Crossfit Coaching and Class Management 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the PRIMARY role of a CrossFit coach during the workout portion of a class?
- Completing the workout alongside athletes at full intensity
- Observing, cueing, and ensuring athlete safety (Correct answer)
- Timing athletes and recording scores only
- Socializing with athletes to build community
Correct answer: Observing, cueing, and ensuring athlete safety
The coach's primary role during the workout is to observe movement quality, provide cues, and ensure athlete safety.
Question 2: How should a CrossFit coach handle an athlete who consistently refuses to scale despite struggling with the prescribed movements?
- Allow the athlete to continue without scaling to respect autonomy
- Remove the athlete from the class permanently
- Educate the athlete on the purpose of scaling and how it accelerates long-term progress (Correct answer)
- Publicly highlight the athlete's poor form to motivate change
Correct answer: Educate the athlete on the purpose of scaling and how it accelerates long-term progress
Educating athletes on how scaling supports long-term development helps shift their mindset and encourages safe participation.
Question 3: In the CrossFit class structure, what is the typical sequence of a well-organized session?
- Workout, warm-up, skill/strength, cool-down
- Warm-up, skill/strength, workout, cool-down (Correct answer)
- Skill/strength, workout, warm-up, cool-down
- Cool-down, warm-up, workout, skill/strength
Correct answer: Warm-up, skill/strength, workout, cool-down
A standard CrossFit class follows a warm-up, skill or strength work, the conditioning workout, and then a cool-down.
Question 4: An athlete reports feeling dizzy during a workout. What should the coach do FIRST?
- Encourage the athlete to keep moving to push past the feeling
- Have the athlete stop the workout immediately and sit or lie down safely (Correct answer)
- Ask the athlete to finish the current round before resting
- Assume it is normal and monitor from a distance
Correct answer: Have the athlete stop the workout immediately and sit or lie down safely
Dizziness can signal a medical emergency; the athlete must stop immediately and be placed in a safe position while the coach assesses the situation.
Question 5: What does 'virtuosity' mean in the context of CrossFit coaching?
- Performing the most advanced movements possible
- Doing common movements uncommonly well (Correct answer)
- Winning a CrossFit competition
- Completing workouts at maximum prescribed weight
Correct answer: Doing common movements uncommonly well
CrossFit founder Greg Glassman defined virtuosity as doing common things uncommonly well, emphasizing mastery of foundational movements.
Question 6: When delivering the whiteboard brief before a workout, what information is MOST important for a coach to communicate?
- The coach's personal best scores on the workout
- Movement standards, scaling options, stimulus, and safety considerations (Correct answer)
- Only the rep scheme and time cap
- The history and origin of the workout
Correct answer: Movement standards, scaling options, stimulus, and safety considerations
A comprehensive whiteboard brief covers movement standards, scaling options, desired stimulus, and any relevant safety points to set athletes up for success.
Question 7: Which of the following is the BEST example of an external coaching cue for the squat?
- 'Feel your glutes activate at the bottom position'
- 'Think about screwing your feet into the ground' (Correct answer)
- 'Notice how your knees want to cave inward'
- 'Focus on your breathing pattern throughout the movement'
Correct answer: 'Think about screwing your feet into the ground'
External cues direct attention to the environment or an action (like screwing feet into the ground) rather than body parts, which is more effective for motor learning.
Crossfit Coaching and Class Management 3
What is the PRIMARY role of a CrossFit coach during the workout portion of a class?