When Sports Buddies Go to Work

Thursday evening, 6 o’clock. It’s been a long day – productive, but long. Time to go home, grab something to eat on the go and spend a promising evening in front of the TV.

Stop right where you are, I’ve got better plans for you.

I will spend my evening with 20 highly motivated individuals who are willing to invest a lot of sweat and ongoing determination to step up their fitness game. 20 individuals, who may be a little bit tired when we first meet but are bursting with energy only 90 minutes later. 20 individuals who are celebrating team work not only in business but also in sports.

Or, to put it in other words: I am a company sports trainer who’s been coaching a bunch of colleagues in boxing every Tuesday and Thursday evening for the past three years. And there are good reasons for you to show up there, too!

In my courses you can find employees from all levels, business areas and nationalities working together towards becoming better athletes. The atmosphere is free of hierarchies and full of playfulness, thus making Company Sports courses the perfect platform to find new partners in crime and expand your business network. Of course the fact that nearly all boxing exercises are performed in pairs also helps to overcome initial reservations and grow together as a team. Furthermore, as a trainer, I try to catapult the networking aspect to the next level by inviting my course participants for joint lunches.

And it works. For example, I once had a participant who wanted to change roles but wasn’t really aware of options to do so. After opening up about this within one of our sessions a colleague from a totally different business unit encouraged him to apply for an open position within his team. Long story short, the job-hunting colleague followed his advice, got the position and lived happily ever after. And the moral of this story? Those who sweat together, stick together.

Jab, cross, uppercut, hook: In boxing you have to concentrate to avoid taking a severe drubbing and provide your partner with valuable feedback on their technique. That annoying email you received yesterday? Get over it. While training, all that counts is the here and now, the next punch, the next block.

Sport lets you forget the sorrows you have and clear your mind. It’s no wonder that I sometimes step outside the course room with the perfect answer to that annoying email – even without having actively invested brainpower into it.