Starting to teach Pilates!!

Hello everyone!

It has been a very busy couple of weeks and I’ve finally found some time to update you on everything that’s been going on!

It is finally Fall! And of course that means there is chocolate around every corner, the allergies are worse than ever, and it’s midterms! As you all know, I am in a graduate program to be a High School Social Studies teacher and am really enjoying my program so far. Of course the next two weeks include a paper, two exams, and two presentations, so maybe that will change as I start preparing for everything. =P

Even though it’s been busy, I have had the time to start with my practice teaching client! She is a good family friend of mine and has never done Pilates before.  I have been pleasantly surprised with how well it has been going so far. The first day I realized that even though I had taken Pilates mat classes a ton of times, I was completely and horribly unprepared to actually teach it.  Thankfully, being new to Pilates, my practice teaching client had no idea.

I’ve also had the awesome opportunity to help Carey teach Pilates to the kids at Hillside Christian School (where her kids go).  This is pretty much the perfect combination of two things I love; working with kids and doing Pilates. Their seal noises rival those of actual seals, and I haven’t seen a group of people get that excited about plank contests in… ever.

Since the beginning of the program, we have had two sets of workshops. A workshop entails 16 hours of pulling apart and analyzing each of the movements so we can teach and do them safely and effectively. We just finished the second one at the beginning of this month and learned a ton. The focus was Mat, Reformer, and Cadillac/Tower through Level 3, but we also spent a lot of time on Anatomy. Although this definitely was a struggle to stay focused during, the plus side is that when it comes time to study for the test, I can color in my Anatomy book! Brand new box of crayons are already bought!

I have a long ways to go, but the totals so far are:

 Observations = 4/200 hours

Practice teaching = 9/250 hours

Lessons = 8.5/100 hours

Workshops = 31/124 hours

Misc. = 1/44 hours

 To do list for the next month:

1. Keep plugging away at teaching (maybe even try some stuff on the reformer!)

2. Get better at making time for my own Pilates practice!

3. Survive midterms!

Stay tuned for more updates next month! – Abby