Coach Kevin: Chopping Wood

Coach Kevin, born and raised in Dayton, shares his journey from high school basketball player to CrossFit coach. He talks about his college experience, his passion for fitness, and how he got into coaching. He also discusses his level 1 CrossFit certification and the eye-opening experience it was. He emphasizes the sense of community in CrossFit and how everyone, regardless of experience, starts from the same place. Kevin also mentions his participation in the CrossFit Open and quarterfinals, where he performed better than expected. He recognizes his God-given ability and his dedication to training and nutrition. And there we go. Bam. Live on. What's up? So this is another Center for Across the Conversation. This time, the one and only Coach Kevin in the hot seat. Kevin, please do us all a favor. Introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Cool. What's up? Kevin, Coach Kevin, Kevin Meyers. Born and raised in Dayton. So getting to come back here is pretty special. Born and raised in Centerville, actually. Centerville high school grad. Moved out to Pennsylvania. Would not recommend it. It wasn't a bad state. It's just cold all the time. A little bit worse than Ohio. Went to college out there. Didn't play any sports. Chose to go the school route. Got to volunteer some of my time with a cool organization while I was in college. Young Live, that same organization, worked for two years after college. Lifted, recreationally, you know, bench, fives. You just went to lifting, but you were an athlete. I was an athlete. I played basketball in high school. Probably could have played a college sport somewhere at the Division III level, probably. But didn't really have a desire to. High school basketball was really fun for me. Senior year was really great. We got to make a cool tournament run. I felt like what I wanted out of sports, I had gotten out of sports, and there wasn't a massive desire. Especially at the D3 level, you're not getting paid. You've got to love the sport. You've got to love the process of it if you want to play at the D3 level. So I was pretty content to go to college and kind of see what the Lord had for me. And lifted with some buddies. Ran a lot, actually. I did a half marathon during COVID. So I trained for a half marathon and ran it on my own, just around the neighborhood. I had a mile loop, just did 13 times. By lap eight, I passed the front door every time. I'm like, I could go in now. No one would know. I need a glass of water. Do you get snack times when you run half marathons? Can I stop in and get a Fruit Roll? I'm like, the clock is on my wrist. I'll just stop it. We don't have to count this time. I didn't take a break. It was just a momentary pause. So worked two years in PA after college. I remember stopping in one time. That's how we do it. One time into the gym. So I would drop in whenever I came home. So during COVID, I was a COVID graduation of college, which means that I didn't graduate. But it didn't happen. It didn't happen. And it's funny. My brother, Eric, he also is a member here at the gym. He's only a year younger than me, 13 months. We went to school together at the same college. He did play basketball there. He was a walk-on. He did not play any meaningful minutes in high school. And he walked on and was a starter and captain his senior year. I love to brag about that, because that's pretty baller. I don't know if I knew that. You show me willpower, I'll show you Eric. Eric's one of those rare breeds where if he doesn't care about it, he will not try. But if he does, I'll put every penny I have on him, because he'll get it done. Eric's got a grit. He'll get it done. He does. So we went to college together. 2020 graduation. Got sent home early. And probably like a lot of us, Eric and I, you're sitting on the couch here on Hulu. You see this Fittest and Redeemed documentary, and you're like, well, those people look pretty strong. Let's watch that. And it literally was like, we watched it, and we're like, oh my gosh. And we went to the Y a couple days later, and we did grace. We just loaded a barbell in a YMCA, and we're like guiding it down, because we're afraid to drop it. And I remember, we got, I think I got like 440 something. And I was rolling around on the ground, and I was sure I was like at death, like at death's door. And it's funny, because you have no concept of what's fast and what's good, but what I know is I just did 30 clean and jerks in my body, shutting down, like actively, as I'm laying on the ground. And so that was the first CrossFit workout we ever did. You have to like remind yourself how to breathe. You have to like, oh, in. And now, the second one was, I think the second one we did was a rower cows burpees over