With our second camp in the book and some time to reflect on how I think the rest of the camps moving forward will go I wanted to take a second to write down some things that have surprised me about both camps now. With 2 camps in the books some of these things are likely to become trends. That means the next camps moving forward are sure to be quite different from last year’s “Doomsday” tour.
Surprise Observations from the camps:n
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- More of the attendees are acquainted with the clean than they are the deadlift. Due to the extreme amount of exposure the Olympic lifts have gotten over the past 6 months and how terribly the deadlift is taught in CF gyms, many of the folks who are attending these camps know more about the clean than the deadlift. That does not necessarily mean they are able to perform what they know well but watching folks set up for the deadlift was eye-opening as compared to their setup and knowledge of the clean.
- The attendees are most interested in the programming and athlete management lectures as well as the outlier tricks each of the staff has for helping clients than they are in working out. Last year’s camps were full of people who couldn’t wait to line up and go head to head with everyone else in the camp. This year, they could care less. They want to soak up as much knowledge as they can so they can take it back with them to their gyms and clients.
- Having the five of the coaches at each camp, every time creates a consistency that was lacked last year. Not that the coaching wasn’t good last year but this year having the five of us work together each time and then review how the camp goes each week creates a much more consistently excellent camp experience. These camp are only going to get better as we tweak little things and perform them together more often.
- Lastly, the questions these attendees are asking are much different from the questions being asked last tour. Last tour, our Games athletes were asked things like, “what did you eat before your worked out?” and “what is your recovery at the Games like?” This go around EA is getting asked questions like, “If you could go back 5 years and tell yourself something what would it be?” and “What are your plans to address your weaknesses for next season?”
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nOverall these camps feel much more like a second tier type camp where knowledge is more the desired takeaway rather than experience. I love where this tour is headed.