Get to know your coaches- Plentus

1      How long have you been doing Crossfit?

                  My first workout was five years ago on January 31, 2008. It was in grad school and in the school gym I did a mainsite WOD. It involved deadlifts, handstand push ups, pull ups, and thrusters. I scaled everything a great deal and was still dying. It was awesome. A year and a half later I joined KoP with Ditty and started coaching shortly after that.

2      What certifications do you have?

                  CF Level I, CF Football, CF Kids, USA Weightlifting. Also attended oly lifting clinics by Natalie Burgener, EC Synkowski, and James Hobart and nutrition seminars by Robb Wolf and Whole9.

3      What future certifications do you want to get?

                  I’m not concerned as much about a piece of paper as much as learning for the sake of learning. With that said, I’m heading to PaleoFX in March 2013 for a paleo nerd-athon with coach Laura and I think listening to and learning from Louis Simmons could be very cool.

4      What are your favorite things to coach?

                  Any barbell lift, olympic or power. People see that I’m a small guy, so they assume I like running and gymnastic stuff, but I dig the heavy stuff much more, probably because little guys aren’t “supposed” to be strong. There are so many nuances and technical things to see and correct and I think people like seeing improvement with lifts because you either make the lift or you don’t.

5      Why do you like coaching?

                  I like coaching to see people succeed. When they have that “lightbulb moment” whether it’s lifting or nutrition or gymnastics or whatever, it’s awesome to see. When people do things that they never thought possible, that’s very cool for us as coaches to witness. Many CrossFitters have never done olympic lifting, powerlifting, gymnastics, etc, so CrossFit acts kind of like a gateway drug...a GOOD gateway drug.

6      How would you classify your style?

                  It depends on a lot of things; I’m not going to coach 3 people doing snatch work the same way I would 25 people doing Fran. You need to read the class and figure out what they need. Sometimes that’s a goofy coach who makes jokes to lighten the mood and other times you need to be more serious and keep people on point. This goes for individual coaching, too. Some people love to get yelled at and others hate it. I just had one member “shush” me recently during one of her sets of backsquats: lesson learned! Across all scenarios though, I believe the biggest role  of a coach is to “see and correct” and I try to work on that constantly. Anyone can throw a workout on a whiteboard and run a class, but seeing and correcting is what separates “coaches” from “facilitators” in my opinion.

7      Other interests outside of Crossfit?

                  I can read a lot, but nowadays it’s mostly blogs and information on the web rather than books.  If I find something I’m interested in, I’ll research the heck out of it and try to know as much as I can about it. I also just got into photography about a year ago, so I am working on those skills. Travel is awesome: Cambodia, South Africa, El Salvador, Peru, Iceland, Italy, Croatia, and Slovenia have all been great...trying to figure out summer plans! I also really like movies. If you haven’t been to Movie Tavern, make it a priority!

8      What are you top 2 Crossfit goals for 2013?

                  To rehab from my shoulder surgery and just get back in the game with more consistent workouts. I haven’t done a pull up in 7 months and I think it would be awesome if I could physically do one at all!

9      Favorite Crossfit memory?

                  An obvious one would be competing in Regionals last year. Danny and I were in the first heat of the first workout of the weekend and the energy of the place was just electric. But I would also say back at Transaxle, we were just goofing off with muscle ups  and finding a max box jump. Someone yelled “just tuck your knees!” as if it’s that simple. Thanks, I’ll just tuck my knees for this 53in. box.

10   What's your "day" job?

                  High school guidance counselor - specifically for college and career. I had been a civil engineering major for almost 3 years before realizing I needed a more people-centric job. Both counseling and CrossFit have helped fulfill that realization.

11   What would you be doing for exercise without Crossfit?

Shake Weight.

12   Favorite cheat foods?

                  Give me ice cream and I’ll do a magic trick: make it disappear!