ScarletT Macfarlane

My own background in sports is mostly in equestrian sports. I was a highly competitive Hunter/Jumper rider for many years. I transitioned in my late teens and twenties over to being in the non-fitness-related field of being a full-time singer and musician where my workouts were late at night in a gym on my own and sweating on stage (which is no joke a workout by the way). Circa 2010(ish) I found out from a friend about CrossFit and tried out a local class myself. About a year or two after that, I was approached about why I didn't coach and it stuck in my mind I went and got my L1 and just fell in love with learning and helping others learn how to treat "fitness" as something that's not just perfunctory but also fun and rewarding at the same time.

I started coaching because I wanted to be able to teach people how to do something in the gym correctly and with good form, for example how to get hip contact in a clean. That’s what I thought my entire job was: the technical and the performance of movements in the gym. And of course, it is, to some extent. But at the time, I wanted to focus on performance and big numbers and impressive tricks like muscle ups. Life and experience taught me that the truth for me was that all of the things we learn how to do in the gym are just tools for something so much bigger and cooler as a coach if you learn how to use them.

Performing optimally in the gym is one thing and it is important… but for me as a coach helping people, through their performance in the gym, to live their lives optimally and not just feel good in the gym but outside of it as well is, for me, 1 million percent more rewarding, and what really just makes me so happy and motivated as a coach. So, yeah, the original question was about my achievements and accomplishments… but the truth is that, if I’m doing my job the way I want to do it, I can’t really answer that question properly. You’d have to ask the members and clients that I get to work with that question. It’s an ever-evolving goal and purpose and that’s the best part.

I've had a few "turning points" in my life... but in terms of fitness, I think the most salient one worth mentioning is how, in the gym or in sport, the enemy is all too often pain and injury which doesn't always feel like something so easy to overcome as "changing a mindset". Speaking from experience and a LOT of hard work (and admittedly some days are better than others) the power can be taken back by learning how to avoid it, working around it when necessary, healing it if at all possible, and getting educated enough to truly understand how to prevent it from coming back.

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My purpose for coaching is to be of service to the person who I'm coaching. That sounds so obvious, but my ideal athlete or client is truly interested in being coached. Having someone who doesn't want to hear from me, they just want to show up and sweat while potentially moving possibly badly or perhaps misunderstanding the workout or, even doing it all just find and they feel they have nothing to learn from me and that they know exactly what they're doing... that's totally fine if they feel that way, I'm not offended or saying they're wrong but I'm probably not the best fit for that person. There's always something I can help you with... but if they don't feel that way, they would do better to find someone who inspires them to want to learn and get better because there is someone out there who will inspire them that way and that person should be their coach. For me... My greatest motivation is when Dan's eyes light up because we are using the big weights on the barbell that day, or when Olivia learns to jump rope for the first time, or when Abbey admits that pushing a little bit heavier weight for the squat was a good idea, or when Greg tells me that he can't possibly go any faster in a met-con but then he does because of course he can. I love when someone rolls their eyes at me because I ask more of them than they think is possible, and yet if I can find the right thing to say or do for them, then I get to help them find out that "impossible" is possible. That's the good stuff right there.

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