Teaching the ropes.
You have found the perfect candidate for your open coaching position (or at least we hope so – but firing will be an article in the near future), now its time to train them.
Training is an integral part to getting your coach on the bandwagon and learning your gym pholosophy and inner workings. So lets break apart some ideas on training valuable coaches.
Shadowing.
There is no better way for someone to learn the ropes than to have them shadow your current best and brightest. Shadowing is a long process with three phases.
First your new hire will literally just shadow you and/or your best coaches. This will allow them to get a better grasp on how you teach the lifts, what PVC formations you use, the ways that you cue others and the general class flow.
Phase two is when your new hire actively participates in classes, helping members reach range of motion, giving cues when their tecnique is out of line and leading a small portion of the class, such as mobility or skill time.
The last phase is when your new hire leads the class, while you our your top coaches shadow them. This is the time to tweak any last details. Make sure you like how they run all aspects of the class from timing, warmup, strength, metcon, stretching and breaks – everything has to be perfect.
Before they are done with the shadowing process they should be able to lead the class with absolutely no input from you or your top coaches, they should see every ROM and technique issue and properly address it. When this happens, they are ready to be on their own!
One on One Training.
Another way to train your new hire is one on one. This would be done when members are not present (since otherwise it would essentially be shadowing). This is a great way to go over:
- gym rules
- cleaning schedules
- where certain cleaning and office supplies are located
- back end web programming
- member intake
- phone and email etiquette
- apparel to be (or not to be) worn
- schedule of in house training days (if applicable)
Certification Training.
CrossFit offers a variety of training classes for certifications. Your new hire should already be a Level 1 certified instructor, if they aren’t you need to get them into a program ASAP. You should address this in the hiring process deciding who will pay for certs, will it be you funding their trip? Are they on the hook? Or is it some mixture of the two?
If they are already a L1 coach you can consider sending them to get their L2, the coaching seminars or specialized certifications like gymnastics, kids or Olympic lifting.
This is a great way to train your new (and existing) coaches, especially since there is both a hands on and written portion to obtaining the cert.
Thats our ideas on training a new hire so they fit in perfectly with your affiliate! Next up, developing skills in your coaches!