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We sit down with the amazing Coach Josh. Josh has been with us for a while and the dude does a lot. He is an athlete and a coach that I have the immense please of seeing mature and develop into a great human!
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Details
We sit down with the amazing Coach Josh. Josh has been with us for a while and the dude does a lot. He is an athlete and a coach that I have the immense please of seeing mature and develop into a great human!
Comment
We sit down with the amazing Coach Josh. Josh has been with us for a while and the dude does a lot. He is an athlete and a coach that I have the immense please of seeing mature and develop into a great human!
Listen to Coach Josh: CCF Conversations by Centerville CrossFit MP3 song. Coach Josh: CCF Conversations song from Centerville CrossFit is available on Audio.com. The duration of song is 42:32. This high-quality MP3 track has 200.141 kbps bitrate and was uploaded on 12 Oct 2023. Stream and download Coach Josh: CCF Conversations by Centerville CrossFit for free on Audio.com – your ultimate destination for MP3 music.
Coach Josh shares his journey to CrossFit and how it helped him find a sense of community and purpose. He started CrossFit after gaining weight in college and feeling lost. He then faced a challenging time when his mom was diagnosed with cancer. Despite the difficulties, he got a job offer and returned to Centerville CrossFit. He initially had no intention of coaching but was encouraged by Jen Osborne. He underwent a rigorous observation period before being allowed to coach. He reflects on the importance of continuous learning and improvement for coaches. He highlights the differences between the Level 1 and Level 2 certifications and the need for experience in coaching. He stresses the importance of effective communication and creating a positive and engaging environment for members. Go chop down a tree. All right. There it is. We got it working. We're recording. What up, guys? Coach James coming back at you with another, yet another, Centerville CrossFit conversation. This time, very excited to have a longtime coach, longtime student, friend, and all around just a nice guy, Coach Josh. We welcome you, Coach Josh, to the show. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Coach Josh, you've been here for a while, brother. You've done a lot here, both in what you coach and also the varied volumes which you coach. We've got to understand, life happens too. And Josh has been through a ton of changes in his time here. And it's kind of neat. So the way we usually start these off, Josh, I want you to tell us a little bit about your athletic life leading up to CrossFit, kind of how you found this place, and what your mission is here. That's a very loaded question. There's a lot there. There's a lot there. That's what I do to people. All right, well, let's unpack it. Well, I came to Centerville CrossFit in 2019, late 2019. When I got out of college, I was sitting around 275 pounds, could put a 30-rack away by myself, and was very lonely and didn't have any purpose or drive or a job. And right down the street, there was a CrossFit gym. And when I was in high school, I used to run, very good at it. I got asked to run D1 schools. And I decided not to do any of that to party in college. And the result was I put on a lot of pounds and lost a lot of friends along the way. And CrossFit was the first time that I had felt a community aspect in a very long time. And it really brought me out of my funk. So when I started CrossFit, I actually was at CrossFit in fall, in May. And then I moved to Pennsylvania to be closer to the family. And during that time when I was in Pennsylvania, I got a call that changed my life. My mom was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. And at that time, my world was shattered. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know who to call. And so two weeks later, I got a call from a place that I did an internship with when I was here in Dayton. And it was a fellow co-worker. And he said, hey, the manager is asking for you to come in and interview for a position. Are you looking for a job right now? And he didn't know my situation. He didn't know what was going on. Two weeks after finding out, my mom had stage 4. I didn't know what to do. And hearing that changed. And I went, and I came, and I did the interview. Nailed it. They didn't even ask anybody else to come in and interview. It was because of the work ethic and the effort that I put in in the internship that allowed me the opportunity to be remembered. It was my job. And so I came here to Centerville, and I had no intention of coaching at all. I had no intention. And Jen Osborne was the one that even asked. She said, are you a coach? Do you have your L1? And I said, yeah, but I wasn't really thinking about getting into it. I have a lot of priorities going around with family. And she was the one that kind of brought me on. And Mitch was very, very particular about people coaching. You had to go through months of just observing. How many years did you say you had to observe before you were even allowed to touch the floor under Mitch? So when I first started, I was with Adam Rodgers. And I am pretty sure that it was like three months, and I wasn't allowed to say anything. I