Behind the C-curve: A teacher’s blog.

February is Inside Out month here at Real Pilates.
Boy do I have a lot to say on that topic!
I could write about the obvious concept of Pilates working the body from the inside out. But instead I want to talk about being uncomfortable.

Becoming good at something, really anything, requires that you go through a long period of discomfort. Becoming good at something, requires you start from a place of ..well, being bad at something. By the time you graduate from your teacher training program, you will have been uncomfortable teaching for quite a bit of time. When you finally embark upon your first teaching job, you are once again uncomfortable, struggling to find your rhythm, style, and rapport with your brand new clients and classes. But after a while, we all settle into a routine. The pattern of your day, your shift, and your individual teaching hours become rote, rehearsed and dare I say, comfortable. And this moment is precisely when your teaching stops getting better. It’s the beginning of the end of your career. Stay on this path and you will surely flounder. Sure you may achieve a level of success – working “x” amount of hours per week to cover your bills and take a trip now and again. But anything beyond that will be distinctly impossible.

Unless…? Unless you make time to be lousy at something. And by lousy I mean new. Become a beginner again. It can be something slightly different than what you know. Or something you know nothing about. The important thing is that you make time each day or week to see something differently through the eyes of a beginner. Consider this. Your brain is a bundle of nerve connections. Each connection is a pattern you have built by rehearsing a movement, technique or activity. Once you master the activity, you won’t make any new connections unless you challenge yourself with new material. In essence, your brain stops building when you stop learning. Making your success in your field pretty limited.

Think I’m wrong? Look around at your peers. Identify the rock stars in your midst and ask yourself: what are they doing to advance their learning? What do their schedules look like? I’m guessing they are full to the brim with personal improvement and loads of clients. Take a look at your bosses or role models. Do they stick to the same techniques year after year or do they push the envelope, reinvent the wheel day after day. I know it’s the latter. And I know that pushing that envelope is uncomfortable. It requires focus, creativity, determination and drive. And it requires a good deal of discomfort.

One year ago I started dabbling in Ashtanga Yoga. I sucked at at. But I could see all the elements of Pilates in the practice and I wanted to be better at it. I wanted to be able to bring those moves, ideas, inspirations into my PIlates teaching so I stuck with it. It was uncomfortable. Incredibly uncomfortable. Not just physically. I was uncomfortable emotionally being incompetant at something. I’m used to being good at what I do, and I wasn’t good at this. But I worked through the uncomfortable, I got better and as I did, I was able to pull ideas and concepts into my teaching. Being bad at something made me better at something else.

Six weeks ago I started my Master’s in Nutrition program. I am having a very rough time writing research papers and executing proper citations, not to mention the fact that biochemistry is not my forte. I’m more of a physics girl. It’s uncomfortable for me and I expect it will be for some time to come. But I’ll get better at it – and along the way I’ll be better at other things because of it.

Start to turn your teaching inside out and upside down by learning. Learn a lot. Read about business, practice a new physical activity, watch documentaries about unusual things. Find a mentor and study. Then find another mentor. Suck up every piece of information you can from as many resources as you can. Turn exercises around. Try new cues, new tempos, and new approaches. Be uncomfortable. And get comfortable being uncomfortable. When your teaching is new and inspired every day, you will truly feel new and inspired every day. And so will your students.

And isn’t that the point, after all?

~Alycea

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06
Feb
2012

Remote Control: Continuing Education Runs Amok

There is a fast growing trend in personal and Pilates teacher training towards a completely virtual experience. Technology has certainly made it possible for us to see and hear all types of educational content, but what of those skills that are meant to be “felt”? In a field that is rooted in physicality, I am genuinely afraid that our next generation of instructors will be critically unprepared and potentially dangerous.

When I was programming our Continuing education this Winter, I had several goals in mind. We have the advantage of being an intimate studio with a small program so attention is always available. But I wanted to buck the trend and make sure that any one taking a course at my studio got actual practice time with a real student as a body, (as opposed to another teacher pretending to be a student). Having bodies to practice new techniques is a critical missing piece of continuing education in the industry.

Real life training prepares you for real life clients. On a recent early morning in midtown Manhattan I found myself teaching a class. My voice was pounding in my ears. I could hear each breath amplified even as I struggled to make sure my waving arms and tapping feet would not disrupt the wires and microphone directly in front of me. I could see the muscles of my student tensing, feel her fight for her coordination and balance and begin to get frustrated. Her shoulders were tensing and I quickly commanded, “Shoulders relaxed”. Then I opened my eyes. There was no one in the room but me. I was teaching to an imaginary client while recording a series of audio workouts. If I hadn’t handled thousands of bodies, I would never be able to “sense” what my students need.

