If you're a parent, you've heard this before. Your five-year-old isn't interested in Little Red Robin Hood, not really; they just want to hear the Big Bad Wolf voice.
Voice inflection is more powerful than you may realize. It goes without saying that it's critical to project an excited demeanour to your clients, but doing the same thing all the time - same cheers, same words of encouragement, same gestures - can become monotone. Clients acclimate to you. And since we already know that novelty is king, acclimatization is a negative.
Some steps to changing and applying inflection during a tough WOD:
- Get on their level - if they're on the floor, get down with them. Try to make eye contact.
- Alternate pulling and pushing, carrot and stick: "Don't Stop. Five more to go!" "Let's do another three, and then take a five-second break." "Keep your hands on the bar!" "Okay, let's try to get the first thirty unbroken."
- Use a more intimate voice when things get REALLY tough. At the start of the WOD, it's great to be loud and screamy. With three reps left on Grace, though, I'm standing so close that I'm practically sharing their shirt.
- In that same vein, a low voice - just above a whisper - adds a degree of intimacy that lets the athlete know that they are receiving your undivided, private attention at that moment. Eye contact can also work wonders from across a room.
- Building: in a crowded, noisy gym, if you see one athlete struggling, start with a calm, empathetic voice. "Okay, you're doing well. You're already over half done. Three more seconds rest, and we stand up again. 3...2....1....okay, great. Hands on the bar." Building speed and pitch into your speech can lead to a crescendo of action.
- In a quiet gym, with an athlete attempting a personal best, you can draw attention to their attempt with the slow buildup, too. Start with the personal and intimate, as above, and slowly build up your magnitude until people are taking notice. Nothing beats the private attention of a coach when you're trying hard; and nothing beats applause when you succeed.
- A deeper voice seems more sincere.
- Different scenarios require different voices (and different personalities.) Outside? loud. Max deadlift? Loud, from behind. OLY technique day? Well, Rip swears by southern rock, and who am I to argue?
As with anything else, frequent change is best. To illustrate the technique to our interns on Tuesday night, I went systematically from one athlete to the next in a circuit during the WOD. I used a different voice every time I made a lap. It wasn't spontaneous; it was planned. The athletes didn't notice that I was always encouraging them in the same order. They didn't see the pattern. What they DID recognize was individual attention, tailored to fit their exact predicament.