Have you observed another instructor’s class? More than likely yes you have. There are plenty of opportunities to observe an instructor’s class whether it’s at your studio, on Pilates Anytime, being a student and taking class, observation for your teacher training program, or at a continuing education class to name a few.
What’s your first thought when observing? Do you focus on how you would teach the class instead? Do you begin to see different ways of doing an exercise?
Think about how babies learn first. They observe and then mimic. They can’t use speech, they can hardly use their hands for describing what they want. Your class is doing the same when you are teaching them.
The next time you observe a class, even if it’s only for a few moments, think of how you can mimic what you observed. Not with words but maybe with motions. Or use only words to have them mimic what you saw or want them to do.
Next question is why would you change the way the class was taught? Did you see people not understanding the exercise? Did you see people getting frustrated and struggle? Did you not like the flow of the class? Write down the class sequence if it wasn’t classical mat or reformer and see if you could teach the same class but with your style. Or change one exercise and see if it gives you better results.
Lastly, what did you learn from the instructor? Is there something you saw that makes sense to you and want to teach in your own class? Did you discover an exercise that makes more sense to you?