Maintaining a beginner mindset is difficult.  No doubt you are accomplished in your life.  Maybe you are a parent, maybe you’ve risen to a high level of expertise in your field, maybe you are a teacher or leader in your own right.  You are the one calling the shots, setting the standards, being the boss.  How very difficult then to don the mantle of learner, to surrender yourself to the coaching of another, someone who may be younger than you, someone who may not yet have accomplished everything you have in life.

It is great practice.  On Monday and Friday mornings, I lead the Empower CrossFit group classes.  I am in my domain of expertise.  But on Monday evening kickboxing and Wednesday noon Jiu Jitsu, I step into the role of beginner.  Now I am being directed regarding standards of conduct, corrected in my movements and led by instructors who are usually younger than me, many of them young enough to be my own children.

And I am not new to martial arts.  I’ve been in the martial arts since 1980 and hold a second degree black belt in judo in which I have over 30 years experience.  Most of my instructors haven’t even been alive that long.  I was even a founding owner and instructor at Delta Kaigan Judo from 2005 to 2012.  I’ve been in the martial arts longer and accomplished more than many of my instructors.  But when I step onto the mats, I get to be a student again.  A learner. 

To be an effective learner, you must possess the ability to set your ego aside.  To open yourself up to the possibility that you do not yet know everything there is to know.  That you are not yet an expert in this domain. 

This gets harder the longer you have been doing something.  If you have been doing CrossFit for 10+ years you may fall into the trap of thinking that you already know all there is to know.  You don’t.  Or maybe you believe you know everything your coaches know.  Only, this cannot be true because we coaches continue to learn and deepen our understanding weekly. 

In 2005 CrossFit founder Greg Glassman wrote about virtuosity defining it as “performing the common uncommonly well.”  He exhorts us to avoid falling into the novice’s folly which manifests as “excessive adornment, silly creativity, weak fundamentals and, ultimately, a marked lack of virtuosity and delayed mastery.”

You think you know it all?  If so, you are mistaken.  When CrossFit Games veteran Katrin Davidsdottir first hired Ben Bergeron as her coach, she was already among the best of the best in the world.  What did Ben do with her?  For the next several weeks he worked on correcting her air squat.  That’s it.  He did this because Ben understands that virtuosity is the necessary foundation upon which champions are built.  For her part, Katrin had the humility to forget about all her previous squatting accomplishments and competitive achievements and took the coaching.  She would go on to become two time CrossFit Games champion.

Do you believe your air squat is better than one of the best in the world?  Do you believe there is nothing left for you to learn about this simple foundational movement?  If so, your ability to learn and excel will be curtailed by this misperception and it will become difficult to hear the coaching above the shout of your ego. 

CrossFit Vancouver used to have a sticker at the entryway that read: “Leave your ego at the door.”  It was a reminder to athletes at every level (and we had Olympic medallists, professional athletes, members of team Canada and CrossFit Games athletes training among us) to approach their daily training with a beginner mindset.  It’s a mindset that will benefit you too.  No matter how long you have been training CrossFit.  It may mean that you must surrender temporarily, your mantle of accomplishments, your professional expertise, your leadership roles.  It might mean receiving instruction from someone younger than yourself with less life experience.  Maybe even less CrossFit experience.  And yet, with an open mind, you might still learn something.  Because one thing is true of both you and I, we have neither of us yet mastered virtuosity in the fundamentals of CrossFit or life.

When next you step through the doors ask yourself, “Am I coachable?”

Friday Make Up Day  

1) Empower Reset#52
1 min Belly Breathing
30/30 sec Head Nods/Rotations

2 Rounds (1 min each):
Deadbugs
Glute Raise Hold
Table Hold

2 Rounds (1 min each):
Bird Dogs
Sit Throughs
Leopard Crawl

2 Rounds:
1 min Kneeling Hip Hinge
30/30 sec Side Planks
1 min unweighted alt TGU

A 5 Barbell Hip Thrusts
B 3/3 KB TGU Sit Up
A 5 Barbell Hip Thrusts
B 3/3 KB TGU Sit Through Drill
A 5 Barbell Hip Thrusts
B 3/3 KB TGU Hinge Drill
A 5 Barbell Hip Thrusts
B 3/3 KB TGU Windshield Wiper to Stand Drill
A 5 Barbell Hip Thrusts
B 3/3 KB TGU

3/3 Unweighted Gladiator TGU
3/3 KB Gladiator Get Up

2) 1 mile Run
300ft HSW
24 Power Snatches

3) 20 min AMRAP
15 Box Jumps
12 KBS
9 Ring Dips