just couldn't talk. I had to stand there and watch. And I couldn't. You hold this PVC and stand there. No talk to members. No. No criticism. No feedback. No feedback. Just observe. Stand there. Yeah. And that's honestly how it should be. Yeah, so you go through that process. I can remember it. Keep going. Well, under Tutelage, under you and Jen, I remember coming to my first coaches meeting, where we get together and we go over what our mission is. And then we get into a circle, and we pick the best mover and the worst mover. And the worst mover stands in the middle of the circle. Oh, that's a circle. I know that circle well. And in that circle, you move. And all the coaches in the circle, they are giving you technique and skills. But it's so much, it's right in your face, and it is intimidating. It is. I remember walking out of it my very first time as a coach. James looked me dead in the eye. He said, you did good. You didn't cry. And I thought, OK, I just didn't cry. And James proceeded to tell me about how there's been previous coaches that it's tough sometimes in that circle to take criticism. And sometimes we don't look at ourselves, and we're so easily judging our members that we don't look inward. And so sometimes for coaches, that's hard to be in the middle of the circle. It is. It is. And I tell you what, that is one of the most beneficial and powerful things that Mitch ever taught me was the coaches development program and the fact that coaches have to constantly try to sharpen your sword. Because if we're not working on the product that we deliver to the members, the gym is slowly failing. And you might not even realize that it's happening. And those classes were modeled exactly off of level two. That's exactly what you do on your level two weekend and we do them once a month. We've got to sharpen the sword. But yeah, we've had coaches cry at those. I mean, I can remember my first level two, two coaches cried in the circle just because it's intense. And you have a very small amount of eyes focused completely on you. And then not only your movement, but when it's a coach's turn to call it, you second guess your feedback. And honestly, those reps have to be taken because that's how you perfect a craft. And as CrossFit coaches, sometimes we don't get critiqued. This is why I've been at gyms where they don't have coaching practice every month. This is a unique place where it's always been a priority since the day that I walked in. And still today, I am learning something from these coaches. My coaching is 100% different from the day I walked in here to how the Sunday classes are run now. I remember when I first started, I said too many words. I would literally tell people, books, just to say, get your stance wider. And now, and that's just one part of it. There's a lot of other things. I think also another part, I have loosened my amount of control I want in the class. Sometimes you can't control everybody and their movement and what they're doing. You just have to be open to letting this be the best hour of somebody's day. And that's not controlling them and telling them marching orders. You have to connect with them. You got to know what's going on with them outside of CrossFit. That's spot on. You have to know your audience. Now, as coaches, we always have the responsibility of making sure the movement is correct and people are safe. But beyond that, there are people that come in on a Sunday. And you can have a varied group of people. You can have two or three people that are here, and they are ready to absolutely get it. You've got somebody who hasn't missed a day all week, who is just like, oh my god, I've got to move because I'm sore. Sundays are a very dynamic, it's a very dynamic group of coach because you do have that. It isn't like a Monday afternoon coach. Everybody walking in there is like, hey, we're sending it. And this is one of the things that I think Josh does masterfully, is reading the room and really making a concerted effort to connect with every single person that's in there and to know who's in his room. Now, a couple questions. You said you have your level one. You also have other certifications. Yes, I have my level two. I had an email come to me two weeks before my L1 expired and said, you need to take it. And I talked to James and I said, I would like to go to Michigan, would you mind helping me fund that trip? He funded that trip. I went up to Michigan, came back and had my L2. And I remember sitting down with him and talking about the difference between your L1 and your L2. And what would you think the biggest difference is between your L1 and your L2? So L1 gives you the book, or it gives you the toolbox. Whatever analogy you want to do, it opens the door to you learning how to coach, learning the methodology, learning the application, learning the intricacies of the movement. And that's really where the journey starts. You've got to coach. And I think when we've seen this, people that go and get their level one and then they want to get their level two like two months later. It's like, yeah. And technically, almost anybody can get a level one. I mean, you pass the test, you got it. But it doesn't really mean shit. It's what you do with it. Now, the level two, and the classes are built that way, right? They tell you to take a POTS. They tell you, this is a five-year certification, so