Laura Diebold
CrossFit Coach
- Coaching Experience: 5 Years
- Words to Live By: Smooth is fast, fast is smooth!
- Favorite Movement:
- If You Were an Ice Cream Flavor, What Would It Be?:
Hi! My name is Laura, sometimes also Diablo, depending on who you ask and whether or not I have taught them kettlebells. I love trail running, enjoy vegetables, and ignore my bedtime alarm like a child being forced to take a nap. Heavy snatches scare me, kettlebell snatches bring me joy, and I bond with friends by feeding them cookie skillets and other baked experiments. My hometown is Austin, Texas and my happy place is the Adirondack mountains.
At five years old, I was enrolled in gymnastics and ballet for a hot second before my parents realized their mistake and let me run around circles and after soccer balls instead. Years later, I realized that my moments of gracelessness-induced humiliation were not avoided, so much as postponed to the moment when I would first attempt a muscle up and resemble a water-starved fish.
In the middle of high school, my family moved from Austin to Albany, NY. The first winter it snowed through April, and I learned to run in the snow and wind while wondering how anyone had managed to survive in the northeast for so long. Instead of avoiding blizzards forever, I ventured further north to Montreal for a B.A. at McGill University, where I majored in philosophy. I swapped track and cross country for triathlons, soccer, inner-tube water polo, and Quidditch (in order from least to most competitive). While rehabbing an ACL reconstruction in my junior year, I gained a love for all things strength and conditioning. I enrolled in a kinesiology practicum and spent the remainder of my non-major credits and time in the athletic facility.
I started CrossFit immediately after graduating, sure of nothing if not the fact that I needed to find an outlet for athletic endeavors and a team of friends to keep things interesting. In the meantime, I scattered myself in gyms around New York’s capital district, and began training one-on-one and in group settings while taking certifications in senior fitness, hatha yoga, hardstyle kettlebells, Spinning, TRX, and CrossFit.
I moved to Baltimore in the fall of 2018 to oversee NovaCare Rehabilitation’s MD/DC area wellness program, where we focus on facilitating discharged patients’ transition from physical therapy to continued progress in fitness. After moving, I missed coaching at my gym from home so much that I bothered Geo with emails about kettlebells-this and CrossFit and yoga-that until he and Davidson gave in and let me coach. And that about brings us up to speed! If you’re still reading this, I am honored by your interest and owe you a batch of protein balls or cookies (your choice). You know where to find me.