COACH HIGHLIGHT: COACH CATE
It’s just so fucking rad that I get to be part of this community. No matter how frozen I am, how dark it is when I wake up, how sore my ass is, I come back to this feeling of gratitude.
I’ve been a part of many teams, clubs, groups, etc. As a former D1 athlete, I’ve done a fair amount of coaching, teaching, and training. Movement is empowering. Whether it be yoga, running, strength training, or sports, these movements are mini celebrations of having a body and being alive. Moving your body can be an expression of power - your body is a gift with which to experience the world, to experience your life.
As I got to know Katie and Burns better this past year, we had many conversations around these ideas: how body movement can be a catalyst for deeper change, how everyone should be encouraged to find joy in their body, how they wanted to make a space where enjoyment of your body and of movement is the fucking point. Katie will meet you where you are. She and Burns work incredibly hard to create a space that is encouraging, challenging, and playful. I’ve never had a coach that could match the depth of knowledge, passion, and deep thoughtfulness Katie offers. Each class strengthens not only my body, but also my connection to this community.
We’re at the year mark of this pandemic, and I’ve cried at least once every single day in this past year. Waves of grief, personal and communal, have been crushing and repetitive. Depression sucked the color, the joy, the play, from life. Somehow, time had both stopped completely but was also running out. If I felt anything on a given day, I was feeling fear.
No exaggeration - this community saved me. You all are an incredible gift: a place to be, something to be a part of, the casual intimacy of shared movement. I was so isolated by grief, depression, and fear. And then, here was a group of people around me, smiling at me, nicknaming me “35,” lending me gloves, cheering for me, hand-making ornaments for me, shoveling snow off a field for me, planning a day of sack-races and capture-the-flag for me. For all of us. Maybe you also remember some of these moments, and you felt them as deeply as I do.
What you do every day matters - including how you jump over a hurdle, climb a rope, push a sled, or cheer for the person six feet from you. How you spend your time, care, and attention matter - this is what makes up your life, what makes up the meaning you hold on to. These connections formed on the turf (in the heat, wind, rain, sleet and snow) matter in the way they compound, the way they build something bigger. Something to belong to, to be seen by, to be part of.
Come to class and you’ll put in work, there will be plenty of ass jokes, but you are immediately part of it - just as you are.
Coach Cate
@cate_jay on Insta