That’s an interesting question. One thing I would say is that all of our coaches have contributed something significant to my education, to be able to better understand how to lift a barbell. Coming in, prior to listening to Mike, and Chad, and Cheryl and the rest of our weightlifting crew.
Vanessa McCoy, we have an amazing weightlifting crew that have come through over the years. We’ve probably had close to seven to 10 weightlifting coaches over the years that have all been someone who have contributed to USA weightlifting in some capacity. They’ve had an enormous impact not only my understanding of barbell movements, but also its application.
It’s my daily life. Now, I have a barbell. I never picked up a barbell when I was a gymnast my entire career, maybe once or twice. For me, that was hugely educational for my fitness and my ability to understand how to move better.
Chris Shaw, just brought him up, but Chris is the guy that if you speak with him your mind is going to go to a new place in terms of how you need to be thinking about fitness. He brought the idea of capacity WOD, which is something that Chad and I and him have been working on for a couple of years now.
It’s a great way for people to understand how to build capacity within skill specific movement. It’s something that Chris has been utilizing within the endurance world forever, and we’ve transferred into more skills, specific development. It’s hard for me to pick one. Chris has done an amazing job.
Jason Leyden, who’s our programming instructor and head coach across at Milford, was able to give me an appreciation of how to tie in all of these sports together and make them a little bit more cohesive from a training perspective. All of them have contributed something significant.
I will say another one, Rika Geyser, who is one of our rowing instructors. Rika’s a two-time games athlete and Olympian for South Africa. She also competed for University of Washington. She was on the all-century NCAA team for University of Washington, which is amazing. She is an incredible coach and incredible athlete.
When you work with her, she gives you an appreciation and a new understanding of what it means to row. You can sit on the row and do your thing. To me, she’s one of the ones that had the biggest impact in terms of giving me, who’s five foot nothing, an appreciation for sitting on a rower.
I never thought I would have that appreciation, but I know it’s a long winded answer. I feel I would be doing injustice to the coaches that I’ve surrounded myself with if I pick one.