I marvel at the fact that after 20 years of teaching I’m able to not just see, but genuinely “feel” the student in front of me – real or imagined. Laying hands on bodies day after day develops your tactile perception, sensory intuition and your instincts to an almost preternatural level. Most of my colleagues possess similar abilities having trained to teach in the days before video technology became a substitute for a living breathing mentor. Developing your ability to control the session, the client and your results are skills that only come with human interaction.

Don’t get me wrong. I love gadgets and I believe in spreading good information as far and wide as possible thru whatever means. But how can you train someone to handle another human being without actually having them use their hands? Learning to “sense” what a body needs is a skill that requires you to log in an inordinate amount of time manually manipulating a variety of body types and an equal amount of personality types.

Virtual training, webinars books, and other materials must come second or third to the actual teaching experience in personal and Pilates training. Using these mediums as review or back up system is a great idea but the foundations for personal training require person-to-person time and a distinctly hands on approach.

If you plan to be a trainer who doesn’t actually meet with clients or provide a one on one experience then by all means, a virtual training may be a first step in the right direction. But if your career path involves working with actual bodies, you will need much more than a series of videos to prepare you. As a trainer already working in the field, your continuing education opportunities tend to come few and far between. Be sure to choose wisely and whenever possible step away from the screen and into the studio.

To stay in the loop about Continuing Education courses at Real Pilates – be sure to sign up for our Newsletter.

Filed under: Business,Pilates
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09
Jan
2012

SELLER BEWARE: FLASH SALES GONE AFOUL

Something has gone terribly wrong in the flash sale buying space.

 

The business model initially built upon the win-win scenario has devolved into something more akin to a scammer’s bait and switch – but not for the consumer.  It’s the merchants that are falling victim to these ploys.

 

As a Pilates studio and service based business we’ve had every opportunity to test out the daily deal retailer market.  The first big name to hit us up made a great argument and really educated me about the mindset of the group buying culture.  Key to the sales pitch were the following:

 

1)  This is advertising dollars.  You may actually lose money by cutting your service price but you get brand new customers in the door rather than just an ad on paper

2) We would get paid on every sale.  So if someone bought it, we got paid, even if they never came in the door.  More likely than not, a bevy of brand new customers would be arriving.

3)  Brand New clients were absolutely guaranteed via their huge database.

 

The terms were simple.  Discount your service by 50%.  And then split the take with them.  Yikes.  Making just a quarter of my usual amount in an industry with exceedingly lean margins was alarming at first.  We were assured; the clients would literally be pouring in.

 

The first deal we did fared ok.  Clients came, services were sold.  And then they left.  Just like that.

 

The second deal we did with an altogether different company.  Looking to improve upon our first go round, we tweaked our original offer and sold a different product.  And this time we negotiated.  Well enough to keep a slightly larger percentage.  More clients came.  This time, a few stayed.

 

The next company that approached us sold us on the importance of creating an “irresistible offer”.  They defined the mindset they were trying to create, explaining that their ideal buyer would see the deal, and think “why not” before clicking to purchase.  Why not, indeed?

 

Our next online deal was both our most successful and our biggest disappointment.  The concept of “why not” pricing brought in hundreds of Pilates-lovers who without the benefit of the deal, simply couldn’t afford Pilates.   Retention was nil.  The customers simply left and waited for the next great deal.  And to be fair, why shouldn’t they?

 

Fast-forward past a few more deals with various outlets and I realized that things were changing.   Deal terms began to be more rigid.  Sale sites were demanding we provide steeper discounts.  One site actually only paid us on redemption rather than sales.  I marveled over the fact that they simply pocketed the money earned off of advertising our product when the customer never redeemed their coupons.

 

The landscape was morphing into something ugly.  With so much competition, these group-buying organizations were cannibalizing each other.  Consumers have become immune to the myriad offers littering their inboxes each day.  At the same time, deals need to be even more dramatic in order to get anyone’s attention.  These days, vendors are inundated with offers from these sites.  In the last month alone we’ve had no less than a dozen solicitations.

 

Our most recent deal illuminated the desperation and ferocity with which this business model is now operating.

