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Category: life

KOKORO 25 - 168One year ago I  attended Kokoro Camp 25 at US CrossFit. I blogged the following posts about it:

I think about the Kokoro experience daily. The tools I’ve gained from the camp I use every day in life and in training. I thought I would write a followup on how the experience has affected me one year later. If you know nothing about Kokoro, it’s a 50-hour military-style camp held at US CrossFit in Encinitas, California, a couple of times a year. The instructors are ex-Navy Seals and the program is designed by Commander Mark Divine.

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For a hearty stretch of my life I was a professional rowing coach, from 1999 to 2009, and I coached at places like Duke, Florida Tech, and Louisville. I thought that was going to be my career. I was and am passionate about the sport and passionate about coaching.

My last major stop was the University of Louisville for a single year, where I was an assistant. It was during that season I realized what a bitch of a lifestyle I had. Without burdening the reader with too many details, let’s just say I worked from five in the morning until eight at night (and sometimes later), all week, and for a half day on Saturday. And when I was out recruiting, I also worked on Sundays. I remember once making recruiting calls at 3:00 am. To New Zealand. That might be sort of okay for a) the President of the United States or b) the head football coach of Alabama, but it’s not okay for a scrubby crew coach making $40K a year. I calculated my hourly take once and I think it was fairly close to minimum wage. At least it felt that way.

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