THE MINDFUL COACH
Applying Mindfulness in High-Intensity Fitness
An 8-week mental training system for CrossFit coaches — built from Buddhist philosophy, elite sport psychology, and the real demands of the box.
Your Athletes Feel The Difference
Your athletes will feel whether you’ve done the work or not. I built The Mindful Coach for CrossFit coaches who want to bring real presence into their coaching — not just talk about mindset, but actually train it, in themselves first, so they can recognize and cue it in the people in front of them.
What’s Inside
A 62-page training handbook — Buddhist philosophy, mental frameworks, and daily practices built for the competitive environment of CrossFit — plus guided meditations (10-minute and 5-minute) to sharpen your focus and your relationship to your own mind.
The Handbook & Meditations
Daily integrative practices — breath counting, intention setting, walking the floor — turn ordinary gym moments into mental training. Then benchmark WODs like DT, Fran, and Fight Gone Bad test and strengthen the mindset you’re building.
Daily Practice & Benchmark WODs
Every module includes a Coaching Application section — how to introduce the skill to your athletes, how to cue it, and how to recognize it (or its absence) in the people you coach. Finish all four modules and the assessment and you’ll earn a Certificate of Completion, worth 6 CEUs.
Coaching Application & Certification
Why This, Why Me
I didn’t come to this from a textbook. I’ve spent years training mindfulness in high-pressure performance environments — with competitive CrossFit athletes, with actors, with executives — and I’m a certified mindfulness instructor trained through George Mumford’s Mindful Athlete lineage and Dharma Moon / US Tibet House. (George is the guy who worked with Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, if that context helps.)
My clients include Bobby Wallum (8th place, 35-39 Division, ‘25 CrossFit Games), Korby Foxall, Dave Syversten, Dan Coda, and Joe Piero (CrossFit Team Games ‘26). I’ve also spent over a decade teaching this material to actors as faculty at Columbia University’s MFA Acting Program, and I bring the same real-world pressure-tested tools to the box — I currently coach at CrossFit gyms and understand exactly what you’re dealing with when you’re coaching a room full of people mid-WOD.
You don’t need to be a meditation teacher to use this. You need to be a coach willing to train something new.
WHAT COACHES ARE SAYING
“Rafi made a complex topic like working on mindfulness very manageable. I can personally say working with him changed my perspective not only on my sport, but on everyday life. By being able to notice my thoughts, I can more easily continue working on the task at hand without getting caught up on those specific thoughts.”
— Bobby Wallum, 8th Place '25 CrossFit Games (35-39 Division)“Rafi has taught me how to focus more effectively during workouts and competitions, how to manaGE PRESSURE, AND — MOST IMPORTANTLY — HOW TO BE PRESENT IN THE MOMENT.”
— Dan Coda, 2nd Place Masters Fitness Championship (40-44 Division)You already know your coaching matters. This gives you the tools, the practice, and the framework to deepen it.
8 weeks. 4 skills. 1 certificate. 6 CEUs.