Attending the CrossFit Kids Course

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to attend a CrossFit Kids course held "home" at CrossFit King of Prussia. CF Kids is exactly what it sounds like: a fitness methodology to use with kids, ages 3 to 18. Since we hold multiple kids classes, plus Steve's Club at KoP, this was a very useful course for me to attend. 

the instructors, demo kids, and attendees

The four highly-qualified instructors included Todd Widman, John and Kelly Brown, and Aimee Lyons who took care of the 40 or so attendees. (Sidebar: I "grew up" watching old school CrossFit videos with Todd in them, so I was super stoked for him to be leading the course. A true OG.) For the weekend, we sat in lecture for about half the time and spent the other half working in small groups coaching each other on the movements and progressions for pre-school through teen age kids. (It's not easy talking in "little kid" voice to adults, but we did it!) The counselor in me liked learning more about the neuroscience and psychological side of CrossFit Kids while the CrossFit coach in me appreciated the time to practice instructing and learning new cues for movement. 

kid-sized pull up conraption

You'll have to attend a cert if you want to get all the dirty details, but I do want to share the main theme of the weekend: Pairing fitness with fun. And not just any fun, but BIG FUN. Kids don't want to "workout"...they want to PLAY! And the more we can blur those lines of "workout" vs. "game" vs. "skill work," the better. I think this can be applied to adults as well! Our adults like CrossFit because to them, it's play time! After "Fran," they may wonder why they even showed up in the first place, but they keep coming back because it's fun. (even if it's in a masochistic, self-loathing, I'm-paying-to-hurt-really-really-bad way) If we can establish a fun, healthy way of working out for kids, there's no way they're going to the land of LA Fitness when they grow up. 

One of KoP's awesome kids demo'ing the movements

Thank you to Todd, John, Kelly, and Aimee for providing great instruction and supervision, and thank you to group 4 for giving great feedback to hone our coaching skills!


(Next weekend, I'll be attending the CrossFit Football course, also at KoP, so I'll let you know how that goes!)

me, Megs, and JZ with the instructors + Chloe