need to be pushed, or nurtured? 

A good coach knows the difference.  

We are watching over you, and not just checking your squat depth.