that you can have five years of coaching under your belt. And then when you go to the level two, you come with experience. And the more you coach, the more experience you get, not only from just seeing how members react to the things you say, but from feedback from other coaches, from your monthly coaching sessions, as well as talking with you. You pull me aside and tell me things all the time, and I appreciate that. So the purpose of it is to be prepared, because L2, it's all about the coaching techniques. Yeah, it is the craft. The craft, that's a great word. The craft of how do you tell people to move better with less words and make it more effective? How do you keep class moving, while keeping people engaged without losing them, and making it the best hour of their day? There's just so many intricacies that aren't covered in L1, that are in level two, but you then have to know your craft better. If you don't know your craft, you can't teach it. Yeah. One of the things that I, and I know everybody has their little catchphrases that stick, a cue should be concise and actionable. Boom, boom. Super easy, but that, in and of itself, is very, very powerful, because you even spoke to it about being too wordy. And we've all done it. Everybody's still doing it. Yeah, and it's one of those things, if you're not present with yourself, and checking in with the message you're delivering to your people, there's a problem with that. I mean, I can remember. I can remember. I see the smile on your face right now, because I only imagine where you're going with this. I can remember you going into a dissertation on a Sunday, and it was an air squad. It was a very, very open, easily identifiable call. But you wanted to go into the full anatomical breakdown of how levers in action move load over space. I can remember being like, dude, this is deep. Wow. I'm going to record and try to learn some of the stuff you talk about. But yeah, that short, actionable cue, for me, was one of the things that just sits right on the front of my brain, and I think that's a little too. What do you think you've learned from when you first started just sitting there and watching people to now? For me, like I said, I've slowed down. I have relinquished control of what I think is control. Those are my two biggest things I've learned since my start. What would you say yours are? So it's always the simple ones for me. You can only watch one person at a time. You have preached that one a lot. Since I've known you, you've said that. I love it. And I'll catch myself. I do it. I'm not above it at all. The coaches here, when I get the opportunity to drop into other gyms, coaches, they call a lift, and you watch them turn their head as people are lifting and scan the room. It's like you didn't see anything. Maybe you saw that one crazy, gross flaw that was like, all right, this dude's going to hurt himself. You can only see one person at a time. So do you find yourself watching people, the entire lift, more than you did when you first started? I am very intentional about my warm-up movements. I want to see, let's just say it's a deadlift. I want to see that segmented, I want to see you go from completely locked out, triple extension, I want to see that small hinge, I want to see you send those hips back, I want to see you travel to the knee. I want to call you through those positions, and I'm going to look at everybody in the room while we do it. So you're catching it early. You're catching it in the warm-up as you're going through. You have to, because you have to see who you can change quickly, and then who under load is going to become even more obvious and more dangerous, depending on what area of the body. Typically, we know the areas to look for. We know that we've always got to keep our eye on the deadline, always, always, always, always. You've been putting in the coaches that once you see it, you have to watch it, and then you've got to watch it again. Yeah, you've got to fix it. You can't walk away. You can't walk away, and we talked about that last month. You can't throw that cue like a dart and just piece on it. And hope it sticks. Yeah, and hope it sticks. You have to see if it works, because if it didn't, that's where you've got to go into the toolbox, and it's like, all right, was that verbal, or was that tactile? What did I say? How did it affect them? What changed? What didn't? You've got to be in it. It's one of the really cool things that I like about having more full-time coaches. I'm here, and I'm able to assist in coach classes. And I love when somebody's coaching, they're doing their thing, I'm not going to mess with their flow. But when people move, I'm in it. And I think that's one of the neat things about being here, is even when you're in class, you'll be like, hey, shoulders back. You know what I mean? It's the little things. People brighten up when you come out of nowhere. You're behind them, and you yell at them, you say, hey, get your head up, get your shoulders back. They didn't even feel like they were being watched. And somebody, a coach around, was just waiting to assist and help them out. Yeah, I'm hiding behind an Echo bike, watching. But you, all right, so level two. You also have another certification. What is that? I do have my gymnastics certification. Gymnastics certification. And this is, so I remember when