A weekend with the Combined Strength Group – SFN Expo 2016
SFN Expo 2016 – Expo Overview
Following a superb weekend up in Glasgow with fellow Combined Strength Coaches (Andy Mackenzie, Tom Morgan, Joe Stoker, Brian Milligan and Rob Clark) at the SFN Expo I thought it would be good to write a short post covering the weekends demonstrations, talks and most importantly Boomerangs (check out Instagram for them)!
The weekend kicked off at 9am on Saturday morning following a few coffees and decent breakfast at the Village Hotel. We all met at the venue, to find that the Origin fitness demo area was ideally situated near the doors between the strongman and Crossfit events. One of the best aspects of the weekend was the willingness of so many people to step up and get involved, and hopefully take away some useful tips and drills to help develop their own technique or even their coaching skills as there was a good mix of fitness professionals and the general public in attendance.
For most of the Coaches presenting from combined strength, it was their first time giving live demos on this type of stage, and it was amazing to see everyone stepping up, and delivering exceptional content to a very receptive audience and receiving some great feedback! I know that I went from being fairly nervous about stepping up and delivering my first presentation ‘Breaking down the Squat ‘ on Saturday, however once it was underway it was a really enjoyable experience and I definitely looked forwards to presenting ‘Progressing the Muscle Up’ on the Sunday.
This weekend really re-enforced to me the need to regularly step out of your comfort zone in order to progress and develop. As a result of this, my presentation skills have definitely improved and also my desire to continue developing and delivering coaching to the highest level possible! This transfers really well into training as well…as in order to progress towards your goals, you need to be willing to push yourself and try to lift that weight you don’t think you can do, or set a goal that you are nervous about. Step up, and just do it…as an absolute worst case you will learn something from it. Best case – it goes brilliantly, you surprise yourself and you’ve achieved something you didn’t think you could do. That is probably one of the best feelings there is!
Across the weekend as a group we delivered talks and demos on the Origin demo stage, both main stages and in the Sisterhood area, where a Handstand workshop lead by Tom was very well received and I think everyone taking part was surprised at what they could accomplish when a fun and progressive system is implemented without any pressure or idea that failure is a bad thing. Use it to learn and keep trying…you will be surprised at what you can achieve!
Hopefully there will be an opportunity to head back up to Scotland next year and Present again, hopefully with a larger area and with more of the coaches able to make it so we can really have a helpful impact on a wider range of people! If anyone was at the Expo, I’d love to hear any feedback that you have and please feel free to get in touch with any questions that you have as a result of the demonstrations!
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