This week my eyes have been opened to different motivational methods and communication to teens. Kids are easy, they take praise, stickers and high five – teens on the other hand are so different.
One of my teens class were focusing on front squats this week and one really struggled. This teen is confident and full of smart sassy comments but his larger than life personality took a nose dive when everyone else was storming ahead with their front squats.
He was frustrated and with pent up frustration comes failure. Taking the barbell away and going back over the movement with a pipe – he lost all interest. I struggled with this as a coach I couldn’t let him use the bar for his own safety yet his confidence was dissolving faster that snow on a hot day.
He’s a teenage boy and all boys want to do is compete with the boy next door – lift heavier no matter what. I gave him a kettle bell to do goblet squats so that he was still using weights and didn’t feel ostarcised. He slowly worked his way up using heavier kettle bells until he got to his one rep max.
Two things were highlighted to me. First being that the goblet squat was actually a lot better for him and improved his squat movement, he was more up right, as he could not obtain an upright front rack position which caused him to tilt with an empty barbell. Secondly how fragile a teenage mind is.
As adults we are happy, mostly, to scale appropriately. Teenage boys see failure if they are not with the pack. Even though this kid was doing super goblet squats – his heart wasn’t in it and for that class he was all out on motivation. Anytime he was praised he rolled his eyes is dismissal.
I left that class feeling rubbish. But for next class I have picked a skill that I know he will be good at to pick him up of the ground and get some sass back. Teenagers are an entity to themselves – they don’t appreciate much chat, they don’t want you to be their friend, they just want to get on with things.
I posted on our Facebook page ‘ The expert in something was once the beginner’ to remind them that they are doing great. CrossFit is hard, you don’t do it overnight. Just like gymnastics or any sport it takes constant practise. As a coach I’m learning everyday and striving to do the movements I have difficulty with. Convert that to a teenager and it is lost in translation! At the end off the day this kid succeeded his squats were so much better then using a barbell but the teen mind cannot compute this as a positive.
It’s a balance between motivation and safety. Safety came up trumps and motivation will be on cards in the next class.
misadventuresofametconmum 