Let me tell you about some of my favorite students. They are loud, giggly and sometimes don’t listen to anything I say. They often interrupt me when I’m teaching to ask questions like, “Can we do mermaid today, can I pick what we are pretending to sit against during Spine Stretch, or Mom did you check on the dog today (from my son of course!)” When I first started teaching them movement this really drove me a little (ok a LOT) crazy as a teacher. I often felt like a failure if all of them weren’t breathing properly, paying attention perfectly and doing exactly what I wanted them to do.
My favorite students also love to make up their own exercises, show me what new thing they did in dance or karate practice, and I often get hugs from them when they thank me for class afterwards. When they want to, these students can lay on a mat and practically perfectly execute the Pilates exercises that Joe created with amazing coordinating breath! During the school year I have been teaching the students of Hillside Christian School a Pilates class once a week for 6 years now. It’s always a highlight of my week. Every week I learn things that make me a better teacher and make be a better practitioner of the Pilates work.
When I started teaching at Hillside I learned pretty quickly that teaching Pilates and movement to kids is completely different from teaching adults. I am constantly bringing the lessons I learn from them into my own practice and into my teaching. After my weekly session with the kids this week I was reflecting on the many, many things that the kids have taught me and made a quick list:
- Having fun and moving is more important than perfect movement! Do you ever watch kids play and move? They don’t overthink things, they move with ease and most importantly enjoy what they are doing! They trust their bodies! I’m all for safe movement, but sometimes Pilates instructors overcorrect! Most adults just need to move more!
- It’s OK to demonstrate exercises or start to do them with a student! It has been ingrained in my head that my job is not to be getting a workout in while I am teaching…but I have to tell you I get a great workout in on the days I teach the kids! Why? Because they are visual learners and I’ve found the best way to get them moving is to get down on my mat and do the exercises with them while I teach. It took me a long time to be OK with this but let me tell you it has helped them learn 110% quicker than me trying to teach them simply with my words!
- Go with the flow. As a teacher I have learned to tailor each session to the energy of the class. If it’s the week before Christmas and nobody can sit still because they are way to antsy…I have to get a little more creative to keep the class under control. I have to mix it up with random bouts of running in place, jumping jacks and silly variations of exercises. Yes…you guessed it…I’m not afraid to use this creative teaching tactic on adults either (you never know what I might throw into your regular mat routine on any given night!)
- Sometimes all you need is a little motivation to try your best. You wouldn’t believe how a simple little”surprise” prize for the best behaved student encourages everyone to show up and do their best. (Yes I use this for adults at the studio all the time…. get a free Tshirt for getting your classes in, play studio Bingo and earn a free pair of Toesox!)
- One of my favorite lessons…Animal noises while you are doing an exercise make it much more fun. I’ve tested this with adults too…it’s true! Some of the best form I’ve seen of the Seal is in a room overflowing with the noise of barking seals. And the swan exercise is much more fun if you pretend you are a snake hissing and slowing slithering up to look at your prey!
Hope you enjoy this little clip from 2015 when some of the kids came to the studio for our annual Pilates Day celebration!!
This week I got a call from one of my instructors that something came up and she needed someone to sub her Barre & Pilates class in the evening and couldn’t find anyone else to do it. I said I could cover it for her. Normally subbing a Pilates class is no big deal and I’m pretty comfortable just jumping in and teaching whatever class it is. I have to tell you barre work is a little different though. If you know me at all you know that I am not a dancer, my hips are tight,my turnout is horrible and coordinating movement to music takes me hours of practice! I like the barre work as it’s really good for me but it’s not necessarily my thing when it comes to teaching.
I suck at talking. Give me a pen and paper or a keyboard and I’m a happy camper but communicating with my voice is something I’ve always struggled with. It does not come natural to me. It’s not that I don’t enjoy being around people and talking, I just always feel like when I talk nothing comes out how I want it to come out. I would much rather be the listener in a group of people who only chimes in with little bits of well thought out conversation. After conversations I’m always thinking to myself…why did I say that, why didn’t I say this, that’s not what I wanted to say….. 
Like most weeks, I taught my usual schedule of around 20 private Pilates sessions and 10 group classes (again…more talking..) 
I’m hoping that by sharing my fears this week, I might inspire someone to follow their heart. You see as much as I suck at talking, as much as I hate putting myself out there so people can hear me suck at talking I know that it’s what I need to do. I decided a long time ago that life is too short to not do what you are passionate about. Life is too short to not push yourself to grow and expand. I’m not exactly sure where I’m headed in life or what my exact purpose is but I do know that I’m pretty passionate about how amazing the Pilates work is and how it can be used as a health tool in anybody’s life. I have a career that I absolutely love and believe in with my whole heart even if I do have to push past my discomfort of talking in front of others.
ng of teaching!).
This week has been slightly busier than normal for me with my kiddos heading back to school, our new fall class schedule starting, a new class of teacher trainees starting and just general first of the month busyness at the studio. As I reflect back on my Pilates movement time this week I’ve realized that I did lots of Short Spine on the reformer, and two or three mini reformer workouts in between clients throughout my days. If you were wondering why Short Spine, why reformer…I was thinking the same thing. Here’s what I came up with!
As for my mini reformer workouts, I’ve decided that my decision to do these workouts was subconsciously from my need to use my movement time to de-stress and reconnect to myself. There is something absolutely genius about the design of the reformer and the sequence of exercises that helps me not only get a work out in but also refocus my brain! Even when I have 50 other things on my mind, I can lay on the reformer, start doing my footwork, and before long I am focused, concentrating on my movement and working my way through the sequence of exercises. I almost always end up doing more than I had thought I would when I got on and I always feel better and more focused afterwards! Much more than a workout this week my reformer time definitely was my refocus, reconnect to myself health tool!
I feel like the quote,”You can’t keep doing the same thing over and over and expect to get a different result” is so relevant in movement. As a movement teacher one of the biggest gifts you can give clients is teaching them how to “do something different” to keep progressing in their movement practice. And that doing something different doesn’t necessarily mean you have to change the exercise itself, but we can give clients a different way to experience the movement of the exercise, a new way to think about a movement or a new way to execute a movement with a prop. By teaching them to play with movements they learn to connect to their bodies more, engage more and trust themselves to makes adjustments and changes to an exercise so it suits their body.