SPIDERfit Highlighted Coach
Name: Mike Soster
Title: Owner, Functions of Life Fitness and Performance
Organization:
Website: www.functionsoflife.com
1. How long have you been working with kids?
I have been working with kids for about 5 years now, but the last three has been more of a daily thing.
2. What ages do you mostly work with?
I mostly work with ages 6-15, as I see that age group as the one we can make the most impact on as far as steering them towards a happy and healthy lifestyle.
3. What motivates you to work with kids?
I used to train a 12-year-old baseball team here in Cleveland, and it was actually one of my first teams that I took on at the beginning of my career, so obviously I was putting everything into it. There was one kid in the group that absolutely would not smile, and it drove me nuts! Out of nowhere, this same kid would start coming up to me at the end of our sessions just to shake my hand and say, “thanks Coach Mike.” I didn’t understand it! Why was it that the kid that had the least amount of excitement and emotion come up to me and give me such gratification as a coach. Turns out, this young athlete has had both his biological father and step-father pass away – one to suicide more recently. His mom emailed me and told me all about how once he gets in the car to home, he can’t stop talking about how amazing everything we did in our workout was. We forget how much we mean to some of these kids, and for him, I was probably the most important thing in his life. You never know the impact you may have on someone. Reminding myself of things like that helps me embrace my position and platform as a coach more than anything else.
4. How would you describe your philosophy of youth physical development?
My philosophy with youth can vary by age group, but in a nutshell, they have to love what they are doing. When they enjoy their experience with you, they will much more likely continue to do those same activities when you aren’t even around. As they get older in age, you have a slight shift towards a more technically sound routine rather than the games-oriented approach with the really young ones.
5. What/who have been your major influencers as to how you educate, motivate, and inspire kids to a life of fitness, performance, and health (Books, coaches, other resources?)
On accident, I stopped in to see a presentation at a Perform Better seminar by David Jack. This guy absolutely blew me away with his approach to youth training. In fact, he made me realize that it’s not even about the training. If you could simply tap into their hearts, then they will do almost anything for you. Since then I’ve followed him quite religiously and I love the things he can bring to the table.
6. What has surprised you physically, mentally, or emotionally about the kids you’ve worked with?
Not a single one of them is the same as the other. No matter how much I work with these kids, I realize that everything from their physical capabilities to emotional state of mind can vary on a day to day basis. Therefore, you have to converse with them and get a feel for what type of day it is. Then you go from there.
7. What are the primary challenges you encounter when trying to develop kids physically?
Their nervous system is completely shot. Muscle control is of such high importance with them, and most of them don’t have it. The ones that do, tend to excel in my programs very quickly. I found that it’s directly related to their ability to pay attention, so there’s a good association there that we can maybe learn to conquer.
8. What are your go-to strategies to overcome these challenges?
You gain their focus when you give them an objective goal. If you tell 10-year old Samantha to jump up and over the box for 30-seconds, she might do it, but it won’t be anything amazing. If you put your energy into it by making her feel like this is the most amazing accomplishment and you want her to reach 22 jumps before that 30-seconds is over and that only 10 other kids ever got more than 20, NOW she has something to work for.
9. What’s your “trick” to get kids excited about exercise and physical activity?
Make it fun and competitive. Then at the end, make them feel like what they did was something special. They’ll come back begging for more.
10. Where can we find out more about your programs?
Here in Cleveland, we are located just south of the city in a place called Broadview Heights. Our facility is about 8,000 square feet where we have a healthy combination of youth training, adult fitness classes for the parents, and personal training. More information about the services we provide can be found at www.FunctionsOfLife.com or you can check out some of our videos on YouTube by finding the FunctionsOfLife channel.
Brett Klika CEO and co-founder of SPIDERfit is an international award- winning certified strength and conditioning coach, author, and motivational speaker with over 20 years experience motivating and inspiring youngsters to a life of health, fitness, and performance.
Brett consults with schools, athletic organizations, fitness professionals, and fortune 500 companies around the world.
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