Coach Josh came back from level two, and you were jazzed. You were jazzed about how you coach, what you say, timing, whatever. It was exciting. Everybody knows, if you're in the CrossFit space, and if you have any certifications, that when you come back from these things, there's a buzz. You have a buzz. And it does wear off. And it's the reason that we keep going for more certifications, to kind of relight the fire. But man, when Josh came back from the gymnastics certification, it was intense. Because you, like, changed everything. You were like, no, we are the core. Everything's great. Can you talk to us about the gymnastics certification, and why, like, what it was? Why it affected you? What was the deal? What was going on? Well, when I came here to Centerville, I was right on the verge of a scaled RX athlete. And one of the biggest challenges for me, being 6'4", was the gymnastics piece. But I loved it, because I love doing things that aren't in my comfort zone, that people tell me that you're not going to be good at those things. But those are the nitty gritty details that you have to practice. I remember me and Coach Emily, we would do gymnastics work after the 6 AM class. We would do little things. We would hold a tripod hold. And you had to build up to five minute holds. And the reason being is because in CrossFit, we practice a lot of motion. Well, motion's from A to B. We work on, hey, go to A to B. How do you get there? What we rarely work on is the positioning in A, and the positioning in B. The static. The static holds, right? And so the gymnastics piece, it just opened up a different view of things. It doesn't always have to be movement. You don't have to do a 20 minute EMOM of bike, handstand push-ups, and muscle-ups to be good at those things. You have to work on the small things that build your base. And you telling this story just reminds me, you always say, I can always tell when you're passionate about something, because it just changes. I remember when Dr. Luke first came, and my warm-ups were 40 minutes long for a 30 minute workout, right? You remember that? So the pinnacle of that, you came into the gym, and people are just painfully just sitting around, just, they're listening, they're listening. They're politely going through it. Apparently, somebody turned and looked James in the eye, and had a look in their eye of just, please, help. It's too much. Bring him back. When do we get to work out? It was good, it was good. But like you said, these classes, they just make you passionate about what you do. And the longer you're here, and the more you get to know these people, the more you want to give them. 110%. You did say something that I will correct. The classes don't make you passionate. You have to be passionate about it. The classes give you the tools that excite your ability to deliver the message more effectively. And that's what I think it is with you. When you get new links to try to connect people to their body, you're excited to share them. And what that certification did was it reinforced your already present knowledge base of there has to be foundations. But what you did is you took those foundational blocks, and you made them really smaller. And you got down to the minutia of movement. And it is true. If you can't hold your body in space, then why do you need load? If you can't handle your own body weight, you should not load. And you did. You got really good about that. And you mentioned the Sunday class. So Josh is a worker, man. This isn't Josh's gig. Josh is currently enrolled and pursuing his MBA. And coaching. And working. So tell us about that, what's going on in school. It's been a huge shift, because before my MBA, I was in here two, three times a day, not only coaching, but working out too. And a big mental hurdle that I had to overcome was, will people still appreciate, still listen, still be my friend if I am not the biggest, fastest, strongest in here? And what does my value stand for? So because I've had to step away from being here so much, because my focus has been on my family, my work, and the jobs that I have here. Coaching wrestlers, up-and-coming wrestlers, we'll probably get into that. And the Sunday class, I have found that time is very precious. And I try to give a lot of effort into it. And that mental hurdle has definitely been, I have felt more love and community from these people since I have stopped actually working out as much and doing CrossFit workouts every day. And I've really just started connecting with people, not about their fitness level, but outside. On Sundays, I've had the opportunity to go out to breakfast for coffee before and get to know people. And you couldn't even imagine these people's stories. You pass them by on the floor. You see them. You make awkward eye contact sometimes. You say goodbye as you leave. But you have no idea. Everybody here has a story. And I didn't even get to know that until I started inwardly looking at, OK, they don't come to me or they don't talk to me because I'm strong or I can lift weight or I can do 100 push-ups. They're coming to us because we're reciprocating respect for each other and love, a lot of love. And so that journey from starting school has been intense for a lot of different reasons. Yeah. Brought up a really good point about, I hear the term used, transactional fitness. I laugh when I