Sectionals fell by the wayside, and I arranged to take the USA Weightlifting level 1 coach certification with Jenny (also known as the Werbanator, Werbasaurus Rex, or Werbie Goes Bananas). We earned our certification, and, thanks to her excellent technique, she was drafted to California Strength's club team. We started taking a private lesson once a week with Diane Fu at San Francisco Crossfit. All of this came in handy when I spent last weekend at Crossfit Balboa talking Coach Burgener's Olympic lifting certification.

We started with Coach letting us know what was expected of us. When asked if we understand him, we were to answer loudly and in unison, "YES COACH!". Every time he said burpees, the call back was "YAY, BURPEES!" and woe betide us if we did not answer on time or with the correct enthusiasm. Finally, we were always to wait for a signal to let the bar down from overhead, an instruction which many had problems with, earning us many burpees ("YAY, BURPEES!") which were to be performed to Coach's exacting standards.

Now, I have no experience in doing what I'm told. I was an extremely wilful child and I even refuse to om in yoga class. Steve refers to my attitude as if it were a separate entity. But Coach B explained that he was using a technique that helps to control large classes of people, making sure that everyone knows what to do, that they're paying attention, thereby preventing injury through confusion or carelessness. This explanation, coupled with his warmth, charm, and obvious joy in teaching, had me calling back at the top of my lungs along with everybody else.

We ran through some warmup drills, high knees, butt kicks, the usual, and then we were introduced to some fun jumping & crawling partner drills. Then it was on to the Burgener warmup, which Coach explained by breaking down the reasons for each piece, and advising us to use it before every workout. "Speed through the middle!" was the catchcry of these drills. We moved on to skill transfer exercises, and then split into partners to practise teaching each other what we'd just learned.

That day we worked solely on the Snatch. Coach prefers to teach it before moving on to the Clean & Jerk; in his experience once you teach the Snatch the Clean follows right behind, after learning the front squat. We spent much of the day broken into groups, practising the Snatch and learning from Coach and his team. We tried to spot problems and give simple, consise advice for improvement. Lifters can't process lengthy corrections when they're in the heat of battle, according to Coach Takano, so the trick is to find a single word or phrase to provide feedback.

The next day started with more running and jumping drills, the Burgener warmup, and a run through of the skill transfer exercises. Again we broke into pairs and practised coaching through the warmup and skill transfer exercises. But our focus was now the Clean & Jerk. "Stance, grip, and positions!" was drilled into us as we checked our fellow attendees to make sure they started in their jumping stance, landed in their recieving stance, and used the hook grip when appropriate. We tried to hit all the positions that Coach had taught us: mid shin to knee, knee to mid-thigh, mid-thigh to pockets and then the all-important speed through the middle! while we harnessed the power of the triple extension and then pulled ourselves under that bar.

Everyone had a turn coaching someone else, and in the end we were piling weights on and trying out our newfound skills with more than just the PVC pipe. The vast majority of us were young and strong, regular Crossfitters with no significant injuries, but we all learned how to advance an older or deconditioned client from PVC to PVC filled with sand, to rebar, to bar.

If you're thinking of taking this cert, I highly recommend registering for one that Coach Burgener is in charge of - and if you do, for the love of tofu, don't be the guy who lowers the bar before Coach tells you to, unless you really mean it when you say "YAY, BURPEES!".

As for me, I won't be competing in sectionals. But I will be working on my Snatch, Clean, and Jerk.

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