How to Become a CrossFit Coach

A career as CrossFit coach or personal trainer can bring a lot of purpose to your life. The fitness industry is incredibly competitive with everyone vying for people’s attention, but even in this oversaturated market, I rarely encounter a trainer or coach who I would send my parents to. The good news is the market is not oversaturated with quality coaches and most coaches have the capacity to be great. The reality is most personal trainers, group fitness instructors, CrossFit coaches, etc. just don’t get it. They can say all the right things but until they understand that our role as a coach is not to get the clients results from their program, but our role is to have a profound and positive impact on our clients lives, they will be limited in their success. Ironically, this subtle difference of our why gets our clients better results. Perspective is the key to rising above the rest in this industry. There are many certifications out there, but there is a lack of practical training for coaches by people who get it. My clients, even the elite athletes I work with, send their parents to me. The elite athletes don’t think I am going to train their parents the same way I train them and even though we have never talked about how I would train their parents, the perspective I bring to their training has developed a trust that I will bring that same big-picture perspective to everyone I work with. I want to teach you not only how to become a better personal trainer, CrossFit coach, or group fitness class instructor possible, but how the right perspective will boost everything you do.

The MovementLink Coach Development programs are designed to help you gain practical insight and training that will fast-track your career.

*Please note that this program is in no way associated with CrossFit, Inc. To obtain an official CrossFit certificate, you will need to attend at least CrossFit’s Level-1 course. The MovementLink program can be completed before or after any certification course you decide to take and is intended to boost your abilities as a trainer and not to certify you. In the program we’ll discuss the value of certifications and which, if any, may be right for your journey.

MovementLink Coach Development Packages

Developed over 10,000+ Client Hours

Got Questions or Ready to Get Started?!?! Just let me know!

Workshops are available for either Virtual or In-Person training!

Pricing and more program information below…

Seminar and Package Pricing:

Most workshops are available for either Virtual or in-Person training!

In-person Only: Bodyweight Exercises, Barbell Exercises, Cardio Exercises, The Coaching Experience

Ask about adding a Follow-up, Hands on Workshop to each of the Career Development or Individual Add-on Seminars!

The MovementLink workshops are designed to build on one another, but can also be completed a-la-carte if you’d prefer to take it one workshop at a time to start with the area(s) that most interest you. Each workshop will run about 1.5-2 hours long and I will work with you on scheduling and we can do these broken up as individual sessions or combine sessions together to whatever fits your schedule and preferences best. Contact me for a-la-carte pricing.

Payment Plans Available

To be a successful coach, just like most things in this life, you don’t need ANY background, just a genuine passion and a growth mindset. I have been in the industry since 2008 and have interviewed hundreds of coaches for coaching positions at my gym and I hire based on Outsiders Barbell: Home to CrossFit City Limits’s Core Values and if the Coach Gets it, Wants it, and has the Capacity to do it. Out of the hundreds of resume-qualified, good coaches, only an extremely few get it and have been hired.

What is there to get? Mostly, it is what the role of a coach actually is. A coach’s role is to elicit positive changes with their clients. A coach understands that if you tell someone a hundred times to do something a hundred different ways and they do not do it, the coach failed, not the client. Most of the “coaches” I interview love to workout and think it is super cool to work in a gym. The issue, is some are confusing being an athlete themselves with being a coach. A great coach needs to not only be proficient as an athlete themselves (at least at some point in their life) in the lane they are coaching to have a full understanding, but understanding of technique and basic nutrition is just the baseline pre-requisite. If you are a friendly human and have that baseline, you meet the minimum requirements to be a good coach and this is where 99% of people I have interviewed stop. Even if they knew everything there was to know about technique, movement and mobility, programming methods, etc., that part only makes up about 20% of what it takes to be a great coach. Most of the attributes and knowledge that push a coach from good to great coach span any industry: psychology, leadership and culture, management, business strategy, and sales and marketing are all secondary to the ability and desire to learn.

Almost all the coaches I interview are extremely confident that what they think they know is correct and therefore are doing very minimal professional development to seek out and fill their knowledge gaps, correct misunderstandings, keep up with current research, resolve their coaching weaknesses, and just add to their toolbox. Let’s look at the Dunning-Kruger Effect, a psychological phenomenon that happens to people with low ability and let’s look at how it is impacting intermediate coaches.

As you learn something new, the methods, principles, and theories behind how you coach seem very black and white. Unskilled coaches have an over-confidence issue. They assume that they are experts because they have trained many people for many hours. Within their bubble, relative to the people they are training, they know a lot, but relative to the wealth of knowledge available out there in the world, their actual expertise is extremely low and their perspective is very limited. Some just don’t get it and because they feel like they have it all figured out, they are not actively trying to grow.

As coaches, we are not done learning…ever. There is endless information on movement, mobility, technique, sport transfer, injury prevention, rehab, workout recovery, nutrition, sleep, lifestyle, phycology, sales and marketing, managing a team…I could keep listing, but the list of topics that can improve your career as a coach and a human being, much less the content within each topic, is practically endless. You don’t have to know everything, but we do need to distinguish between what we do know, what we think we know, and what we don’t know to have a realistic perspective on our abilities and to develop ourselves.

I attend seminars, work with coaches and physical therapists, read books, listen to podcasts, and frequent training how-to videos and online courses on any and all topics that may be related to coaching. I do this 1) because I am genuinely interested and 2) every little bit helps me develop my perspective and toolbox to help people. Even things I ultimately dislike or think I’ll disagree with provide value to me in perspective and testing my theories. I know how to squat, but I still watch YouTube video after YouTube video on people talking about how to squat because I know I may hear something said in a way that helps me connect with my clients. There is not one right way to squat. Soccer players, Competitive CrossFitters, everyday CrossFitters, Olympic weightlifters, powerlifters, and parents all have different training goals and so the way they workout should match the context of their life and goals. Being exposed to different coaching cues, perspectives, and styles helps me test what I believe. It’s all about context and perspective and that is gained by viewing yourself as a lifelong learner.

What I have learned is that it’s not about being right, it’s about being less and less wrong. There are things I told clients and coaches in my first few years that I was 100% certain of at the time and today I adamantly disagree with what I used to think. What I’ve learned is to not dismiss ideas, listen to questions being asked, learn about the opposing view, and never stop learning.

I love working with the interested and open-minded. Those who understand that there is so much to learn and those truly looking to better themselves. Those who understand that I do not know everything, but and extremely curious and love sharing what I have experienced over the years of owning CrossFit City Limits, being the head coach and programmer, running specialty programs, giving seminars, and being an online coach. I am always excited to take people through the MovementLink Coach Development Program to share with them my methods, why I do and say the things the way I do in classes and in personal training, and provide the behind the scenes look into opening a gym, managing a gym, workout programming, and all the fun stuff! Coaching is about inspiring change. It’s not what you preach, it’s the result. In the program I also provide you guidance on building a career as a coach and the perspective of the people potentially looking to hire you at their gym and exactly what they want to hear! I’d LOVE to work with you!