We had to discontinue the 5-lift course at the beginning of 2013. At the time, nobody was teaching the barbell lifts and I was asked continue teaching. I don’t teach what I’m not qualified to. I train Olympic weightlifting: that doesn’t make me an Olympic weightlifting coach. I never taught the Olympic weightlifts. At this point, coach Andre Giongo and I sat down and decided to offer a basic “strength concepts” and barbell practice weekend course. The students in the first course asked us to spread that content into more courses: it was too much for only 20 hours.
This first version branched out into four courses: The basic foundations of Strength, Movement segmentation and assistance exercises (partials and other barbell exercises), Strength and stability: assistance exercises (with equipment: bands, chains, boards, etc) and Periodization. Each one was a 10 hour course and we offered two in a weekend, always at our friends’ Crossfit boxes. Since lots of people came from out-of-State, usually we had the same students in each “pair” of weekend courses.
During 20 hours, we had time for one-to-one training and attention. Not only we had the opportunity to “learn” different bodies and their response to coaching but we also learned to adjust the content to the students’ needs.
The more I taught coaches and coached students, the more I was convinced I would never write a “method” book. My textbook on strength was published and I understood I was done with that. More than another method, my students needed strong conceptual and practical foundations to respond to their work demands.
Teaching these courses made me a much better coach. A much more flexible, cautious and observant coach. Each class was different and with that, I improved my skills on “reading” individuality in people and teams.
If you can’t read that, you can’t coach.
