25 Jan CFWilmington 10/20/Life Seminar
Crossfit Wilmington’s Strength for a Lifetime Seminar
I love these seminars. I love hosting them. I love attending them. These seminars are some of the best things we can do as athletes to get better and as coaches to help give back. This one has to be one of my favorites… so far, because there are more to come!
When I found out Tony was hosting one of Brian’s seminars, I immediately knew I was going. I’ve been up to Crossfit Wilmington quite a few times and enjoyed it more and more every time. The atmosphere and comradery they have is unmatched. Along with Tony and Brian, Beth, Byrd, and Paltos were going to be presenting as well. With such an amazing line up of coaches, the hardest part would be absorbing all the info they’d be giving out.
My Friday started pretty early. I got up to get dogs out for a walk and get my stuff together for the weekend. Due to weather storm that the east coast was having, Scott’s initial flight into Wilmington was cancelled. Since I was headed up to anyway, he got a flight into Charleston. I picked him up, and we started the trek north. It was a fairly easy drive. Traffic wasn’t bad despite how awful the weather was. I only almost killed us twice. Or maybe three times, I don’t remember. It was just funny that mid-sentence Scott would just utter, “we’re dead.”
Safely arriving at Crossfit Wilmington we hung out with Tony, Byrd, Brian, and Melissa for a bit. Brian and Byrd were tweaking Tony’s pull and little while Melissa was doing some crazy Crossfit stuff. Crystal and Wayne were watching their boy, Morgan, crush a couple big clean and jerks. Beth was moving on to her bench work. After settling in, I started getting some warm ups in while Scott berated Kimmie before proceeding to have her log clean and press until she saw stars. Kimmie only threatened us a little before falling in and getting her work done. We all cruised through a pretty tough workout, quickly wrapped up to get to the hotel to get cleaned up before meeting out for dinner. I stuffed myself with what is a typical dinner for me. After a long day it was straight back to the hotel, pass out and hopefully wake up in enough time to get some breakfast before the seminar day.
Saturday morning started off with intros from all the coaches. You can read about them in their logs but it’s a widely diverse group. Topics were going to be pretty awesome. Brian did a quick survey around the room and most folks were really interested in getting to the hands on portion of the seminar. So after going through the 5 principles of the 10/20/Life philosophy we moved to the hands on portion for both the warm up and the squat. This is one of the coolest parts for me. Most just don’t take the McGill Big 3 seriously enough so when we get the chance to actually show them to folks and the light bulbs start going on, it’s awesome to see. Learning to be and treat your body like an athlete 24/7 is one of the most important things we can emphasize. After the warm up Byrd and I paired up to help a group break down the 5 principles of the squat. Byrd has this unique ability to tell you that what you’re doing sucks but you’ll thank him for it. An amazing coach with a great eye, so I was fortunate to hang in that group. Again, lots of light bulbs lighting up and it’s pretty awesome to see squat technique change drastically for the better within a matter of minutes. It never hurts that the group we were fortunate to work with were extremely receptive to everything we were tossing at them. It was a lot of info in a very short amount of time, but the whole seminar group, not just our group, took it all in like sponges.
After a brief break for lunch, we were back discussing some nutrition topics. Crossfit Wilmington has it lucky that they have Tony hammer into them nutrition over and over and over. Without too many questions there, it was back to the hands on portion for some benching. For as simple as just laying down and pressing can be, this is a highly technical lift. Most of the attendees quickly caught on though and really started to understand what tight was and how everything should really feel. Same as with the squats, lots of light bulbs going off and subtle tweaks making big differences.
Wrapping up day one with some dinner with good friends, it was time to call it a night and get some rest before day 2. The second day was just as much fun. After a brief review of Saturday we moved on to the deadlift hands on portion. Working both with sumo and conventional pullers, it was a good time talking them all through both. It’s always a good idea to learn how to pull in the opposite stance. Whether you need it for an assistance exercise or in one case, you might actually be a better puller in the opposite stance.
Coming back from lunch, I slid over to the group that was learning the Olympic lifts. Brian and Byrd took some of the attendees off to the side to talk powerlifting with those that weren’t as interested in the Olympic lifts. I was relieved to know that my rudimentary understanding and knowledge of the Olympic lifts was fairly accurate. Don’t ask me to demonstrate them but I can help with them. Scott, as always, was his highly charismatic self, making learning these lifts a lot more entertaining than they would have been otherwise.
As we wrapped up the seminar, it was interesting to see what people had learned and still what questions were left by the end. It’s always difficult to put to question anything when there is so much to be absorbed and processed. The group was outstanding. I was impressed with who was there and how much they really learned. Not all of what we taught was easy but you could definitely tell that all left being better athletes and with more knowledge than before.
I’m extremely honored to be amongst such amazing athletes and coaches. I’m also very humbled by the folks that come to these seminars. They have a desire to learn and a passion for getting better that few others do (or they’d be at these seminars). The attendees are a huge reason why I strive every day to be a better coach. One, so that I can be better. Two, so that I can provide better instruction and help others. It’s one thing to be great. It’s another thing to pass on great knowledge. The idea is to do both.
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