HEAD COACH – RYAN BROWN
The Beginning
A few years ago I started doing CrossFit while still in the Marines. I loved it and immediately started seeing improvements in my performance, both in PT and in the field (where it actually matters). CrossFit gets knocked quite a bit but I have to be honest and say that I love it for an infantry Marine. I loved that I could take a squad and thrash the shi* outta them in a half hour, the pain and misery builds camaraderie as much as work capacity.
It also jump started me on the path that I am on now.
The Middle
In September of 2009, I got out of the Marines and enrolled in University of Louisville for Exercise Science. A couple of days after Me and Waylon partied across America and shotgunned beer on the side of the Grand Canyon (Waylon puked into it). When I came back, I went into Derby City CrossFit. I started training there and immediately began benefiting from the experience and coaching. CrossFit gave me an outlet for competition as well as I had the opportunity to compete in the sectional and the regional last year. But most importantly, I traveled to West Side Barbell for a Powerlifting Certification. I immediately loved the atmosphere, the attitude, and the overall amazingness of the weight being thrown around.
Since then I have been soaking up as much knowledge as I could, dedicating as much time as possible to figure out how to get strong. We have traveled around to train and ask questions to some of the strongest people in the world. We read all the information we can by the people who have been there and done it; Dave Tate, Jim Wendler, anybody who is strong as shi*… and of course our lord and savior Louie Simmons.
The Vision
As I grow as an athlete and coach, so too will our gym, our programming, and our athletes. Derby City CrossFit is seeking to create the atmosphere that is conducive to training intensely and subsequently making steady gains. It is about the long hard road.
WAYLON HUMPHREY
“When people ask me what book to buy to get stronger or more fit I say a basic physics book because Newton’s laws of motion apply to everything… I don’t bring a person in to show me how to lift weights. I bring physics professors, mathematics professors, calculus professors, and so forth, and engineers because that’s what I think is missing in this sport.” -Louie Simmons
Well, I’ve always been into lifting weights but throughout college managed to get pretty fat and weak. I finished my bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at 6’0″ 283lbs of booze and pizza. When Brown got home from the marines he, like everyone else, noticed I had been steadily packing on the poundage over the last year of school and took it upon himself to get me to join up at Derby City CrossFit with him. I’m glad as it has, without a doubt, added several years to my life. In my first 9 months of training CrossFit I was able to drop 80lbs and gain more lean mass than I had had since playing football in high school. I enjoyed CrossFit and owe my dedication to health, fitness and strength to it but quickly got bored “wodding” the shit out of myself every day. I liked that I was getting stronger doing CrossFit workouts alone I had established a solid strength base. At the time CrossFit had done a couple interviews about powerlifting with Dave Tate and his demeanor and attitude towards being strong had me hooked. This coupled with Ryan attending a CrossFit Powerlifting certification with Louie Simmons at West Side redirected our training from CrossFit wods to strength training.
I started reading (and still do) everything I could about getting stronger and powerlifting. Dave Tate’s website (Elitefts.com) has tons of information on the sport of strength and I have taken it upon myself to learn everything I can from guys like Dave, Louie Simmons, Jim Wendler, Matt Kroc, Mark Bell and the miracle baby Max Mormont. I try to take the information that’s out there and view it from an engineering prespective as far as the mechanical system of the human body and how the best leverages can be placed on the bar according to anthopometric measurements.
Basically we are trying to get strong as sh*t and have a good time doing it.
SLATER COE
“Pass me another 45lbs plate, I think I killed this one,” I say to no one in particular as I lay the exploded plate in the pile by my feet – my physical effort breaking its will to exist. What I’d really like is for someone to pass me an ice-cold tequila and club soda. Being a strong American male is hot, thirsty work. There is no ice in this gym, mores the pity, but as I’m here to help others become ridiculously strong and fit, I will suffer in silence. I gaze into the eyes of the member who is benefiting from nutrition- and exercise-induced hypertrophy or something bad ass, look out into the hot, dusty horizon and ask, “Why? Why did this plate have to die so young?”
“And why is the bad-ass-ness in this gym scaring all other gyms?” Alas, I receive no answer.
I will suffer. I have lived a good life and my suffering serves to link me to the suffering of Mankind. I turn my gaze to the pullup bar and smile at the strength exhibited there. I see by the hardened stare from the sculpted members who lurk the gym floor that they appreciate my compassion and I know that in a small way, I am making a difference in their lives.
When did I first discover that I desired to help others be fit? Some come to the decision late in life, often not until the age of four. The non-traditional individuals might not know until they are seven or even, as hard as it is to believe, until the end of ninth grade. I came to the realization that I wanted to help others be fit on the way through the birth canal when I realized that my infantile body was attached to a large placenta perfect for in-utero sled drags. I quickly threw together five sets of drags between contractions then lead my mother through an ascending ladder of burpees on the delivery table, so strong was my desire to help people. Now, for fun, I regularly lift my neighbor’s cars into perfect parallel parking positions to save them the time required to park.
