My Experience Coaching at the KneesOverToesGuy /Mark Bell Event

Joining ATG For Coaches Was The Best Decision I’ve Made In My Life.

Why?

First, the knowledge. I’m paying 100$ a month for knowledge that might’ve taken me 10 lifetimes to discover. It’s overwhelming sometimes, knowing how much there is to learn.

Second, the community. From Keegan and Ben to the high school newbie coach… every member is authentic and accepting of different perspectives. Coaches are willing to take time out of their day to answer my questions. One coach even shared his paid content with me for free. He saw I was in a dark place and knew his content could help.

Third, the future. This group has expanded my vision. They don’t tell me “that’s not going to work”. They ask me “how can you make it work?”.

They believe in me, and that correspondingly has led to me believing in myself.

All of this, through a two dimensional black screen.

I’ve connected deeply with Coaches through this medium, but this screen poses a barrier to deeper connection.

The Sacramento Event: Off The Screen And In The Flesh

Saturday: Meeting the Group

When I landed in Sacramento, Ben Baker was the first ATG coach that greeted me at the airport.

I then met Eyad Mansour, my personal uber driver for the weekend. Who happened to be a Sacramento native and ATG coach.

Our group, and dozens of other ATG coaches met at a local coffee shop. Faces I’ve seen on screens for months suddenly became three dimensional.

I thought, “ahhh, this is what Ben Clarfield looks like in person?”

We all met up at Super Training Gym. I’ve never seen so many well defined VMO’s in one room at once :D.

We brainstormed ideas for how to construct the facility for the event. With Ben piecing the ideas together, the set up was ready within 45 minutes.

The goal for Saturday was to set up the event, and then run through the workout that we’d be coaching tomorrow.

100 Pulsing Slant board Step Ups-

Tibialis Raises,

Calf Stretch,

FHL Calf Raises,

Split Squats,

Patrick Step Ups,

Reverse Sled,

HASD (Heavy Ass Sled Drive),

Nordic,

Reverse Nordics.

At one point I was struggling to continue pushing the sled.

I started hearing voices “Let’s go Max!”. Normally, this voice is actually me trying to self motivate during my workouts.

Today I had peer support.

That moment was surreal for me. I felt so accepted.

As a group, we unpacked and set up a ton of Mr. Infinity’s Slant Boards that Ben had purchased. We didn’t know at this point that Ben would be giving all of the coaches a slant board to take home.

We drove back to the hotel to get our rooms situated before dinner.

As we walked in, Ben stood in the hotel lobby.

“You two are roommates,” he said, and handed Matt Pettit and I a key.

I would’ve roomed with any coach there, but I’m glad I got to room with Matt. I learned a lot from him this weekend.

Saturday: Dinner

In-N-Out burger was for dinner. I walked down into the lobby and John Nguyen offered to drive me. John, Sean Flaherty, and shared a ride to dinner.

Like all conversations I had this weekend, this was another deep one. As members of Keegan’s Gen Freedom group, we had common knowledge to discuss.

You can’t beat face to face conversations.

As a strict Carnivore, I polished 12 hamburger patties with no buns. At dinner I had the pleasure to speak to Andrew Elkhouly. Andrew is a down to earth character and I really enjoyed learning from him. He’s also a beast… Ben Patrick is quoted as saying “you have the best legs of anyone here”.

Sunday: Setting Up

We arrived at Super Training Gym at 7am. Ben was already setting up for the event with a few other coaches.

The day prior, Ben had split us up into groups of 5–6 coaches for the VIP event. Each group would start at a specific station and stay with their clients for the entirety of the event.

I was lucky to be in a group with Wade Houchin (ATG Nebraska), another familiar face I’ve seen on countless zoom calls.

Before the event began, I noticed Wade rubbing his jaw and his neck intensely.

“That’s interesting”, I thought.

I was curious, so I asked him what the hell he was doing.

He then put me and the rest of our group through an RPR session. Reflexive Performance Reset. I was immensely relaxed within minutes.

Wade says we must treat the mind first, before we treat the body.

Sunday: The Event

As a young coach I haven’t had much experience training clients.

The VIP event allowed me to dive deep into the issues of the specific individuals in my group. I realized first hand that I have enough of an understanding of ATG to teach others.

Each person who showed up was positive and willing to listen. I didn’t hear one ounce of complaining. Many of them were stronger and more athletic than me, yet they listened.

Conclusion: ATG attracts good people.

For the free event, I stayed at the ATG Split Squat session the entire time, which allowed me to get high repetitions practicing my coaching.

At one point, I was helping a young man regress his ATG split squat. I taught him that the goal is full hamstring over calf coverage. He had a light bulb moment and realized he needed to elevate his foot.

Then Mark Bell walked by and started making jokes.

At the beginning of the VIP Event Mark gave an emotionally charged speech. He spoke of his mother’s passing and shared philosophical wisdom on personal development.

