As the last day of my internship arrived, I was able to sit in on some parts of the accounting processes and collecting money. I was very blessed to have the opportunity to be apart of the behind the scenes operations of a business I had been a customer to for so long. I learned a lot of things that I had not previously thought about as a customer. Being able to sit back and see things from another perspective gave me a different view on things in regards to running and maintaining a business.
The duties of my second day back included the normal maintenance of the weight room as well as assisting trainers with younger athletes. As a person who likes to lift weights and exercise regularly, I appreciate a clean and organized weight room. Things like weights laying all over the floor, or weights still on barbells can be inconvenient to other lifters as well as a safety hazard. Many fitness complexes including Georgia Sports Performance have elderly members. If heavy weights are still on bars and around the weight room, a person of less strength could injure themselves trying to change the weight. I know I personally hate having to rack up crazy amounts of weight. It interrupts my workout and just looks messy.
Today was my first day back at Georgia Sports Performance after returning from Tiffin and workouts with the football team. Today was busy, but my duties were about the same as before I left. I kind of watched more today to pick back up on what was going on! Above is a picture of one of our trainers taking some high school athletes through a workout on our turf surface. As you can tell, space is limited and must be used as efficiently as possible when it is busy like this!
Today is my last day of the first part of my internship before I go to Ohio for a couple months to workout as a team. I will be back at the end of July to finish the internship hours before fall classes. I have learned a lot more than I thought about the health club business. There are many things that have to be done to keep the organization running effectively.
Today was a normal day in regards to my daily activities. I maintained duties of weight room management and flow as well as assisting our trainers with youth workouts. Working with younger adults definitely takes a great deal of patience. Just getting some to stay in a line is a chore. The best part about working with these younger athletes is that we are building a base and culture for their athletic mindset. Things like working your hardest and keeping priorities in line with athletic goals are things that we emphasize to our youth population at GSP. I personally believe that teaching them these values is very important to there future development as a successful student athlete.
Today we had an incident involving our restroom facilities. One of our toilets broke and started to back up and flow over the bowl. As simple as this may sound it really was a big deal considering we have only one restroom each for men and women customers. The bathroom had to be closed down until it was fixed and our male clients were directed to a single use bathroom that our employees generally use. This is just a small example of how important maintain the everyday functions of a facility are. If one thing is over looked or not properly taken care of, the consequences can be devastating. Who knows, it could be more than just a toilet next time! We always have to be prepared.
Below is a picture of some of the changes and additions of our turf area. Having the ability to train indoors is a huge benefit for GSP and gives us a great competitive edge over others in the industry. The quality of the turf can be kept up and have a long life as long as we maintain it properly and keep it clean. Liquids and other elements can start to erode and damage the turf over time.
The start of my last week before leaving back to Tiffin until the end of the summer involved many of the same duties as before. These include weight room maintenance as well as assisting trainers with clients. Our high school, college, and youth athletes are all in full swing now. June and July are the busiest months for us at GSP and require full time and attention. With the influx of customers, it is alos extremely important we stay organized and maintain the flow of people through our facility.
Today marks the end of my fourth week at Georgia Sports Performance as an intern. I have learned quite a bit being here that I did not know before, mainly about the functions of the health club and not just what people see on the outside. Summer months are also big recruiting times for colleges at GSP. Daily there are coaches from all colleges around the country talking to our trainers looking for prospective student athletes. Currently, we have around 200 scholarship athletes that are GSP products and still have many more that will be signing scholarships.
Nearing the end of my 4th week of my internship, my duties have still been consistent with weight room maintenance as well as assisting others with workouts. As summer starts, the building is also a lot more crowded than before.Today is also when more students, mainly high school athletes, will start their training. With the increase in customers coming into GSP, there will be more paper work and payment plans that will need to be established and accounted for.
Again, like many other Wednesdays, there is not much going on as our athletes are usually on a break to recover from the workouts and training. Like other days, I tried to keep myself busy to show my supervisor some initiative and not always need to be guided on what to do. Wednesdays are actually nice days to get caught up instead of the normal constant rush of training and workouts. Wednesdays are also good days to move any new equipment into the facility as well as reorganizing facility equipment if necessary.
After the Memorial Day weekend, today was a little busy with many trying to get workouts in from Monday as well as nearing the end of the month in terms of finances. Because of the holiday off, we have some things that need to be kept up like our maintenance of the facility as well as athlete workouts. Staying organized is extremely important especially when dealing with record whether they have to do with finances, health, or legal documents. One day off could set us behind but luckily we were able to keep everything straight and in order.
The end of the week brought some different responsibilities with collecting money as well as organizing finances. Again, at the end of the week it is time again to collect payments from our athletes. There are different plans our athletes are set up. Some pay in lump sums by the month while others choose a lesser, weekly payment. Either way, we have to make sure that we get our payments in on time despite trying to preserve friendships. At the end of the day, we are running a business and have to make sure we get our payments.
Today's duties included the same responsibilities as usual with weight room maintenance as well as assisting with personal training. An issue that arose today was rain. On most Thursdays, we have workouts outdoors. Today, because of rain, we had to change our plans and move back indoors. While there is not a set schedule of who uses the turf field, it can be crowded with many other people trying to get on it. With the bad weather that moved in, we had to change our workout on the run while also not interfering with others schedule.
Today was mostly a maintenance day. I along with others after working out detailed different machines and equipment to keep them in shape and functioning properly. There are liabilities that go along with improperly maintained equipment. Like many other Wednesday's, our facility is emptier than usual. With this break in business, we have time to upkeep any equipment and detail machines to keep the up to date. This kind of maintenance is extremely important to keep our equipment clean and last longer. Increasing the length of the machines usable life can also save our organization money in the long run.
