Taylor Rytting

Responsibilities

During my internship, my responsibilities included coaching CrossFit classes, shadowing personal training sessions, and assisting with cleaning and keeping the gym tidy and sanitary. I started out shadowing their classes and got to know the members and how each coach ran classes. As I gained experience, I began coaching the warm-up and giving corrections. Once my supervisor thought I was prepared, I started coaching classes solo. I also programmed and coached strength and conditioning sessions for athletes.

Accomplishments

My greatest accomplishment during my internship was becoming confident in my knowledge and ability as a coach and finding my coaching voice. It took time for me to be louder and more assertive while coaching but I noticed a huge difference in my confidence and skill between the beginning and end of my internship.

Learning experience

The greatest lesson I learned from this experience was to sometimes act more certain and confident than you really are while coaching. If you are leading a class and seem timid and uncertain, the members can tell and will be more likely to question your ability and/or experience. Essentially the "fake it til you make it" came in handy for me while I was still trying to get more comfortable commanding a class. One thing that my boss told me was that members want a coach and most of them don't know or care if you have more experience than others if you are knowledgeable, relatable, and confident.

What advice would you give?

My advice to future students is to find an internship where you can try a variety of aspects of the career you are interested in. If you can, get involved in the community and classes at your workplace. This makes it much easier to get to know people and not just feel like the temporary intern. Also, don't be afraid to show how much you know! Use the things you learned in classes and build on that with your experiences.