I can’t take credit for that line. Brendon Collins, owner of Strong Tower CrossFit in Cleveland Ohio said it on an episode of Two Brain Radio. It’s the best thing I have heard all week. Not because it gets your attention and is a little bit twisted, but because it resonates with the mission we have at Friction Grand Rapids CrossFit. Don’t get me wrong we would love for you to build a thick abdominal wall and shed the body fat to show it but it’s not what coaching is about to us. That’s just the surface, literally and metaphorically.
We coach because we want to make significant change in the lives of our clients and members. The physical rewards are often what a new comer is interested in but through the process of achieving the physical growth they are accompanied by personal self improvements whether that be accountability to themselves for their own personal care, self respect, humbling themselves to grow through struggles leading to the ability to do that in other areas of their life or learning to appreciate themselves enough to separate from a toxic relationship that is negatively influencing their attitude and health. I won’t name anyone but those are a few anecdotes from our actual members. As coaches we measure that as our own personal success, not how many pull ups a client can do. Believe me, we are through the roof thrilled for you when you get your first pull up and we are gritting our teeth with sweaty palms as you fight to turnover your first muscle up. But, when we learn that we have been a conduit for the personal happiness of our people… well that makes our eyes well with pride for you and ourselves that we could be a part of something more than the score on the whiteboard.
So, for us as a business we don’t sell workouts or programs. We sell coaching. You may purchase a program that doesn’t have any in-person coaching, but it’s the engagement of a coach following up through text, email or phone call asking how things are going, what your struggles are and what things are going well that allow for growth. We want to know what those bright spots are so we can celebrate them with you. Equally, we need to know what stresses you have going on so we can help you work on them or around them. It’s the coaching not the workout itself that leads to substantial change. A little bit of human interaction goes a long way in making us better human beings.
I was once told you don’t get any better without talking. I didn’t know what that meant until I later became a coach. At the time I thought you could work and grind your way to making improvements. And you can, but it’s not fulfilling and it’s not sustainable. Worst of all it won’t lead you to becoming a happy person. That’s really all we want for the people we are fortunate enough to work with. We don’t take those talks lightly even if it starts with an acknowledging head-nod or check in text. It’s the start of the work that really matters to us and to you.