hear it. We get a lot of people that shop, and they don't really understand what the product is, because you can't really judge it at face value. But the value that the community presents, when just talking about fitness, is insane. But when it bleeds out into life, that is where you see the lasting change. And one of the reasons, you are an incredible athlete. You do practice your craft, even though you're very busy. And you produce the amount of time that you coach. But I'd say that you've had the unique ability to still add even more value, which is cool. That's a neat thing to do. Like, oh, well, my capacity to actually be physically in the space has diminished. But the value you add has not diminished at all. That was a hurdle that I had to overcome. Yeah. And that's a lot to deal with internally. Because we all, I think, sometimes we put our self value in our physical physique. Yeah. Yes. And we are our worst critics. So we always tend to make the situation a little bit worse. Or the stormy day is a little bit rainier when it's in our head. You mentioned something I want to talk about. Besides just doing our Sunday classes, and doing a damn good job, and the Sunday classes are near and dear to my heart. Because I love a good Sunday fun day. I think you were the original Sunday coach that really made them great. They were some of the most insane workouts I could have made up. The only time hop you ever put on your Facebook is the throwback pictures. Yeah, they're nuts. Look how jacked everybody is. Yeah, Molly Zimmerlin was still around. Yeah, Molly's been here forever. Forever. She's an OG, OG. We get Phil Gallagher in a picture. Phil Gallagher was one of the only ones that was before me. Phil was pre-me. Phil was also a CrossFit Games sectional athlete way back in the day. What year was that? Dude, I think it was like 10. 10? 10. That made sense. 09 or 10. Yeah, it's great. I have the picture. It's good. So besides the Sunday class, what else you got going on? Because this is super cool, too. Well, part of picking up school was my time commitment cut a lot. I looked at what classes and what else back do I want to have at the gym. And I decided, and I told James, it was a very heartfelt conversation. I remember being so scared because we were low on coaches at the time, and I was doing a lot of coaching. And I came to James, and I said, for me to give my best and my all, I need to cut my classes. And everything that I thought he would say, he didn't say any of that. He just looked me dead in the eye and said, I want the best for you and the best you can give. And I said, I would like to do the Sunday classes, and I would like to help out with the Building Bridges program. And the Building Bridges program is for kids that have had a tough road. Sometimes they don't know what path they're supposed to be on, and sometimes it leads them into trouble. And these kids are getting a second chance by being with Building Bridges, which gives these kids an opportunity to be part of activities and get to do work. They get paid for these hourly, even though they're being watched very heavily, they are being given the opportunity to do things with other kids. And so one of those things is they get to come here to the gym and work out. But beyond just them coming out and working out, is we get to provide food. We get to provide a meal for them. And they don't always have the supplies at home. So thanks to you guys, we have been able to get on a food train, have somebody sign up to bring a meal. Beth has brought a lot of great meals. We've had the, and I'm sorry, I'm blanking on names. I appreciate everybody that has brought out meals, because they've been spectacular. And we then make goody bags so that they get to take home the food as well. So we just have a lot of resources for these kids. And it's very moving. Yeah, so the Building Bridges program, we've done it. I can't forever. Obviously, we had to stop when we had our shutdown during COVID. And after I took ownership of the gym, we got it going as quick as we could again. Back strong, the kids that are in the program have all been involved in the juvenile court system somehow. And this, honestly, is a second chance. And for a lot of them, it's their last chance. And I handled the classes for a long time. Actually knew that there wasn't anyone else in the gym that I would let do them but Josh, because I know the way that he is with people. Connected with the kids. First day. It is a powerful program. It is run by one of our members, the Honorable Gerald Parker, who I'm sure we will have on in the very near future to tell us more about it. But it is. It's a neat program. And we've seen, you see the kids evolve. And it's so neat to be able to offer them experiences outside of the small bubble that they live in. And some of these kids come from horrible circumstances. And hey, it goes back to what you said before. Best hour of the day, man. Best hour of the day. They walk in. Sometimes they're not in the best of moods. But they always walk out in the best of mood. We actually had the opportunity to go to a concert with some of them. And halfway through the concert, the artist was professing a lot of feelings, a lot of hurt, a lot of pain that he's gone through. And on the way home that night, these kids just started opening up about their lives. And it was everything