Travis Harkey, owner of CrossFit North Atlanta, says creating a kids program was a priority when he opened his gym. He shares his experiences starting CrossFit Kids North Atlanta.
“The whole essence of CrossFit is play, and, I mean, it’s a natural fit,” he says.
According to Harkey, the first hurdle was getting trainers qualified to coach kids because, at the time, the only seminars were held in Ramona, Calif., at CrossFit Brand X, where CrossFit Kids began. Then, he says he had to organize his kids program and start it from scratch.
“It’s an entirely separate program,” he says.
At one point Harkey had 20 kids attending class, but it took hard work to maintain.
“It was a 24-7 effort to coordinate with them to keep on getting them back, and it took us a little while to work out the kinks in our programming.”
Harkey introduces his trainers and describes how they have grown the program over the years. He says the next step is to take the program into schools. Harkey sees an opportunity for CrossFit Kids to benefit youth fitness, especially in schools where P.E. has been canceled and the food served is “terrible.”
“It’s such an important developmental component to kids,” he says.
Click here for more information and a list of upcoming CrossFit Kids Trainer Courses.
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Additional reading: Grant Writing for Kids Programs by Lura Poggi, published Nov. 21, 2011.