My dedication to service was just beginning. At five, I was counseling the first-graders on their fitness options. By twelve, I was volunteering at the University of Louisville’s weight room. I’ll never forget Jose, a young Hispanic male with severe muscle atrophy who had just been dumped by his hot girlfriend for a fitter guy. He had turned to long, slow-distance running as his only solace and he was literally at the end of his rope when he called me.
“How about picking up a damn weight, Hose,” I asked. The J, as you know, is pronounced like an H in Spanish.
Annoying silence on the line. Hesus, I was there to help him.
“Weights will solve all of your problems,” I continued, “In fact, in a paper of which I was listed as the fourth author, we found that weight-training prevents all kinds of diseases including infertility which I have a suspicion is the root of your depression.”
More silence. No one had ever had such a rapport with him. He was speechless and grateful and I took his sobs as evidence of my compassion.
“We can make you a bad ass and help you regain the self-confidence you need to get your girl back.”
This may be somewhat unheard of from fitness coaches but I have a strong desire to help people. Unfortunately, during a stint in a “Put Down The Needle, Meathead” volunteer activity at a local Powerhouse Gym, I learned the true meaning of improperly gained strength while staffing the steroid needle exchange counter. Most of my friends are strong and fit and I am a “Junior Member” of the CIA’s Special Operations Group where I teach terrorist abasement techniques to the SEAL teams and other special forces. I also am active in the fight for women’s reproductive rights. I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row. I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed. I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid.
As Maya Angelou once said, “All men (and womyn) are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.” I feel this embodies my philosophy best because the prospect of working out at another gym, besides Derby City CrossFit, is too horrible to contemplate.
SEAN MATTINGLY
My History
People ask me all the time why I have dedicated so much of my life to Derby City CrossFit, and more particularly, CrossFit in general. The simple answer: CrossFit literally changed my life by giving me the opportunity and knowledge to help others change their life in a way I never could have imagined. I started practicing CrossFit at my globo gym and within a month of my first WOD I had opened my own private box. I selfishly invited anyone that would train with me because I knew I could not train at the required intensity without people to compete against.
I even went so far as to join forces with a popular boot camp to try to get the word out about CrossFit. I trained my kids and their unsuspecting friends and family, appeared on a few TV shows and preached CrossFit like a young Mormon preaches his religion!
A friend that belonged to a Local globo gym called me and said you have to meet this kid that’s getting kicked out of my gym for training a few guys in CrossFit. Intro Ben Carter; Ben taught me what he knew about CrossFit and showed me what INTENSITY meant! I taught him the business end and we opened to the public in May of 2009. The rest is history.
Although Derby City CrossFit has gone through many changes over the years it continues to thrive with simple word of mouth marketing. Why has it thrived? Because the level of dedication our coaches put into our clients is unmatched and our system or lack of it works!
My Belief in regards to Training Clients
I have had friends tell me that I, at times, can be hard on people who I think are continually sandbagging workouts or not hitting their max intensity. Well I see it like this: I am here for you and I get paid for my time by watching our clients hit their goals! I don’t want to hear “I can’t” because the truth of the matter is you can! If you don’t want to pay me by getting better at life then maybe this isn’t for you! I have a hard time excepting a person telling me I don’t have time to make it in on a consistent basis or eat healthy! I have two businesses and am the single parent of four daughters and I rarely ever miss my own training sessions and neither do my coaches! We practice what we preach (depending on what our individual training goals are and we expect
the same from our clients).
My Qualifications
Well, I don’t have a wall full of certifications because I don’t buy into whom is doing the certifying and I don’t particularly care to pay a yearly fee to keep those certifications. I am a CrossFit Certified Level One instructor because I found value in it. I know people that hold many certifications that couldn’t properly teach a boot camp. I also know people that have many certifications that understand fitness more than I ever will. Due to the large sense of community and sharing that is CrossFit, I have had the opportunity of training – side by side as well as spending time with some of the best nutritionist, Olympic lifting coaches and strength coaches around. Their lessons and my own experience in training are what I draw on to train my clients.
In Closing
I am always amazed and honored when I see someone enter the gym with their eyes cast down and intimidated by the intense happenings going on around them. I love that despite this overwhelming atmosphere of music blaring and coaches pushing people to their limits they still make the decision to change their life in a place I had a hand in building.
Derby City CrossFit is a way of life and a community! It is NOT YOUR NORMAL GYM it is a place filled with people that have the desire to live life to its fullest!
Train not to suck at life,
Coach Sean