the rower workout. And Eric busted his shin on the first round of burpees, and it's like bleeding down his sock. But he knows what my time is, so he won't stop. I'm like, dude, you don't have to keep going. He's like, I'll beat you. And I was like, we're in this YMCA. There's 70-year-old men next to us, and they're like, what are you guys doing? Yeah, this is alarming. It's like crying and screaming and bleeding, and this nice desk attendant is like, yeah, still rowing. The desk attendant's just worried about whether Eric's going to get blood on the rower or not. So that was kind of our introduction, and then I would drop in whenever I was home, holidays or whatnot from Pennsylvania, and started to get to know you, James. And there was one time, there was a conversation, and I was like, hey, thinking about moving back, I'd love to coach CrossFit. I think that'd be a super cool way to kind of combine my passions for people and fitness. And you looked at me, and you're like, dude, get your level 1, and we'll talk about it. We'll find a spot for you. And so I signed up, and things came together. The Lord kind of put pieces in place to be able to get my level 1 at that time from a monetary perspective, and he put all the pieces together. And I remember going to get it, and it was like there was something about getting to learn that way about those things. It was so exhilarating. I learned for four years in college, and I have a finance accounting background. I have a passion for numbers, but not a passion necessarily for finance. But my passion for fitness met with people who knew how to teach fitness. It was like light bulbs. Things were going off, and I was like, this is so cool. I want to know more. I want to learn more. I want to teach more. So that was kind of the introduction to coming back, and then getting to start to, and truthfully, learning from some of the best coaches. I think the development over the last year has a little to do with me and a lot to do with the people I'm around, and the opportunity to watch great coaches do their thing, and pick up on little pieces, and to shadow Josh, and then to watch you coach, and watch Evan coach, and watch these people coach classes. I'm super grateful for the way it's all come together and the way it's happened. So you brought up something that I absolutely love, and it's probably one of my best CrossFit experiences. What's my level one? Oh, yeah. I have never met anyone in all the years that I have coached, all the years that I've been to the games, back in the day of regional events, I've never met anyone that had a bad story about their level one. It is a very eye-opening, to say the least, experience, because you put perspective around all these years that you've spent in the gym. And I think what's neat, too, is people that come from a more position of academia, that have done the exercise physiology, kinesiology degrees, they come in there, and they gain new perspective. And it's neat, because it's, especially on a coach's journey, it's your first experience of that cohesive community. People, all different kinds, colors, creed, race, whatever, doesn't matter who's in the room. Everyone is unified in the fact that they want to help people, they want to get better, and they want to have all the tools in place to get other people better, for life, totally. And that's the big thing. Oh, they're great. I mean, it's baseline, right? It's the why, it's the methodology. It's like, you see it on a grand scale. You watch the games, you watch these competitions. And then, doing CrossFit for 10 years, for me, that was the first time someone had taught me a clean. It taught me, it's like, I just watch stuff on YouTube and tried to nail it at the YMCA in the morning. So whether you've been doing it for 10 years, or whether you're just starting, everybody's fumbled and brought to the same place. Everyone uses a PVC pipe, everyone gets a med ball. They break the movements down to their most fundamental steps. It's just, it's really cool for everyone to be on the same plane. And I know that back in the day, it was a little bit tougher. I joke, they don't do Fran now, which I believe is like a trial by fire. But it's also humbling, because it doesn't matter if you've got a two-minute Fran or an eight-minute Fran. Man, by the end of the experience, you've done so many squats, like everyone is on the same page, the way you feel. So I started coaching here, Kevin's kind of sleeping on it a little bit, though. He hasn't really talked much about his athletic background. He's got basketball. He ran a little bit in college. Kevin is a pretty darn good cross-fitter. We just, I just watched him perform very well this morning. So what are you into now, besides coaching, like