Sunday, August 26, 2012

Coaching Kiddos

My initial goal when I pursued my personal training certificate was to work w/ women-particularly moms.  To help them recognize that taking care of your physical self not only nurtures your mental health, but helps you to take care of your loved ones & sets an awesome role model for growing children.

My goals have evolved over the last two years.  I still very much enjoy working w/ new moms, but have been approached by many other walks of life for advice.  It has helped me to recognize that fathers, and all others need to learn this lesson of self love.  Until you take care of you, you can't sufficiently care for anyone else.

That being sd, if we help instill this in our youth they will have no need to fix these issues in adulthood.  Funny as it is kids can easily learn these things.  Just as they can easily pick up bad habits from us-absorbing everything like a sponge, they can also take in positive behaviors.  Coming to this realization has lead me to work w/ kids.  What an awesome opportunity.  Guiding our children on a positive path.  Feeding them a healthful knowledge & providing them w/ a toolbox of items to take home and support their own self.  Maybe my words are too deep, or yogic, but you get the drift.

I recently went out to California to CrossFit Brand X, and obtained my CrossFit Kids Coach Certificate.  I am very excited to begin working w/ kids.  Previously I had worked in daycare, one of my tasks being a 3 yr old room Teacher.  So I had that bit of knowledge creating lessons plans.  Fast forward 11 yrs later here I am.

Currently I have taught 2 bootcamps to kids at Camp Summer Fun at the University of Michigan Flint Rec center.  They were two groups of about 20-30 kids aged 6-11 yrs.  Man was it a blast.  The kids had so much positive energy and excitement.  A genuine desire to do good work.  And then there were some kiddos that felt physically discouraged of their abilities & needed a lil more motivation.  All in all it was a good time. 

I have been coaching the neighborhood kids, including my son.  They do great work, and have fun playing games too.  These opportunities have been between 2-4 kids at a time.  Believe it or not the smaller groups seem to take more finesse.  The energy of the larger group is easy to keep going.  But keeping it fun is key, and knowing when to move on is important.

Last weekend I worked for Genesys Athletic Club leading dances, games and stretching at the CrimFit Kid's Invitational.  The groups of kiddos were as small as 2 kids to well over 100 kids at a time!  They loved the Egg on a Stick Game.  The Hokey Pokey was a flop, live and learn.  The Cha-Cha Slide went over well, would have been better if the sound system wasn't choppy.  Seeing the HUGE smiles of excitement as these kids crossed the finish line was worth FAR more than my paycheck.  They were filled w/ pride, and a strong feeling of success.

Coming up next month I am excited to announce I will be teaming up Joe & Liz at 810 CrossFit coaching CrossFit Kids w/ 2nd-5th graders. I will be coaching on Mondays at 5pm and on Saturday mornings at 10:30 am.  Joe & Liz will also be coaching CFKids on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday at 5 pm.  I have been given the honor of programming the CFKids classes at 810.  The classes will follow this format:
FUN-FUN-FUN
20 minutes of Study
3 minute Warm up
10 minutes of Skill Work
15 minutes of WOD (Workout of the Day)
10 minutes of a Game
2 minutes of Stretching
810's CFKids is being advertised in the Grand Blanc Football Publication.  Keep an eye out for it.  810 subscribers if you are interested in signing up your child for CFKids please contact Joe for instruction.  How awesome to be able to come for the 5 pm WOD, and drop your kid off for study and their very own WOD, too.  It will be a great time for all.

My next ventures are a couple of YogaKids workshops in September.  Stay tuned!

Here's to our youth!



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