Kati’s Fit Kit
Stronger Together:
Welcome Coach RT!
As our Breakthrough Family knows, running our business based on core values is very important us, and one of the things that sets us apart from other gyms. One of our core values is – “Cultivate a team spirit – we can accomplish more together than we can on our own.”
As Coach Caleb discussed in his Coach’s Corner last week, having that feeling of camaraderie is a huge inspiration not only to our members, but to us as coaches too! We feel so lucky that as our gym membership grows, we are finding like-minded members who also believe in cultivating a team spirit.
Since we opened, we had a plan that we would also grow our coaching team when the time was right. Of course anyone who joins our team needs to be someone who is not just an excellent coach, with a similar training background and philosophy to ours, but someone who also shares our core values, vision, and passion for helping people improve their lives with better health and fitness. Fortunately, we already knew just the person… we just had to wait for the right timing and circumstances to allow us to bring him on board.
So, we are excited to announce that Coach RT Girch has officially joined the Breakthrough team!! Having RT join us will not only allow us to reach more new members, but will help us provide more opportunities and an even better experience to our current Breakthrough family! Many of you have already met, and even trained with Coach RT, so you already know the positive energy he brings to the gym. I sat down with RT to do an interview so that he could share his training background and education, and what he loves about coaching.
Kati: I’m here with Coach RT who is the newest member of our Breakthrough Team, which is super exciting!! RT, I wanted to sit down and chat with you today so our Breakthrough members can get to know a little bit more about you, so thanks for taking a few minutes to share with us today.
RT: My pleasure!
Kati: Now, just for full disclosure, you are my brother in law, married to my sister, but that’s not the reason we wanted you to join our team. When Caleb and I were discussing all the qualifications and qualities we wanted other coaches on the Breakthrough team to have, you would have been our top pick if even if we didn’t already know you!
RT: Thanks!
Kati: I’d love it if you could share a bit of your journey so far… how you got started with coaching in the first place, what made you want to do this… like when you were a kid, were you always active, playing sports?
RT: Yeah, growing up I was always very active, playing baseball as much as I could, as many days as I could, as many hours as I could. But I also played a little bit of roller hockey, flag football, basketball. I tried to stay active, anything athletic and outdoors I tried to do, but baseball was my main interest. I played all the way up through high school, and then right out of high school I had a pretty bad leg injury which side lined me for about 6-8 months. Then I went down the path of coaching baseball, and that kind of got me into learning how people move and just helping people learn.
Kati: And then you decided to study kinesiology when you went to college.
RT: Yeah, I got my degree from CSUN in 2007. And shortly after that in 2008, I was looking to learn more and switch up my fitness routine and I was introduced to kettlebells. From the minute we started hardstyle kettlebell training I kind of fell in love and knew it was something I wanted to do. In 2009, I was certified as an instructor and have been teaching and learning and coaching ever since.
Kati: And that was something that you, Caleb, my sister and I all did together – we hired a coach to teach us kettlebell technique and had a blast training together! And then our instructor certification in 2009, we were able to do together as well.
RT: And then in 2010 we did the FMS training together.
Kati: Right, and then from there we’ve all continued to learn and grow, which is one of our core values here – to keep learning and growing everyday. And you’ve had many years of coaching clients now, so what do you find some of the most inspiring things in working with clients and being a trainer and a coach?
RT: I just like to help people do things that maybe they weren’t sure they could do. I like to see people move better. One of my big things is that the things we do in the gym should enhance your life outside the gym. You should see a carryover of your training into your everyday life and activities you enjoy.
Kati: Definitely! A lot of our members here enjoy doing things like hiking or cycling on the weekend, or keeping up with their grandkids, and they see improvement in those things and that’s the stuff that matters for your quality of life.
RT: Exactly, and it’s good to make a difference. I like that interaction with people, and spreading knowledge and helping people get stronger.
Kati: Absolutely! Any motivational words for our Breakthrough members? Things that help keep you motivated and inspired to train?
RT: I just want to be a stronger, better person and live a happy healthy life for as long as I can. And have fun with the people I love, and have fun doing things I enjoy with them.
Kati: Awesome, I like it, thanks coach.
RT: No, thank you coach!
Kati: We look forward to all of the exciting things that having you as a part of our team is going to bring. We know we are stronger together with you as part of our coaching team, and our Breakthrough Family is going to love having you on board!