just kind of in the cross-fit sphere, like what are you up to? So I did the opening quarterfinals this last year with very little expectation. I thought it was a cool opportunity to be in a space where an Open should actually take place. I did the Open last year, and I drove like 45 minutes to this random gym to perform the workouts. And it was like a one-and-done type thing. And you pay the drop-in fee, and it was like, this isn't exactly the experience. So I was excited just to be in a gym with people I've been working out with for a handful of months. And did the Open, and did the quarterfinals, and I think I placed a little better in both than I thought I would. And I think that was the first time where I was like, all right, I like this. I'm going to do this. I think that was the first time where I was like, all right, there's definitely some God-given ability here. I think I'm at a unique point in my life where I can sacrifice certain things for the sake of sleep, and nutrition, and training. And you try to tackle each piece of the pie and say, hey, I want to give equal attention to each of these. And so for me, I just want to tap the potential. And for me, it's a one-year-at-a-time type thing. And I think if you try to commit to more than that, you're going to get very overwhelmed, and fatigued, and burnt out. So for me, it's like, after quarterfinals, I was like, we're going to do this for a year. And we're going to do it the best we can. And we're going to train. We're going to get the pieces done that need to get done. We're going to make sure that we're meal-prepping on the weekends. We're going to make sure that we're sleeping the best that we can. And there's going to be sacrifices that come with that. But the people around me have supported and told me that, hey, we see what you see. And so we'll support you as you try to make these. What are really minor changes that, when stacked up on top of each other, create big changes? Like, none of it is overwhelming in a 24-hour day. But to wake up every day and do the same thing, that's where it starts to get a little challenging. The consistency. It is the consistency. And not marginal consistency. Not, well, I'll do it really religious for these 14 days. And then I'm going to have to go have some fun. Yeah, that to me, that's it. I listened to a cool Matt Fraser story where one of his buddies came up to him and was like, dude, I want to do CrossFit. Let's do this thing. And Matt's like, cool, come work out with me tomorrow. So this dude, you know he's rolling up. And he's like, all right, four hours. We're about to get after it. And they did a 12-minute EMOM. And Matt was like, go home. And he's like, no, no, no, I'm ready. What's next? He's like, go home. Eat the way you eat, sleep the way you sleep, go home. Come back tomorrow, we'll do another 12-minute EMOM. He's like, come on, man, I can do more. He's like, you can do more today, but can we do more for seven days? And then can we do a little more for 14 days? He's like, next week, we'll do a 12-minute EMOM, and then we'll do a strength piece. And we'll do that for two weeks. He's like, if I give you too much too soon, you're going to burn out. You think you can do it, and that's cool. And you probably can for a couple days. I think the challenge for any of us is what's the marginal change we can make for seven to 14 days that is sustainable, that is repeatable, that then we can build off of? It's like that idea of, let's make a little deposit today, something that's a little different, that's better for us than what we were doing. And so for me, I think that's what's fun. It's like, OK, when I first got here, I was doing A class and maybe accessories. But that was a lot. I was tired. And now, up to three, four hours of training a day, anywhere from four to five pieces. But that didn't happen overnight. You have to gradually ease into that. No, and there's also a considerable amount behind that. There is a regimented recovery plan. There is a nutrition component that is maintained meticulously. It's always funny, around the same time, we hear the microwave beep. Gavit, that smells delicious. What is that? Oh, it's the same thing I've been eating for the last six months. It's just a different sauce. That's why you think it's different. It's that barbecue sauce. As soon as it hits, it's like, ooh. They were out of my level. So I'm in a season of, I like to call it just tapping the God, giving potential. And I think it's cool. There's not a destination on it. Maybe it's regionals. Maybe I qualify for this competition in Texas. I'm trying to right now. Those things will be cool, but I think the process is more important. And as we're talking about, with anybody in this gym, we're talking about healthy