By Patrick Burkhard with Jamie Rebner
- Patrick Burkhard is head coach at Agatsu Montreal, a strength and movement instructor, a black belt in Kung Fu and is a former U17 rugby athlete in Quebec
Life is a very short thing, and everything that we do is an opportunity to better ourselves. Growth is a big element of life; we’re here to challenge ourselves and live a passionate life. The physical exercise in the gym is one of those main ways that you’re going to be able to grow. There are not many avenues that we have in life that we can challenge ourselves. But it’s about finding that path where you’re going to see growth and challenge in life.
It took me a while to discover that I am passionate about helping others in the gym to find that path of growth and challenges in their own lives. Growing up, I always played many sports. It was playing rugby in high school that pushed me to get into strength training so that I could become a better athlete. When I moved to Ontario in grade 10, I fell off my fitness routine, but then got back into it in my mid-20s when I moved back to Montreal. So my journey involved being very athletic as a youth, losing that focus in my late teens, and coming back into it for my life and career later on.
In University, I did my degree in political science and policy studies because I loved learning about the world. I had always worked for a corporation part-time during my studies, and upon graduating from university, I started working for that same company full-time. Although I challenged myself there, it wasn’t something I loved. While working at a desk for ten hours per day, I was becoming tight and in pain, which caused me to reconnect with my body. I decided to change paths to something that I was genuinely passionate about, which led me to go back to school at 30 to study physical education.
I decided that to help bolster my credentials as a teacher, I would add as many skills to my resume as I could. So I did a personal training certification at the YMCA, and then I started training people there and in the spare bedroom of my apartment. As a way to continue my professional development as a trainer, I did the Agatsu level 1 kettlebell (KB) certification, which was a turning point for me because that’s when I realized that I connected way more strongly with their philosophy and view of fitness.
After graduating, I received the opportunity to start working with Agatsu, which was a dream come true for me. I was offered to run the Montreal affiliate, and I have been building and developing a thriving community here ever since. And as I began implementing KBs in my training, I fell in love with KB sport. I took my snatch, one of three lifts used in KB sport competition, from 50 to 123 reps after only a few months. Seeing my progress made me realize the power of KB sport. It is definitely a unique, fringe activity that not many people know about. But it’s a fun thing to motivate yourself in your training to see what you’re capable of accomplishing. So I started competing and taking certifications specifically to become a KB sport coach. Then I started our team at Agatsu, which has we been representing at different competitions in Canada and the US.
In KB sport, you’re competing against yourself. Ultimately, it’s about the process of you. I always say to my team that competition day is celebration day because you can’t control what is going to happen on that platform. You can have an inadequate night sleep, wake up not feeling well, and that ten-minute set that you’ve prepared for can go poorly. And that’s okay. You either learn from it, or you’re defeated by it. We always try to choose learning.
Doing a ten-minute set in competition is like running a marathon. You train for 6-8 weeks to have that one moment on the platform where hopefully everything goes your way. You want to pick up the bells and them to feel light. But there are just some days where you pick up those bells, and they feel heavy. But the point is, it’s not only a physical feat. It’s a mental toughness exercise because you’re repeating the same movement for ten minutes. To keep going and fight that voice that kicks in after a minute or two, that’s telling you to put that weight down and take a rest. You have to push through that feeling and silence that voice in your mind and keep going.
And there’s a technical side of it too, which influences the mindset that I apply here at the gym: searching for a limitless and unattainable perfection. You’re always trying to be more efficient and smoother with your technique because technical efficiency is going to bring results in terms of performance. If I’m able to use less energy in each rep, therefore over the ten minutes, my gas tank will last longer. Each time you’re applying your mind to that idea of being smoother and better. Through this process is where you get growth.
By applying yourself to KB sport, you will improve significantly, and you will build the confidence that is going to transfer over to other aspects of your life. If you need to have a difficult conversation with your boss, you’re going to be way more confident in your ability to do so because of the struggles you’ve conquered in the gym.
When it comes to my philosophy as a coach, I focus on what each person needs. There are people I need to talk through the sets and give them technical cues on which to focus. Others will be in their zone, who won’t even be paying attention to me. I try to look at each athlete individually; I want to understand their motivation, what makes them tick, and their communication style. That’s what I enjoy as a coach, trying to understand the athletes’ psychology and how I can help maximize their performance.
One of my kung-fu teachers once said to me: “invest in your people and your people will invest in you”. I would advise all the coaches out there to get to know their athletes as much as they can. Ask them about their lives. What stage of life are they at? Are they in school? What is the nature of their relationships? Their home situation? Are they commuting for an hour to get to the gym every day, or are they driving five minutes? Because that will tell me something about their mindset. All those little factors that you might not think about are essential. If you make it solely about the work, you’re missing the boat.
If I know you’re having a bad day, it might not be the best training you’ve ever done in your life, but the gains we will get just from grinding today and pushing through it will make it worthwhile. It’s having that connection that you build over time that’s going to help you understand how to reach your athlete, and ultimately, how to help them succeed.