I had not to choke up and cry right there, because we have so much and we don't realize it. We don't realize other people's pain. We don't realize what they're going through. We are so wrapped up in our own that it's easy to get lost. But these kids are a testimony of just a hard, a hard economy. They fight every day. They fight every day. Man, we were, man, I remember a class. We're working out. Kind of starts to fade out a little bit. I'm like, hey, man, you all right? And he's like, yeah, I'm getting a little dizzy. It's like, what'd you eat today? And nothing. When was the last time you ate? Tuesday. It was Thursday night. Yeah, so we love building bridges. We do a lot with them, man. We just had a 5K. That was a smash. It was great. We had a lot of people out there. Yeah, it was a smash. I mean, I think we had close to 20 people, just from the gym. A lot of kids involved. Got to meet some kids that haven't had the opportunity to come to the gym, but that are part of the program. And they all talk about it. Did Danny tell you what happened? No. So Danny and I are running down the 5K, and we see Kristen out in the distance. We go, we're going to catch her. We're going to catch her. So I start speeding up. We still have about a mile and a half left. And I go, Danny, this is our chance. I'm going for her. So I run up, and I go next to her. And Danny's just hanging out in the back. So I'm running with Kristen, and apparently I picked up the pace too much, because she started slowing down. Danny comes around the corner, zips by us, and finishes. Kristen is losing it. She is mad. She thinks that we pulled one over on her, that we did a Ricky Bobby, a little shake and bake. So that brings up another good story. That's not the first time that's happened to you, is it? To me? Yeah. What are you talking about? Didn't another coach that coaches here pass you at the finish line once before as well? It's happened a couple times. I remember the Open. I remember when you beat me in the first time we did the handstand walk. But that wasn't fair. Your mom came, and mine didn't. Yeah, I had power. No, I'm talking about in high school when Coach Jimmy passed you at the finish line in that race. Yeah, apparently when Jimmy and I were in high school, we did the Ohio State cross-country meet together, and we had no idea. And when you look at the time sheet, it shows Jimmy Charles passing me by 0.4 milliseconds. And I remember that day so clearly, because I thought, who is this guy that just breezed behind me at the last second of his race? It's my senior year. I'm not really caring. This guy just breezes by me. I thought, man. And it turns out, what a jerk. It turns out that was Coach Jimmy. So the takeaway from this story is that I used to be 0.4 milliseconds slower than Coach Jimmy. I want everybody to remember that. Oh, I didn't think about it like that. That's a good play, Josh. And we still had about the same size difference back then as we do now. Coach Jimmy's got gas, dude. He runs. He is fast. And he went on to the college level, too. And he kept dropping that time, too. 0.4 milliseconds. 0.4 milliseconds. Put it in the book. But I'm not a runner anymore. I'm actually training to be a wrestler now. Actually, since. Let's talk about this now. All right. So Coach Josh, Sunday Fundays, right? Building bridges. There's a third. Tell us about the Coach Josh Killer Wrestling Academy. Well, we talked about change and the unknown. And this was definitely a path that I never thought I would go down. And three years ago, we had an inquiry about a high schooler wanting to do some strength training. He was a wrestler. And he had gotten, I think he had had first or second at state as a freshman. And the dad knew Amanda Barnhart. And Amanda said, I train at Central CrossFit. So they came in. We sat down, me, James, Aaron Campbell, and Bodie Campbell. And Bodie went to Legacy Christian. And he was one of the top wrestlers in the state his very first year. His second year, we trained. And he didn't do as well. His junior year, he actually tore his shoulder at state and got eight. So we're to his senior year. He comes into the gym after his surgery. He can't do anything. He can't do anything. And so I'm here, calm, cool, collected in person. But I'm freaking out, because I don't know what to give this kid to be his best. What do you do? And what kind of came out of it was we talked more. We talked more. We got to know each other more. We talked about funny things, like how many geese he could fight. And we also talked about serious things, about the reasons for life, and our past, and how they shape us, and to deeper things. And when state came around that year, Bodie was not stronger from his year previously. His PRs were significantly, 20, 30 pounds less than they were. And he was still struggling with shoulders. And somehow, he got second at state. The mental game was right. The mental game was there. I ran into his parents in between matches. And they said, Bodie comes home in a different mood. He is happier. He is lighter. There's just something that's just washed. And he's relaxed. You gave him space to fall in love with training. That's what it was. But you, what's funny is I hear you say that. And I'm like, oh, we just stood and talked. You guys were moving, too, though. I remember I was watching. It was the way that you did