for life, right? So what are the habits that this place gives you that makes you healthy for life? Mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, whatever it is for you. So for me, it's the same exact thing. Wherever it goes is wherever it goes, but having that view, having the ability to maintain that perspective on the entirety of it. So it literally is your body of work. So understanding that the long-term goals, overall health, the ability to move when you're 80, that takes restraint and training. And I've seen you do it. When it's like, man, what's the risk-reward here? We've had a couple workouts on a Monday or Tuesday that they go pretty deep. And it's like, man, listen, I think. It's like those are overreaching goals. I've seen it happen that people believe that they've got to hit every single piece, every single day. And most of the people that go into that panic mode don't have the consistency to fall back on. So there's that sense of urgency. But it's been neat to see you train and have that 500-foot perspective on it and say, these are my goals. This is what I'm doing to get to my goal. And this particular step might be a setback. Sure. It's been neat. And again, your perspective on it, it's frighteningly fruitful. I mean, it's frighteningly fruitful. And I see you setting yourself up for wins. And I think a lot of people, they put these lofty goals there. And it's not like you said before about stacking pieces. It's about like, oh, we're going to throw up this wall. We're going to throw this. Now I've got a house. Well, there's work in there. In the minutia, you don't need nails. You can hold the boards together. Exactly. I was telling you the other day, in high school, my basketball coach, we had a retreat we went to. And a big matcha, first night of our basketball is chop wood. You see the axe everywhere. You'll see the hashtag on posts, whatever it is. So we went on this retreat. It was a bunch of high school dudes. And I remember, we wake up Saturday morning. And it's early. And he's like, throw your sweatshirt, throw your sweatpants on. If you need a hat, get a hat. Meet me at the woods. Meet me at the tree line. And we meet him at the tree line. And he hands us an axe. And he's like, the ones with orange tape are good. Go chop down a tree. That's all he says. And then he's quiet. It's like the next hour and a half. And you're just like, hit, hit, hit, hit. I mean, like hours. You're hitting this tree. And eventually, it falls. But it wasn't because some guy could hit it really hard once. It's because somebody could consistently hit it with the same intensity, with the same intentionality, over and over again, in the same spot, and say, I know that that hit mattered. I know that that hit mattered. It doesn't feel like it did, because it doesn't look any deeper. But that hit mattered. That hit mattered. That hit mattered. And then when you see the tree fall, it's like, dang. That was awesome. But it was a lot of the same thing over and over again that got you to chop it down a tree. That's powerful. So it's cool. It's cool. But again, you've got to believe that the little stuff matters. And you've got to be OK with the little stuff mattering. Like, what are the little wins? What are you holding on to? This is how you're chopping wood, man. Chopping wood. Chopping wood. Whoa. Oh, man. All right. Man, that's a little bit about Coach Kevin. Coach Kevin's a dog, by the way. Joking with him. We've got quite a few that are really getting after it right now. My standing joke is, I could beat you at Fran 10 years ago. Boom. Because you were 12. Because your hands were in front of the barbell. Got him. Can't lift 95 pounds, huh? Boom. Gotcha. Can't even jump up to the rig. Yeah. Can't touch it. Can't do it. So what we've got going on. We've got some neat things going on around the gym. Next week, bring a friend week. Love it when members bring friends and family in. It's like that automatic support system for the craziness of CrossFit. It's like the easiest way to say it. It's a cool experience. We've got some good workouts. Each one of the workouts has got five levels, so we can accommodate every injury, ability, level, whatever you can throw at us, we got you. And then, looking a little bit further ahead, Halloween party. There you go. On the 28th. I hear there's going to be some pumpkin carving. I hear there might be some costumes. I don't know. It's got to be all for sure. I heard rumbling. It's fun and games. Four to six, it's going to be family friendly. And then from six to nine, adults only. I don't know what that means. Uh-oh. Yeah, it's going to be fun. We're right about that time. Kevin, thank you for sitting down. Thank you for taking the time. Guys, we'll see you at the gym.