It was the best live public speaking I’ve ever witnessed.

I aspire to one day have the ability to command a crowd in half the manner he did. I had goosebumps as he concluded and introduced Ben Patrick.

After receiving the applause, Ben gave immediate thanks to Mark and shared the role he’s played in his journey.

Lesson: always give credit first.

I had no idea Mark could go so deep on the philosophical side of things.

As he stood next to me, I asked him, “what mental frameworks for life have you found useful throughout your personal development?”

At the core of his response lies the term “Cognitive empathy”: my new favorite term.

Mark says that you don’t have to be best friends with everyone. You don’t even have to care about them. If you can do your best to understand their PERSPECTIVE, you’ll be successful.

This reminds me of KneesOverToesGuy’s principle of “Love the Other Guy’’.

This is at the heart of what it means to be an ATG Coach.

We are not here to degrade anyone’s perspective. We are here to do our best to see the other perspective, and offer a new way of looking at things.

As the event was wrapping up, I remember looking at my phone and being amazed that it was only 3:00pm. It felt like 7:00pm. My sense of time was distorted.

Sunday: Dinner

We relaxed at the hotel for a bit after the event, and then it was time for Dinner.

I sat at dinner next to Cliff Nielson and was blown away by his deep knowledge and perspective on success and personal development.

The other conversations I had at dinner revolved around the upside nature of health truth. What we’re learning in ATG is different. Not only the training, but the lifestyle.

David Mariani and Zach Knispel sat across from me, and Matthew Tam sat beside me. All 3 are unique characters in their own regard. A few minutes into dinner, David ran out to his car, and came back with raw organic honey. We then discussed unconventional ways of living life. Meat eating, breathing, sleeping, and living an abnormal lifestyle.

It felt amazing to connect with other “crazy” people.

Sunday: The Hotel Lobby

Sunday night in the hotel lobby after arriving back from the steak house around 9–10pm, everyone was chatting and the night was winding down.

John Nyguen gave a brief speech recognizing the authenticity of Ben. He ended by saying, “I’m really glad you fucked up your knees.”

A Small Digression:

Ben and Keegan’s philosophy for living has had a larger impact on me than ATG training itself.

I’m in the process of creating an article called “The Patrick Principles”.

Over the months of studying Ben Patrick’s work, I’ve been compiling his various frameworks for perceiving the world. If you’re an ATG coach, you’ve likely heard these before…

Respect above everything (Love the other guy).

“NO EXCUSES EVER FOR ANYTHING”

You get what you put your energy on.

Truth is inclusion, not exclusion.

…

Keegan has mentioned multiple times that Ben has done more personal development work than anyone he has ever met.

I’m extremely curious how he has come to these principles and beliefs.

My goal for this trip was to ask him about it.

Sunday: Back to the Hotel

Saturday and Sunday were hectic, I found myself in so many deep conversations, and I never found the right opportunity to talk to him about it.

Later that night, Ben approached me. He apologized that we didn’t get the chance to talk, and he invited me up to his room.

He had just run a massive event. He had to be up at 3am for his flight and yet…he sacrificed sleep to talk to me?

Ironically, I wanted to ask him about his methods for living life. Yet, as I spoke this question into existence, he immediately turned the question back onto me. “What are your goals?”, he said.

My response wasn’t very detailed.

If I’m honest, my path has been a bit fuzzy this past year. Maybe I could help people with nutrition and mental health? I have some ideas, but all I know is that I want to stay close to the ATG family.

He gave me simple, yet effective advice: get experience, stick with the group, and know your goals..

As the conversation continued, I was fortunate enough to hear about Ben’s goals for the future of ATG. I barely said a word the entire conversation. I was amazed at how his brain connected thoughts with one another.

It’s surreal to look a man in the eyes who has massively altered my perspective of life in such a short time of knowing of him.

Ben has a certain glow to him. He’s deeply human, but he’s operating at a higher level.

I went straight to my bedroom, juggled for a few minutes, and jumped on my bed.

I laid flat on my face.

It’s hard to explain the emotions I felt.

For a second, I felt a bit let down. I thought I didn’t get to ask Ben everything I wanted to.

But then I was swarmed with a feeling of immense gratitude and appreciation for this group. This group that he has brought together. I was appreciative of the advice I’d been given, not only by Ben, but from everyone I’d talked to throughout the weekend. My brain was spinning.

I’m home now, and I’ve been telling people “It was the best weekend of my life”, but that doesn’t do it justice.

It’s only the beginning. This is the first of many live ATG events that I will attend.

This group is bigger than training. Humanity isn’t ready for what we’ve got in store.

I have this confidence, because our leaders are the best of the best. And their message attracts those with a similar potential to help the world.

This week my goals have never been more clear. As I write these words, there’s one thing I’m certain of… I won’t let myself lose this group.

I love you ATG Family,

Max