it. He did. He fell in love with training. And he even wrote a letter to me afterwards and just said that same thing, that he did weightlifting because it's what he thought he had to do. But he fell in love with the process. Yeah, he's a great kid. He is now currently repping The Ohio State University on the wrestling team. Ohio State University. I hope to go to a match this year. There's no way unless you can hook me up with some Penn State tickets. You got a guy over there? Thinking? I can get tickets for the Cavaliers. OK. All right, fantastic. So now that Bodie's moved on, we actually have a new wrestler. He barely made the podium last year at State. And this year, his goal as a senior is to make that podium. So it's been a unique opportunity to just work with young men that are very ambitious and have dreams and get to know them and just offer them space. Yeah. Man, it's been neat. And especially Bodie, just because it was such a long time frame where he was training in-house, watching that transformation, watching good things happen to good people, too, is another obvious bonus. So this was not the journey when I first walked in here years ago. This is not what I expected. It takes another twist. It takes another twist, because in the process of this, Josh has also found jiu-jitsu. That is because of Bodie. Or I don't even know how it happened at this point. Basically, the story goes that some member here, can't remember who, convinced me that I could beat him in a jiu-jitsu fight based off my size alone. And so I asked James, because James goes to jiu-jitsu. I said, where do you go? He said, S&G. Showed up to S&G, trained a little bit. Bodie and I rolled before we went to Ohio State. And he tapped me so fast. The worst part was the text message he sent me afterwards of the tap. It was just a tap. And I had to text him, what is that? And he's like, that's you. You're a tap. This gets cut deep. It cuts. It does. Man, that's a lot. Who knows where the next step's going to be. That's one of the coolest things about CrossFit. We fall in love with the journey, and we just understand that the road changes. Did you expect, when you were standing there silently behind a coach, not able to say something that one day you would own the place? 100%. You knew then? How'd you know? I knew it. I knew 100%. I can remember, I worked with Dan at a place called GlobeTech. And Dan came to work one day, and he's like, dude, I found something. I'd always worked out with Dan. We'd go to LA Fitness or whatever, stupid gym. And he's like, let's go CrossFit. He's like, dude, you're going to go with me after work. All right. I was like two classes in, and I was like, oh, this is horrible. I love it. I had been a member here for three months, and I told Mitch I wanted to coach. And he was like, dude, no. He's like, do CrossFit for a year, and then, if you think you still want to coach, then we'll talk about it. We did. Went and got my level one. Started the process. Knew very early on that if it wasn't this place, that there would be another one. Had the opportunity a couple times to open up other gyms. Didn't. For the simple fact, I didn't want to compete with Centerville CrossFit. This is where it was for me. So it just happened. It just happened. Now we're here. As you grow the business, and you bring in coaches, and you ask more of your coaches, what would you want to see more from me as I continue on? Because as of right now, I think I'm the most tenured coach on the staff right now. 100%. What would be the number one thing that I would ask for you? Because you offered me the opportunity to do what I thought would be best. And I want to know, as I continue on, holding my values, holding what's best for this gym, holding what you think is best, how can I make this place even greater? Keep going where your heart leads you, and just let me know where that is. I understand that people have to walk different paths, and people need to come, and people need to go. But one of the biggest things that I'm sick of is people leaving and being shitty. So tell me. Tell me what's going on. Tell me where you are. Tell me what's up. Tell me where you need to go, and if I can help you, I'll help you any way I can. I have come to you happy. I have come to you upset. I've come to you with every emotion in the book. And I think you match me right where I'm at. You never bring a different emotion. You don't bring the opposite. You meet me right where I'm at. When I'm mad, you get mad right with me. When I cry, you've cried with me a couple times. When I'm happy, you're right there with me. That's probably something that I appreciate as you as a notary, because no matter what level I give, I know that you support me, because you see the potential in what we can do. I learned very early on that you can't control people, but you can try to surround yourself with people that have like and similar values and goals. And beyond that, I mean, what is control? But all right, I digress. That's good, too. That was only 40, just a little over 40 minutes. Hope you're still interested. Hope you had fun. Hope you get a chance to take one of Coach Josh's classes, because you won't forget it. Thank you, Coach Josh, for everything you do, everything you've done, everything you will do, and just thanks for being a friend. Um, guys, we'll see you, Jim. Thank you so much.
