This is a post from a good friend of mine, Nicki Violetti. She has a pretty awesome blog that she puts all the things she has learned in her 5+ years of running a Crossfit affiliate. The story she tells here is exactly why i am doing my seminar. I want people to understand why this is bad and how to fix it.
A friend and fellow affiliate owner recently relayed the following to me…and as obvious as it might be to you all that this is not the way to coach a class, this DOES happen….PLEASE don’t run your classes like this!
A few clients wanted to leave said friends affiliate and go train at another affiliate across town as they were offering unlimited classes for something absurd like $75/month. So, the clients switch gyms only to learn the truth in the lesson “you get what you pay for.” There were about 15 folks in the class. The workout of the day was 500M Row 5 muscle ups 10 handstand pushups rounds in 20 min. The trainer wrote the workout on the board, said 3-2-1 GO, and then cranked up the music. A couple of the clients were like “what if we can’t do muscle ups?” and the trainer responded by saying “just keep trying and do the best that you can.” The trainer then went to the corner to chat with the other trainers while the 20 minutes ticked away.
Excuse my language, but WTF? No coaching was given whatsoever! No modifications explained! Apparently there were folks in the class that didn’t even have pullups and dips…and they prescribe muscle ups with no explanation of appropriate scaling. When I hear stuff like this it makes me cringe!
The clients have since migrated back to said friend’s gym as they instantly recognized the value of the coaching and progression they were getting, as well as the interest in their development as athletes. COACHING…this is the service we provide as solid affiliates. It’s really the only thing…well that and a fun, solid community.
I suspect the reason these folks discounted their unlimited rate is the fact that their coaching is so shitty they can’t keep clients in their gym otherwise. If they don’t clean up their act…well, let’s just say people seek out quality.
While I haven’t exactly experienced this, I have experienced something similar. I’ve been wanting to get into coaching and wanted to get started by interning in my hometown at the local affiliate. However, I found that when I went in, it was a situation almost exactly similar to this. I walked in and saw a girl doing air squats with her toes pointed in and her heels coming up. There was another guy trying to do muscle ups with no coaching on the movement. Since I have a Level 1 cert, I thought I was in my right to at least offer the knowledge that I had gained through countless videos and from the technique Chuck Carswell taught me at a Level 1 in San Antonio.
It kind of sucks from a business standpoint for a variety of reasons.
Crossfit is a brand, and similar to something like Chili’s or McDonalds, sometimes bad service begins to be related to your brand. However, on a different note, Crossfit so far has a strong brand name. I just hope that affiliates like the one you mentioned don’t dilute the brand name and take away from great things like you yourself are doing.
Lastly, I met your father out at Hells Half Acre, pretty cool dude. I didn’t get to meet you, but hopefully if you bring a training seminar out to Texas again I’ll be able to attend.