Live.Love.Lift

Get in the Zone (of Proximal Development) in Your Coaching

In learning theory there’s a concept known as “zone of proximal development.” It’s a lot simpler than it sounds and can make a big difference in how effective your coaching is and how your students learn.

3-3-3-2-2-2-1-1 Weighted pull ups

Max time L-Sit x3

WOD - teams of 3 300 wall balls - 30lb med ball 200 kettlebell swings 70lb 100 burpees

My team were the only ones to go Rx in my class and we were the last to finish in 28:17

It’s tough to not give a shit about what people think and even TOUGHER to deal with negative troll-like feedback.

It doesn’t matter how awesome you are, how hard you work, how you look or how much you try to avoid it: there will ALWAYS be those people. You can’t please everyone, so there will even be NICE people who don’t like you. There are also “haters” (I like to think of them as “walkers”, lol). That’s their thing. Nothing to do with you really. They were (re)born that way. Here’s a handy re-frame to deal with their words on your page or blog: “what are they ACTUALLY communicating to you?” And no, it’s not the words they are using.

1. The meaner their words, the stronger their current pain/dissatisfaction is with their own lives. Generally, people who want to ADD to the conversation, even when they disagree, can do so respectfully. Those who can’t help but use insults and colorful language, usually can’t or don’t WANT to contribute anything. They just want to be mean. Takeaway: not worth your time. Poor bastards. 2. The longer the comment, the more time they have on their hands TO comment. Busy people, even when they disagree with someone, don’t have time to sit at a computer to spew garbage. They reserve “comment” time for actual contributions/thoughtful debate. Takeaway: not worth your time. Poor bored bastards. 3. The more CAPS they use, the stronger their desire to be “heard”. CAPS are our way of emphasizing certain words where tone cannot be changed, but someone who uses all CAPS is demonstrating aggression and a desire to be heard (like they’re yelling). Dig deep enough, and you might find they might feel the need to “scream” in their own lives to be heard. Or anger issues they haven’t decided to tackle yet. Takeaway: not worth your time. Poor bastards with other issues. 4. Someone who feels the need to comment on someone else’s body, usually has a host of other issues at play (note: you can HAVE an opinion about someone’s body. The need to express it (or feeling entitled TO express it when not asked) , is a whole different can of beans). Feeling entitled to judge someone else based on their appearance - and doing so publicly - means you are lacking something VERY fundamental in your personality. And, assuming we put people down to raise ourselves up, commenting on someone’s body may directly correlate to body image issues of their own. Takeaway: not worth your time. Poor bastards who hate themselves.

And this doesn’t include Negative Ned’s, Debbie Downers or anyone else who NEEDS to rain on other people’s parades. It says a lot about THEM. Nothing about YOU. (How someone treats someone else is a quick way for me to unfollow a page. There’s constructive criticism. And then there’s troll like meanness. If we disagree, but it’s clear you’ve got a head on your shoulders, it’s likely I’ll keep your opinion on my dash).