Patrick is the owner of Patrick's FUNKtionelles Training.
What does CF mean to you?
Crossfit is not only a sport for me, but rather a way of life. I have never encountered another sport that is so challenging and fascinating at the same time as an athlete or as a Coach.
Crossfit offers this amazing possibility to see each person as an individual and cater to their needs. It is accessible to everyone and anyone can be coached; it doesn’t matter who you are and what ability you have to work out as a starting point. As a trainer I have the opportunity to design the most suitable training plan for those people and to make their life better and easier. When experiencing Crossfit, people quickly realize that there are so many other people who share the same experiences than you, which brings people closer together. When you hit a PR in the gym, your workout partners are as happy for you as you are.
This is what Crossfit is to me: the power to give the best training to the people and the power to build a family/community.
Why do you want to be an instructor?
Sport has always been part of my life. The reason why I want to be an instructor is rather simple: I want to give access to my knowledge about training and a healthy lifestyle to every person who needs it. And quite frankly, every person in the world needs to do something for their body: no matter if it is nutrition, sport, or medical training. I think we as trainers have the possibility to show people that it is not so difficult to train or to work out or to take care of your body. We just need to help the people understanding what it means to feel their own body, to feel what is good and what is not good for them, so that they can transfer this knowledge to their everyday life.
This sport is technically on a really high level. So quality based on full range of motion in the movement and learning the right technique is the most important thing for me. Always technic work before loading too much weight or getting into a habit of poor movement patterns. This is especially true at the beginning, where the border between learning zone and panic zone in the training is pretty close and most of the people cannot feel the difference between what is right and wrong. We as trainers need to help them and need to make their learning zone bigger. And we also need to help the lazy people to get out of their super comfy comfort zone 😉
Why would someone want you to be their coach?
Because they know that I can take care oft them as an individual with their specific needs and wants. It doesn’t matter for me if it is an athlete, a mother of two children, and older person, or younger kids who want to become better in their sport. I think everybody has their own goals and I can help them defining their goal and helping them finding the best way to reach it. I really understand what I am doing as a trainer, I understand the mechanics of movements, I know how they should look like or how they should feel and I can explain that. There is almost not a single question related to the Crossfit methodology where I don’t have an answer. And if that were to happen, I know where to find the information. I am not afraid to tell the people that I don’t know it. But then I will look for the answer and give it to my client the following day.
What are your strengths & weaknesses?
Strength:
Weightlifting and all the extra work you need to get full range of motion in all of these movements (Mobility Coaching)
Weaknesses:
As an Athlete Cardio 😀 As my girlfriend says, I am a lazy fat Panda 😉
-Joke on the side: My weakness is that sometimes I take decisions to impulsively and should give it a bit more thought. It feels like I am so full of energy that I need to slow down sometimes.
I am an very open person who can listen carefully and is available to help. People feel comfortable with me because they feel that I care.
