Culture is Everything - Chad's Experience with us at EHP!

Me & Chad (all the way from California)

As you know I hosted an trainer all the way from the States who is travelling the WORLD visiting Strength Coaches to athletes & or clients who are athletes of life!

Well it's been 2wks since Chad Skrederstu left us where we invited him into our home to stay with us as a family & see me behind the trainer mask.

This is taken from his own blog that you can visit here Sand, Snow & Street

The big picture by Chad Skrederstu

After spending a week with Spida Hunter in Christchruch, New Zealand I still find myself processing the lessons I learned. Spida Hunta is a coach/trainer (for MMA fighters and general population), a father, a soon to be husband and an overall good guy (unless he’s ground and pounded you). Spida like many of the other veteran strength and conditioning coaches I’ve met on my trip makes complex ideas simple to understand.

So after spending a week with Spida at his house and at the East Side Barbell Club in Christchurch I came away with three major take homes:

1. It aint where you’re from it’s where you’re at (CULTURE IS EVERYTHING)

2. A good coach instills new beliefs and helps break negative ones

3. A strong tribe (group)brings out the best in it’s members

1. It aint where you’re from it’s where you’re at (CULTURE IS EVERYTHING)

I was amazed with the first session of women I saw Spida training at the Eastside Barbell at 6am on Monday morning by how strong they were. These women were dead lifting 155lbs for 8 reps super setted with 70lbs log cleans (in the video below). My first response to Spida was “damn the Kiwi women are strong dude,” and we talked about the difference in upbringing of kiwi women compared to other countries. Spida and a few of Kiwi women he coached explained to me many of the women grew up and still live on farms. As a result when something needed to be moved they moved it!

So I jumped to a conclusion that Kiwi women as a whole are stronger than women from the U.S. (I know really American of me). But……………………… I was wasn’t exactly right and it didn’t hit me until I was on a bus to Queenstown that it doesn’t matter where in the world you from it’s the culture (environment) that your in that will determine how successful you are.

(CULTURE IS EVERYTHING):

• If you look at cultures around the world they are very unique as societies but when you look at successful gym cultures around the globe ( east side barbell club, smart fitness, underground training station, College of the Canyons, Joe Defranco’s and Results fitness they share a few similarities:

Take homes

o Hard work-General public and athletes’ just blend together you can’t tell who is who everyone works hard.

o Competitive- It doesn’t matter if it’s MMA fighters or 60 year old femail they all want to out do others ( usually men) and out do themselves ( usually women)

o Simple/No Flash- It doesn’t matter if you’re in New Zealand or in Santa Clarita Ca the ideas are the same…… People push,pull,squat,sweat and do work sprinkled with some science and shit load of great coaching!

2. A good coach instills new beliefs and helps break negative ones

One of Spida’s great traits is that he is trustworthy. As a result he gets his clients to believe in him and believe in what they are working towards (like the placebo effect but with the results). Spida has this amazing ability to help clients get over their fears i.e. of lifting heavy weights, getting injured to accomplish work they had no idea was possible ( must be that Kiwi Haka he does before you do a lift). Very simple points but tough to master….

Take Home

• If you believe it’s more likely to happen then if you don’t


• Understand the person and basic human nature to move forward

Fiona how no idea how much she lifted

After a failed first attempt

3. A strong tribe (group)brings out the best in it’s members Spida comes from a strong Maori background and has implemented a few of these cultural ideas into his Enhancing Human Performance (EHP) training systems.

Spida trains his clients and mma fighters in small groups. I got to go through training sessions with both groups and felt the power of the tribe atmosphere when I wanted to lay down and quit.

Take homes: * A group is more motivating then training one on one (i.e. higher levels of extrinsic motivation, helps break negative beliefs and provides accountability

* Groups offer a learn by doing approach ( i.e. if 4 people are training and 3 people are doing the exercise correctly the 4th person will learn visually).

***********************

Thanks Chad for keeping it real & taking life by the balls & inviting other people's worlds into your own so you can learn through their eyes & then filter what you like (or don't) & carry on the "Art of Coaching to the Human Spirit, Body, Mind & Soul"

To learn more about Chad please visit his sites below!

Chad's Facebook

Chad's Youtube...

Chad's Website

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Coaching with a Different Hat?!

This morning I had a Coaching session with a client that had nothing to with reps/sets/nutrition or Exercise for that matter, but it had everything to do with Health?!!

I've been told from my lovely lady that I need to take off my "How to solve problems" hat more often, which is friggin hard I can assure you!! For the simple reason, I have trained myself to look at situations as;

• What's the Issue/problem?
• How can we/I fix it in the best positive manner without carrying any bullshit!?

I don't go into Why is this a problem, I just accept this is what has been presented like it or not and how do we create an outcome we/I like?!

Well today (back to original story) , a client and I sat down and he talked about "problems" he was experiencing and said, "I enjoy talking to you because you look at it from so many different angles, that I cannot see"!

You know how I solved his problem as a coach? I LISTENED I mean I really listened not just prentended to listen, I didn't get into What/Why/How to fix, I just listened......

The end result was, he felt great to get his "stuff" off his chest and it was enough for him to break the cycle of "issues" he perceived he had!

The morale of my ramblings? My wife to be was right :-)

There is a time and place for everything i.e. to Coach via listening, guiding, telling, showing, kick up the ass and while I've trained myself to be a very good "mature problem solver" (definition of mature = find an outcome that supports everyone and not just the immature ego of thy self!)

I do need to take off my Coaching Hat of How Can we solve this issue more often! Until today, I didn't realize that the skill I trained myself to have What/How had become a double edged sword, meaning while it served me and will continue to serve me EXTREMELY well, it had become too dominate i.e. when ever I heard people telling me their problems, I went straight into Coaching What and How! I didn't know when to turn what/how "on" and "off"!!

I got Coached today :-)

Spida Hunter
P.S. Having tools in the tool box is great, knowing when to use the right tool at the right time is what's magic!

This lesson reminded me of the book A New Earth by Eckart Tolle. "In the stillness of Presence, you can sense the formless essence in yourself and in the other as one. Knowing the oneness of yourself and the other is true love, true care, true compassion."

What's your Attitude?

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.

It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... [an organization]... a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

Charles Swindoll
Psychiatrist