This weekend I flew to Seattle for the Level 2 certification. I had originally signed up for one in Oct in Oceanside, CA but I saw this one opened up at the last second because someone canceled and I signed up immediately for it.
I am SOOO glad that I went. The first day was intense and nerve racking. The 3 coaches were big name CF guys. Chuck Carswell, Pat Sherwood, and Adrian Bozman. Day 1 was a mix of lectures, demonstration from the coaches and the majority of the time practice coaching in groups of 5 with 1 coach observing and tearing us apart.
The level two is about being able to teach the 9 fundamental movements (air squat, front squat, overhead squat, press, push press, push jerk, deadlift, sumo deadlift high pull, and med ball clean), manage a group effectively, have good presence and attitude, see problems, correct problems, time management, proper teaching progressions, demonstration etc.
The Certification has about a 40% pass rate and the coaches make sure to not let ANYTHING slide. While going through the teaching progressions you have to be able to see major and minor faults, correct those faults while keeping the rest of the group moving, bring someone to the center to show others how to correct the fault, drill in the most important parts of the movements, keep everyone going at the same time on your pace, and be relentless on form.
Day two was the actual test. We had 8 people per group. Volunteers from other affiliates came in to be test subjects that we coached as well as the other people taking the certification. Each person had to teach 1 squat, 1 press, and 1 deadlift. We were graded by each coach and then the coaches met together tallied the scores and then determined who passed or not.
I passed! I was so excited. At the end of yesterday I thought I had a good chance, but I didn't want to get my hopes up. All 3 of my coaching sessions went really well and they didn't really have anything bad to tell me in my debriefing. It was awesome. It felt great.
Even if I had not passed I still would have learned so much and it would have been so worth it and would have returned to do it again. But, I am glad I passed....
