This past weekend, I finally completed my reformer 2 training. It was a very long weekend involving the integration of many new moves, building on old moves, further understanding of the body, and practice teaching. The training course was broken down into two 11-hour days. Within each day, we focused on many of the essential movements of the reformer 2 level meanwhile integrating many other important tips and strategies to help us throughout our training process.
Day one began with a very brief introduction of everyone’s experience thus far in Pilates. Many people were very new, some had brief experience teaching, and some were advanced in other types of teaching such as personal training and mat pilates. Whether you are experienced in other areas, there is still an abundance of things to learn. After our introductions, we began exploring our workbooks, which discussed the many different body types, injuries, and clients we may encounter in our practice. Though this may not be the movement piece, many could argue that this is more important to learn. As I am interested in teaching group lessons rather than personal lessons, I must develop the knowledge of things I should be cautious of in a group of clients. Teaching, correcting, and observing clients at the same time can be quite difficult. It is very important that you clients are safe and prepared to avoid injuries. As the morning moved along, we began to hop onto the reformers and practice many moves that are very standard for this level of teaching. Some were growing on moves we have learned in reformer 1, and some were very new to me. Perfecting these moves and understanding how they feel and work in your body is very important. Though I have been practicing Pilates for many years and am very familiar with these moves from my practice, focusing more awareness on what I am doing can make such an amazing difference. Recognizing and feeling all of the little muscles working can enable you to visualize how it should look and feel to your clients.
After learning so much the first day, I felt extremely tired and burnt out. I also left feeling a lot of anxiety as teaching is much harder than it may look some days. I went home contemplating whether I was going to be a good teacher. Following the first day, I went into the second morning very discouraged. I felt extremely anxious about practicing my instructing skills. During the day, we resumed the focus of practicing new exercises and discussing more in-depth tools for our instructing practices in the future. I wrote as many notes as I could to ensure I was getting the most out of my practice and had many resources that I could use in the future. Nearing the end of the day, we were each given a sequence that we were meant to teach from start to finish in front of the class using 4 of my peers as “clients”. I was the first to teach my sequence. I felt self-doubt and insecurity in my abilities, which made my anxiety much worse. As my peers hopped on their reformers, I began my instruction and ran through my sequence. When I was completed, I got tons of feedback. I convinced myself it would be negative, but to my surprise, there was nothing but positivity from my mentors and peers. I received compliments on my instructing voice, calmness, and preparedness. All of the doubt and anxiety I had been feeling washed away and gave me the reassurance I needed. This experience made me recognize that I am in control of the positivity and belief I have in my abilities. I recognize the work I put into the things I am passionate about, so my next steps are to develop the faith I have in myself. I am very excited to continue this process and I am curious to see what will happen next.
