Mates Watch 008 Class Experience Best Practices - a podcast by MadLab Business Group

While we focus a lot on the business side of being a Coach for Life, we do not want to ignore the class experience side of things! In this week’s Mate’s Watch, we’ll be talking about some of the best practices for delivering an awesome experience as well as what things to avoid all together. This podcast should be good listening for full time Coaches and part time Class Leaders as well!

00:00:30 why the class experience is so important
00:03:19 4 categories for classes, Technical, Information, Entertainment, Relationships
00:04:37 Technical
00:09:23 Look the Part, building trust
00:11:01 Information, the different types of learners
00:17:02 Entertainment – have fun
00:19:48 Ways to make regular workouts ‘fun’ (without embarrassing people)
00:22:44 Relationships
00:23:06 What NOT to do
00:26:20 Athletic backgrounds causing issues
00:27:59 Managers vs leaders
00:30:28 Relating to clients
00:32:33 Not ‘hooking up’ with clients
00:36:05 Don’t stick to cliques, be inclusive
00:37:08 Experience is the key
00:38:42 Focus on experience not time
00:39:43 Create a priority on experience, not time
00:40:11 Don’t over do each category



To improve coaching craft in classes:

1. Coaches come together weekly to talk about the programming and the plan for the rest of the class time.
2. Coaches really know the members and how to scale properly (and have ample ‘tools’ in the toolbox to attack problems from many angles).
3. The coaches know how to ‘read’ the workouts and make sure the stimulus is the same across all of the classes each day (and they ask questions when they don’t know).
4. The coaches are always stepping into people’s training to give corrections and feedback.
5. The coaches make sure that the hour is packed with good instruction, while being a bit entertaining, building relationships, and not making it feel too ‘rushed’.
6. The coaches have enough education to teach movement well. They have learned from multiple sources and when they encounter a new issue with a client, they seek out answers so they will be prepared the next time it shows up.
7. They give their full attention to the class, and they use everyone’s name at least twice.
8. The coaches make sure that every person got some coaching and is leaving the gym with an understanding of what they need to do to improve.
9. The coaches ‘look the part’. They dress like a professional (they wear workout clothes), and they take care of themselves (and/or can do the stuff they are teaching).
10. They make sure that the classes have some fun to them. They do fun games, keep the workouts interesting (making people combine scores to compare to other ‘teams’, they stagger people so people don’t know who will finish first, they use creative substitutions), they ask good questions so people bond, etc.

Things to Avoid

The worst gyms that I have seen come and go over the last 12 years have more than a few things in common:
1. Their coaches are ‘managers’ and not ‘leaders’. They just make sure everyone starts the WOD on time, that the music is good, and that everyone puts their equipment away.
2. The coaches don’t give feedback to the owners about the programming or client concerns.
3. Their coaches are focused more on their own training, and not the progress of the members.
4. Their coaches cannot ‘relate’ to regular people who don’t live and breathe the gym life / CrossFit.
5. The coaches look down on people and even laugh behind their backs when people struggle.
6. The coaches ‘hook up’ with clients and each other frequently.
7. The coaches stick to their cliques, and they don’t make the environment inclusive.

Next Steps
Print this list out and check off what you are currently doing. Work on adding 1-2 from each list every week or so from the ‘good’ lists, and eliminating - as fast as possible - anything from the ‘bad’ list. Check the list often so that you keep making progress and to ensure you aren’t back sliding.

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