The CrossFit Training and Education team is excited to release Coaching Fundamentals, a new online course specifically geared toward coaches who are early in their career and eager to develop their skills and proficiency in the six criteria of effective training: teaching, seeing, correcting, group management, presence and attitude, and demonstration.
“Initially the course was for trainers who had just completed their Level 1 and just got a ton of information about the concepts and the methodology of the CrossFit program. It was designed to give them something that they could do right out of the gate that would help them with the practical application of how to train people inside an affiliate,” said Chris McDonald, CrossFit Seminar Staff Trainer (CF-L4) and creator of the course.
In addition to the six criteria for effective training, the course also addresses scaling, and feedback and assessment, critical skills for CrossFit coaches. Coaching Fundamentals is meant to help develop coaches’ skills even before they start coaching inside an affiliate, McDonald said.
“It’s designed for those people who really need to learn how to teach movements, see movements, identify and correct faults, and write out lesson plans. It’s designed to give them more hands-on practice before becoming a trainer inside the affiliate.”
While the main audience for the course is new coaches just beginning their journey of continued education, the content is valuable to seasoned coaches, too, and can be used as a tool to refine existing skills and processes that they have developed over time.
“There are specific aspects of being a trainer that can be developed — specific techniques and a framework to effective training,” McDonald said. “It’s the continuous refinement over time of these ideas that will lead to coaching virtuosity.”
The Coaching Fundamentals course is a hands-on experience for the user and while the content itself may only take a couple of hours to read, the practical application inside the affiliate is where the most value is. The course offers the coach a workbook full of various exercises to be completed while coaching themselves or others in an effort to pair real-world coaching experience with what they’re learning in the online modules.
Coaches are encouraged to use the course in three ways:
- Self-study. Study the course content and use the drills and worksheets in everyday coaching sessions.
- With a friend. Find another coach who also wants to take the course and use one another to practice drills and techniques throughout the course.
- With your employees. Are you an affiliate owner? Choose one module, drill, or worksheet per month to review with your coaching staff in an effort to encourage continued education and development in your trainers.
Coaching Fundamentals is also an excellent prerequisite for the Level 2 Certificate Course as it gives coaches an introduction to those techniques before they dive into the Level 2, making the jump from Level 1 to Level 2 a little less intimidating for newer coaches.
“Coaching Fundamentals is really kind of a stepping-stone from L1 to L2,” McDonald said. “A lot of the Level 2 is about learning coaching techniques.”
The recently announced Certified CrossFit Level 4 Coach credential is the mark of an expert coach — Coaching Fundamentals is an early step toward success for coaches aspiring to be the best. CrossFit is working to provide an outlet for the coaching community to have access to a professional pathway, and continued education courses like Coaching Fundamentals offers a chance for inspired coaches to pave their way by familiarizing themselves over and over again with CrossFit’s core concepts and methodology.
Coaching is like music, McDonald said.
“There’s a million ways to make great music, but there are some common core concepts — like everybody needs to be aligned on their timing, you need to play in the same keys, and so on — and then you get to add your individual flavor to those structures and frameworks. Coaching is the same way.”
The Coaching Fundamentals course costs $70 and coaches will receive two CEUs for completion.
Introducing the Coaching Fundamentals Course