Why Coaching? I (Coach Tia) get this question a lot from family members and friends. I first fell in love with fitness and sport at a young age. The second I figured out I was a fast runner, I always wanted to race people every chance I got! My best friend knew this about me and when we got to high school she pushed me to join the track team. That was all I needed to do to know that fitness and sport would be a part of my life forever. My love for running track took me to college, which was a big game changer, especially the first time I stepped foot in a weight room. Seeing movements such as jerk, power clean, dead lift and snatch had me terrified and uncomfortable. I had never picked up a bar before and was scared at the thought of performing the exercises I saw performed so well by the upperclassmen. Although I was scared out of my mind, I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone, stuck with the training, and slowly but surely got better at performing the lifts. As I got comfortable in the weight room, I knew I wanted to be around this environment for the long run.
Being able to accomplish something that once made me so terrified, somehow made me feel empowered. In that moment I knew the confidence I gained through competing and training was a feeling that I wanted to pass on to others. My mission as a coach is to help my clients not only develop physical strength but overall confidence to life a larger life.
Coaching is not just about training movement, it’s about helping people to see what is really blocking them from living their best life. When I experienced fear in the weight room it felt like something I could never do. I learned the movements but the bigger fear was a fear about belonging. Walking into a college weight room with athletes who look like Greek Gods and Goddesses is intimidating on many levels. The trick is to just start where you are. I just showed up and let myself be open to learning and some people treated me poorly but others treated me as an equal. I learned to align with those who gave me equal footing and ignore those who treated me like I was anything less. This may have happened in the weight room—but its a life lesson I carry with me always. Part of my bigger WHY for coaching is to help young athletes gain a sense of inner confidence through physical movement so that they don’t experience the same fears I did. Gaining one’s sense of inner knowing is something that does happen through movement. I have found that being physical can be cathartic for all forms of confidence, and that is what I hope to help my clients experience through coaching.