Hi Team,
Welcome to another Sunday – and what amazing weather we have had all weekend. I have loved the sessions over the past week or so and a big congratulations in particular to everyone who slogged their way through ‘MURPH’ yesterday (Saturday). I know, I know – it is kind of ‘outside’ of the programming and the progression we are currently on, but there is something to be said for ‘challenge’ workouts that really put you outside of your comfort zone and remind you exactly what you are (and maybe what you aren’t and need to work on!) capable of.
Over the past couple of weeks there has been a bit of change in the Round 1 team and I am really sorry to announce that Paul wont be working at the gym any more.
I know this has all happened pretty suddenly – but the situation has come about due to an opportunity he has been offered with his ‘side hustle’ (doing some security work at the hospital) together with his growing passion for Yoga – anyway, everything seemed to happen and once and as it turned out his last shift ended up being one Wednesday night a couple of weeks ago…right before he headed away for a long weekend of surfing – and yoga! – down at Gracetown.
Paul has been a great asset to the gym over the past couple of years and I have to say that I am really proud of the way that he developed into a great coach – particularly in the boxing gym. It isn’t a commonly known story but Paul tried to ‘quit’ on his very first night at Round 1 – he hadn’t worked in the fitness industry for a few years, and – seeing the ‘organised chaos’ that is the way of most R1 Boxing sessions his attitude was 100% “That’s a cool session…but there’s NO WAY I can DO THAT…I’m OUT.”
Anyway, somehow I managed to ‘talk him around’ – but for a long time he remained very ‘nervous’ when it came to running classes…he seemed to think that despite all of his experience as a trainer AND as a fighter that everyone would somehow think he was a ‘fake’ and that he wouldn’t be able to get in the ‘flow’ of the sessions. This nervousness manifested itself in a lot of ways, but mostly in his reluctance to run the ‘first class’ after his shift started…for a long time he wanted to watch whilst ‘someone else’ ran the session before stepping into the spotlight! It made the rest of the team laugh – here we had this tough guy fighter in our midst who was nervous at the idea of being ‘caught out’ running a boxing for fitness session. As I repeatedly told him – ‘No-one is thinking anything bad mate – everyone is just trapped in their own little hole trying to keep up!’.
Paul brought a real ‘fight gym’ mentality to his sessions that I really loved. I know it is often lost in the sessions these days but Paul and I had a lot in common with our training history. For us, a ‘ROUND’ on the Heavy bag would be exactly that – 3-minutes of being left to our own devices to work the bag – work our combos, work our footwork and generally ‘free-style’ train. A long, long time ago that’s how our classes were at Round 1 – there were no combos, no added in body-weight exercises…if you were at a ‘bag station’ you hit the bag, worked the bag and ‘trained’. This was a long, long time ago – I found soon enough that many of our clients hadn’t boxed before (who knew!) and the best way to get them great results was to provide them with EVERYTHING to fill in the ‘round’ – combos, volume work, body weight and cardio extensions, strength extras…you name it! And since mid 2010, that’s been the way our classes have run. Anyway, then along came Paul and I always loved the way he integrated a degree of ‘freedom’ in the sessions he ran – giving everyone space to ‘do their thing’ whilst still somehow sticking to the plan! I completely encourage the coaches to bring their personality to every session they run – to add a piece of them to the plan they are given…Paul has always done a great job of that.
I guess – and taking a break from this stream of consciousness writing – just thinking about all of this ‘stuff’, in 10-years time when I think back about Paul working at the gym, it is this sense of fun and freedom he had in every session he ran is what I will remember most of all!
Was he the ‘perfect’ employee? Well…let’s go with ‘Hell NO!’. I think I have reset his password that would let him log on to the member management system more times than he has actually logged on there. He occasionally logged in to our group chat system to find out what was going on – and I mean, VERY occasionally. Somehow he got through the last few years without doing a single client Health Check – I mean, he was always AVAILABLE to do them except during every single time-slot when one has ever been booked since he started at the gym…his ability to avoid these is seriously the stuff of gym legend! But we all have our strengths – he stuck to his and has been a key member of our team for 2+½ years now…we are all really going to miss him.
So – here’s to Paul! I’m going to miss you mate and I really (REALLY) hope you have found what you are looking for. I know we all wish him nothing but the best as he continues to develop his Yoga skills (and maybe his Yoga business??), I know we all hope he is able to keep ‘working on himself’ (a real passion for Paul) and that having moved on from Round 1 is still able to find time for his meditation and able to continue to develop his interest in free-diving…basically, I hope that he gets to live his ‘best life’.
Thanks for reading everyone – see you in the gym,
Michael.
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