Today was a normal day like many others. I kept my steady duties of managing weight room as well as its organization and still getting more chances to see the personal training side of business as well as operations. There is definitely a lot more that goes into it than I thought. As for the weight room, today we moved in new lifting racks to replace the old ones. We got eight new racks to replace the old ones that were starting to fall apart. Unlike the platforms that we got used, the racks were necessary to be bought brand new for safety reasons. The racks are pretty old and can start to be a liability. In this case, buying brand new equipment is a necessary expense that will hopefully last a while if kept up properly.
With the third week of my internship starting, I have found my duties to be relatively the same. I am steadily in charge of weight room management and maintenance, as well as getting a chance to see the personal training aspect of the business. I was also enlightened on the aspects of fixed costs such as rent and other utilities. To rent out a facility as large as the one GSP uses takes quite a bit of money for rent and utilities. Just to heat and cool the building can cost thousands of dollars per month. On top of that, rent has to be paid along with other bills like water and electricity. The weather can also be a huge factor in utilities. If it is warm in the summer, the AC bill will be higher. If it is very cold in the winter, the bill can also be high. GSP has different ways of balancing these costs to keep expense low.
Today's duties were consistent with weight room management as well as assistance with personal trainers. Also, being it is the end of the week, I was able to see some financial procedures. Since today is Friday, and the end of the week for all of our athletes also means it is pay day. If GSP treats some athletes differently than others, than the inconsistency will be seen and some athletes will lose confidence in our system. Creating a double standard would also be unfair to other athletes. We have to treat everyone the same especially when it comes to payment.
Today I maintained my duties of weight room management as well as assisting in training sessions. It is becoming more clear that being able to teach someone something is quite more difficult than it seems (like a lift). Tomorrow should be some work with the week's financial doings. As the week gets towards its end, many people who are set up on weekly payments are either paying or figuring out how to pay. Most of the athletes we deal with are college students or high school students all paying their way. GSP is VERY flexible on payments, but I learned at some point, GSP is a business and has to make sure it gets payments for its services. If an athlete continuously chooses not to pay, then we have no choice but to discontinue his/her training until they can pay what is owed. Many of the people around GSP are close friends, so it can be hard to lay a line down without fear of ruining a friendship. But at some point it has to be a relationship of a customer and a business.
Today was a slow day. There was not much going on, but I still maintained my duties of weight room maintenance as well as assuring in training sessions. On days, like Wednesdays, our athletes are usually off to recover from lifts and running. For me, days like today can get boring and hard to keep busy. I learned on these kind of days how important it is to find things to do and show great initiative. My supervisor was pleased to not just see me sitting around which I could have easily done. As I continued to try and find things to do I figured out that the day was not a boring as it seemed. I learned there are always things to do and that need to be done. Things like cleaning mirrors, or sweeping, and other things to kill time. Letting chores like this slip can make it harder and have more to do in the future.
The duties I was given today were much the same as usual. After my own personal workout, I maintained weight room quality and organization. I'm starting to see that taking someone through a workout is a lot more about teaching than I had thought before. Also, the weather today had a significant impact on my workout, others workout, and the operation of the facility as a whole. Being that summers in Georgia are constantly blazing hot, running air condition in a huge place like we have would be big expense. Luckily, we have garage doors that can be opened if needed to get air flowing, as well as a big helicopter blade fan from the ceiling. Even with these things, the place remains very hot and increases the need to keep it clean and wiped down. More sweat can be hazardous to slip on as well as from a health standpoint to other lifters.
Today's duties were much like last week starting with weight room and turf maintenance in the morning then after my personal workout, assistance in the individual client and team training. The tough part about turf management is keeping it clean and in good condition. Having food, or drinks other than water spilled on the turf can ruin it and start a destructive process. To keep it clean we have rules that should be followed when on the turf such as no drinks or food, and no spitting. The more day to day upkeep of the turf, the longer the product will last and, in the long run, cost the organization less money.
Assisted head trainers with clients today as well as weight room and facility management. Overall it was a good first week at Georgia Sports Performance. I learned this week that much of what I will be doing is the same everyday, but can not be forgotten about. Letting the weight room get messy can cause some safety concerns as well as just looking messy. Not staying on top of payments can lose the business money as well. In addition, collecting important legal documents is key to protecting GSP from law suits and losing millions is legal fees and possible damages having to be awarded. Many of these things I was unaware of before I started this week. Definitely a lot more to learn in the coming weeks, too!
Before and after my personal workouts, my duties included weight room maintenance and organization. Along with weight room duties, I assisted in the speed training of other athletes at the high school level. Along with the physical activities I was responsible for, I also had to collect waivers and sign my own waiver. The waiver was a liability release from GSP in case an athlete gets hurt or is injured while participating. I never really thought about these liabilities but I now know they are necessary to protect the organization from being sued. Not having correct documentation can easily lead to a law suite and millions in damages.
Continued assistance with weight room maintenance as well as weight program guidance to younger athletes. The weight room at GSP, especially during the summer can be very crowded. While having all these athletes is great for business, there are also concerns. The biggest concern is safety. With so many people in an area with heavy weights moving around and being dropped, it is important to keep the flow of workouts organized and out of everyone's way. This was one of my tougher jobs to keep everyone moving, yet out of the way of other members working out. Below is a picture from the outside of the facility. The location is in an industrial park that is home mostly to warehouses. The spaces are pricey, but very spacious and GREAT parking!
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