Maria Madrid 60 Minute Step Video

You have the rare opportunity to see assymetric choreography at its best with 60 minutes of step pleasure.  You will see how she breaks down one of her inspirational classes and builds it up from really simple beginnings, so that every instructor can learn from this. You will get loads of inspiration and ideas from one of the world’s best fitness presenters.  To view this video please click here

Fitness Ballet

This is a great interview with Ellie Burns, instructor and trainer for the all new training program that is sweeping the country called Fitness Ballet. It is gathering loads of media attention, for example in the national newspapers.  If you have not seen this concept before then here is a sneak preview.

For those of you that love to teach dance fitness then this could be the perfect class to give you that extra string to your bow, and set you apart from your local competitors.

In this interview you will find out, more about Fitness Ballet, whether you need to have dance experience to teach it, how you can get trained, and what the training consists of.

You will definately have a clearer picture of the phenomenon that is Fitness Ballet and how it can help you!

To listen to this awesome interview with Ellie about Fitness Ballet, press play below

  I have loads more conditioning ideas, videos, ebooks, and audio interviews in my mind/body and conditioning special offer.  Click here to find out more.

 

If you do 360 turns on a step you are NOT creative!

 I have been teaching a lot of step masterclasses which I love doing.  However there was one very worrying trend that I noticed in my step masterclass that caused me to have a bit of a diva moment in one recent class! Read on…… So I am putting my routine together and in the routine was a good old fashioned basic over the step, which I put in as a bit of a break from the other, more complex stuff.  Well as I am teaching it and getting the group to go over the routine, I noticed that some of my old “advanced” steppers were doing some sort of 360° turn as they are going over the step.    Now in the big scheme of things with credit crunch, the new coalition government, and the return of Big Brother 48, this may not seem a major thing.  But I must admit it really hacked me off, and it is not the first time I have seen it. This seems to have been a very recent addition to certain presenter’s choreography routines, and I have always wondered why.  I mean I would like to think that I am known for my step choreography.  I would have to ask you, when is the last time that you saw GOOD (and I mean GOOD) step presenters have a  360° Rudulph Nureyev turn over such a narrow platform.  I would bet my rapidly increasing overdraft that the answer is never. So the diva moment came, when I stopped teaching, told all of my old steppers to not even think of doing that in my class again and if any of the instructors that were in the room encouraged that type of movement in a bid to be creative then they obviously lack creativity to think of other ways to make their routines interesting! Plus it looks rubbish (in my opinion)!   Although I maybe went a bit OTT in my criticism I did mean every word.  I was lucky enough to teach A level dance for a year and learnt that there were over 16 ways to change a basic movement, and turning is only one……..ONE! So I do have a real problem when I see classes and masterclasses, where the only creativity is to add a spin, or if we are lucky, a double spin. Whooooooooo! I would also go as far as to say that encouraging these dangerous, unnecessary movements on the step is partly the reason why certain members are choosing pre choreographed alternatives As you can tell I am passionate about the art of creating freestyle choreography.  I just hope that the message will slowly get though that you can be as creative as you want, using the right teaching methods, without risking your knee joint (which is a hinge joint, not a ball and socket joint), and without encouraging your clients to be ballet dancers on step. For those of you that teach step, your challenge is to creative a routine which has no full turns in, and think of other ways to change your choreography.  Good luck!

I show you loads of practical ways that you can accomplish this in my Steppers Delight Special Offer.  For more information, click here

The Grade 1 Group Exercise Class

Having just survived my second Ofsted inspection as a college lecturer,  I was amazed at how much I had to prepare in terms of paperwork and also what had to be included in lesson plans for them to be given a grade 1 (outstanding) or 2 (very good), as opposed to a grade 4, which is unsatisfactory.   Then it got me thinking. Could some of the lessons learnt from my college inspection be transferred to the group exercise fitness format to improve my classes and presentations.  Before our inspection we were given an inspector’s guide to the perfect lesson.  So let’s go through this guide and see what we learn from this. The outstanding lesson consist of the following;  Planning  “Teaching is very well planned and all courses have thorough schemes of work”  Lesson to be learnt ;  Make sure that your class is well thought out with logical learning curves and that the class fits in with where you want the participants to go.  For example if you are doing a conditioning class, where do you want them to be in 2 – 3 months time, how many reps should they be doing with what exercises?  Which phase of their training should they be in?   Aims  “The aims of the session are displayed and shared with the students at the start.” Lesson to be learnt; Do your participants know what you expect them to do by the end of the lesson?  Research has shown that participants are more focussed when they know what is expected of them.  Presentation skills  “Teachers are very knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and the best are inspirational, skilfully imparting their passion to their students.”  Lesson to be learnt; this is a no brainer!  Know your stuff, be a good teacher, and teach your classes with enthusiasm and passion!  Variety of teaching strategies                                              “In the best lessons, teachers use a wide variety of imaginative teaching strategies” Lesson to be learnt: People learn in different ways so try to vary the way that you deliver your material.  Vary how you construct choreography, how you break down your choreography and also think about the different ways of getting your message across, for example use mental and visual images as well as technical instructions  Differentiation  ”In the best lessons, activities are devised that will stretch and challenge the more able students and also enable the weaker students to learn effectively.”  Lesson to be learnt;  Teach to mixed abilities, offer progressions for the level 3 participants but don’t forget the less skilled that need level 1 or 2 options, especially in classes such as step, aerobics and conditioning  Developing learner skills  “Students learn how to be critical and analytical as well as gaining good subject knowledge.”  Lesson to be learnt; I believe that we are educators as well.  So try to educate our class participants into why they are doing certain exercises and how they can improve, especially in conditioning or stretch classes.  By developing our learning curves and the way we teach our freestyle classes our learners will improve their motor skills which is an important part of fitness.  Summation  “Learning is constantly checked and summarised well at the end of lessons” Read more

Interview With Celebrity Trainer Richard Callender

I had the great pleasure to interview the one and only Richard Callender.   As well as being the face of many celebrity fitness workout videos such as The Jordan Workout , Dancing on Ice and Vicky Entwhistle he is an established fitness presenter and now a featured Personal Trainer on ITVs the Biggest Loser. Richard has given some of his valuable time in this interview and he reveals such secrets such as; 1) How he got his lucky break to become an established media expert 2) The keys to his success and how you can benifit 3) The main programs that he is developing and how you can be a part of it. 4) 3 tips to become a more successful fitness expert And lots more!  To listen to this interview please click the link below. Read more

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