Maximilian Schmid

I was borne in 1961 in Munich/Germany. In my early childhood I had not been much into sports. It changed with the Olympic Games in my hometown nearing. Suddenly very interested in sports and therefore motivated I was successful in some school competitions in athletics, swimming and skiing. During high school I came to the idea becoming a physical education teacher. I joined the University Sports Club of Technical University Munich in the gymnastics department and got instructed by coaches who also were lecturers at that university. As my idea of a PE teacher was to be skilled in many sports, I have been training in various kinds of sport since then. After high school examination I studied Sports and Sport Sciences as major subject, together first with mathematics , then with geography for the teaching profession in high schools at universities in Munich and Berlin. As I still was in the former West-Berlin when the Berlin Wall got opened, I took the chance to join seminars as a guest student at the East Berlin Humboldt University and got some more knowledge about the East German sports system and life in the former GDR as well. After graduating with the First Scientific Examination of State, comparable to a Masters‘ Degree, I completed my traineeship as second phase of teachers’ education with two years teaching at the high schools in Laupheim and Ehingen/ Donau, accompanied by regular seminars, in the federal state Baden-Württemberg. Despite successful graduation with the Second Examination of State there had been no vacant positions for young teachers at that time, particularly with my so-called minor subjects. I worked then at a rehabilitation clinic as sports therapist, then in a project for the cooperation of school sports and sports clubs, and finally self-employed with my own small studio in health sports with focus on back and osteoporosis therapy in Aschheim near Munich. Regarding certifications by the German Association for Health Sports and Sports Therapy
( Deutscher Verband für Gesundheitssport und Sporttherapie) I had achieved as further education for the work in this field.
At the end of the 90‘s I went to Thailand after undergoing a training from Goethe-Institute. I taught German and sometimes also English at a high school near Bangkok, later mainly English at two private language schools and then for five years German as lecturer at Thammasat University Bangkok and seven years at Kasetsart University Bangkok. Despite working in a different field I actively trained on an almost daily base as before, instructed children and young people from the Black Mask Fencing Club Bangkok of my friend Chatchai Kasemwong in warm up and cool-down as well as strength and conditioning programs and I always was trying to learn new things such as in courses in Krav Maga and Muay Thai, a certification class in Kinesiological Stretching from Paul Zaichik, during a visit to the United States I participated in Phase 1 of Mark Verstegen’s Athletes‘ Performance Mentorship in Tempe/Arizona or when I visited the preparation course from Fitness Innovations Thailand (FIT) in Bangkok for my Personal Trainer Certification by the American Council on Exercise (ACE). Since then I have joined all Asia Fitness Conferences in Bangkok (2012 it was in Pattaya, and 2020 due to the Corona crisis it was postponed) since 2009, the first of this event. At this first conference I got in touch with the kettlebell for the first time in some sessions instructed by Steve Cotter.
Still in Bangkok I was at the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) Level 1 course and I am authorized to test people with this system.
At the end of 2017 I returned to Munich to work freelance as Personal Trainer and as a second pillar also teaching German to foreigners. Still in Bangkok I prepared for the StrongFirst Kettlebell Instructor Course Level 1 under the guidance of Geoff Neupert. I completed then the SFG I course in Prague with team leaders Pavel Macek and Fabio Zonin. In 2018 and 2019 I attended several StrongFirst events, including Plan Strong with Fabio Zonin in Vicenza, Strong Endurance in Lilleshall and Second Wind in Prague , both with Pavel Tsatsouline, invited by Sven Rieger as one of the assistant instructors at the kettlebell course in Stuttgart in December 2018 and at the same place at an instructors‘ only course in Stuttgart and in August 2020 at another instructors‘ only course in Pfungstadt.
What I have learned at StrongFirst is like sports study 2.0 for me. Although I am not a youngster anymore by the calendar, I feel more energetic, having more strength and power than in my younger years thanks to the different approach to training I have learned by StrongFirst compared to the training methods I followed for a long time before. But I don’t want to miss my way in sports, including learning about methods and exercises which were often exhausting, less efficient or leading to uncomfortable feeling, as comparing it to how I train myself and also my clients nowadays makes me understand better the benefits of what I have been learning in the last years and I want to continue this learning process.
I work as a personal trainer in Munich, visit clients in and in the surroundings of Munich and also offer online classes.