Alan Adkisson
March 21, 2018 16:59
Great, big space. The handful of members I met were welcoming and nice....and crushed their 18.4 workout.
However, the Saturday morning coach, Roop Sihota, was the most condescending and dismissive coach I have had the misfortune to meet.
Despite the fact I paid a $30 drop-in fee, told him I had been doing crossfit for over a year, and signed a waiver, he insisted he "watch me warmup and move" before giving me a go-ahead to lift. Lifting was all he allowed me to do, since that morning's class would be doing a workout with handstand walks.
I can understand that he did not want people doing any conditioning work while the gym's members were doing the week's Open workout. Nevertheless, he allowed two members to mobilize (read: dick around for an hour) in a section of the vast amount of open space that remained. There were only two heats of three-four people that morning.
The space is about six times as large as the one I use in NYC, Crossfit SPOT, where the coaches are actually welcoming and willing to help you find a place to get your work in, when you cannot go during class hours or even when a class is full. This is in stark contrast to Roop's behavior.
After the class finished its WOD and I finished my lifting, and before the next class started, I asked if I could use the ropes and trueform runner, since the next class would take the ropes down anyway, and they would not be using the runners. He said he couldn't let me do that, because he didn't want me to be in the way of the next class.
When I promised him I would be out of their way, he told me I was done for the morning, but at least he had been "gracious enough to let me lift for a while." I don't know how much that allowance was from my $30 and waiver versus his grace, but His Grace did allow me thirty minutes of lifting. I guess a dollar per minute of lifting isn't too bad, considering it's SF. However, add in the fact I had to listen to Roop's self-important explanations about why I could not use SF Crossfit's ample space as I needed, and it wasn't worth it.
Roop's poor customer service and bad attitude deserve one star, if not less. Because of the size of the gym, the welcoming community members I met, and the fact there are other coaches there, I am extending some of Roop's signature "grace" and giving SF Crossfit two stars.