The 2nd column of Chelsea Streifeneder. Chelsea Streifeneder is the proud owner of Body Be Well Pilates in Red Hook and Catskill NY, located in the beautiful Hudson Valley.
Here are five things I think make a Rock Star Pilates teacher!
This fall, I will begin my 6th Pilates certification program, teaching others how to teach Pilates. Fifteen weeks, 450 + hours, anatomy, springs, all apparatus and more! Seeing the success and progression of former students makes me all the more excited to start this new group of trainees! Having done it before I started asking myself – after the program is over and these students become officially certified what makes someone a good teacher? Or better yet, a Rock Star teacher?
As far as Pilates goes, I’ve thought about the thousands of classes and sessions I’ve taught and others have taught as well as the many that I have observed at my own studios, other studios, and online. In this article I’d like to share some qualities that I think are needed for a Rock Star class and session. Here are five things I think make a Rock Star Pilates teacher!
- Make mistakes! We are human and we botch things up sometimes! Teaching Pilates can be messy sometimes. There are arms and legs everywhere, sweat, personal expression and emotional release all going on while you are leading a class or session, managing the room, and supporting everyone! In the midst of all this, you may make a mistake or two. A Rock Star teacher continues to move forward, learns from the mistakes without personalizing them and looks for future opportunities to do it differently and grow.
- Always learning and growing! Teaching Pilates should never be at a standstill. How you teach in your first year will be so different from how you teach in your fifth year and so on. What you know will change, but along with that comes an obligation to yourself and your clients that you should always be looking for ways to increase both your knowledge of Pilates as well as to continue to push yourself to take personal risks in the areas of your personal teaching style. This kind of personal style only can grow and will take on a richer quality as you get more experience, as you learn from your mistakes, as you take risks and as you’re willing to step into your full sense of yourself at all times.
- Know their stuff! Over the last decade, Pilates has grown in popularity exponentially, creating an ever-expanding need for highly educated Pilates teachers. Unfortunately, this need for instructors has led to fly-by-night teacher training schools popping up all over. Historically, a Pilates teacher needed to undergo 400 – 600 hours of lecture, observation and self-practice in order to safely teach clients. Now we see organizations claiming to “certify” Pilates teachers in as little as just 8 hours, at home programs and weekend warrior programs! Not ok! And “knowing their stuff” should not only include the workout they’re teaching, but the why of it, the anatomy and exercise science behind it, and how to modify it to make it more difficult or easier.
- If we don’t know, we don’t pretend! A good teacher will tell you if he or she doesn’t know something. And, a Rock Star teacher will refer you to the person who does know, or try to find out the information and get back to you. Everyone has resources and should use them when needed.
- They just love it! The bottom line is that Rock Star teachers love to teach and it will show!
To me, any amazing teacher has the capability to significantly change people’s lives. This is one of the many reasons I started down this path and why I am still walking down it today. There’s definitely no teacher stereotype but there are some key ingredients that separate the good teachers from the Rock Star teachers!
Chelsea Streifeneder Pilates Studio Body Be Well Pilates New York, US.
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