 

It was the eleventh hour.  The night before our deal was set to go live and I was required to proof the terms and details of our offer.  I noted that the deal needed some edits and made them.  Most notably, our offer was created for new clients only and that fact was absent from the draft copy I was sent.   I made the changes and hit “send”.

 

Moments later, I received an email saying that wouldn’t be possible.  The other changes however, were perfectly fine (oddly).  I was informed that it was “too late” to make these changes, and that my deal was already “in production” prohibiting further changes.

 

Now I ask you, how can it be too late to change some text in an online sale that hasn’t gone live yet?  My sales rep and I had a short exchange and I was bumped up to his boss.

 

His boss re-stated his argument and also added a few well-rehearsed sentences.  I was told that they never run a deal for new clients only.  Since I was looking at one online from their very website, I promptly debunked that myth.

 

Suffice it to say that there was a lot of resistance to my demands.  But the statement that really set me on my heels was when the manager told me that they couldn’t restrict the deal to new clients only because “they had to meet their revenue” as well.

 

Wait just a minute here.  Isn’t the entire premise of the flash sale to drive new business to a merchant and not take money from their pre-existing customers?   Why would a business choose to pay a third party to advertise to clients they already have?

 

Merchants take heed: Daily deal companies are literally targeting the vendors they serve as a source of revenue.  Rather than relying on the database they generate to earn their dollar, flash sale sites are counting on money from your database in order to pay their bills!

 

There are plenty of reasons to employ a daily deal for your business.  Keeping traffic flow consistent during slow times.  Getting the word out about a new product.  Capturing ancillary sales or exposure through a secondary item or service.  But if you are looking for a daily deal site to bring you brand new clients, these days, that’s anything but a done deal.

 

Filed under: Business,Pilates,Uncategorized
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11
Sep
2011

Spring Obsessed! (plus the secret of cardio, calories and resistance)

I’m obsessed with Pilates.
When I pass by stores that sell housewares and I see the word “Plates” – I always think it says Pilates. Seriously, no joke.

My obsession has a structure. Each year, I focus my attention on a new element of Pilates. Something I hadn’t necessarily explored before in my almost 30 years of studying the method.

This year it’s the Springs!
I’ve become completely consumed with the primary tool of Pilates – the metal springs.
The use of Springs, and therefore resistance, defines Pilates.

And since Resistance training is scientifically proven to change your muscle constitution, create lean muscle and rev up your metabolism, then the Pilates Springs may be the magic potion we’ve all been looking for.

For the first time in my Pilates career – I have created a signature class called SpringTONE. It’s completely devoted to the use of the Springs and the resistance and tone they create.

Allow me to answer a few questions that folks have been asking!

Why did you create this class?

I created it to combat the trouble spots and the tone-resistant areas on my own body. After two kids and a few more decades, working out solely on the Mat was no longer enough. I wasn’t satisfied with group classes that were repetitive, or too loud or too crowded. And I wanted something new, and most importantly fun. The Springs are fun!

Why the focus on the Springs?

I’m losing 1 percent of my muscle mass every single year simply by virtue of being a woman of a certain age. Yes, this is a universal law. Just maintaining your muscle (which in turn keeps you burning calories) requires you to exercise with a certain degree of weight bearing and resistance. Before 30 – bodyweight exercises like yoga and barre methods were enough for me. But after, not so much. Now we need bodyweight PLUS! Not little elastic bands, but real weights, real equipment or in the case of Pilates, real Springs!

But what about Cardio

Ah, the age old question everyone wants the answer to. Of course I say yes – you must! Women die of heart attacks all the time. You need cardio to be heart healthy. And you can even get a nice calorie burn while you’re on the path, the stepper, the treadmill or the bike. BUT, the second you are off the bike, you’re done. You stop burning calories. Quite the opposite, the second you are done with your Resistance workout – you START burning calories! It’s that simple. Don’t get me wrong, I believe all exercise is good for you, but proven results require certain strategies. Studies show resistance training trumps cardio each and every time.

______
The only downside to this new class is now every time I see the word RingTone – I think they are advertising my new class!

~Alycea

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10
Apr
2011

The seeds we plant….

So much of our days center on food.

What we eat, where we eat and when we eat.

Everyone buys food. Most of us are involved in some level of food preparation. But very few of us actually grow or produce our own food.

I was lucky enough to have had my great grandparents until I was almost 30 years old. Giannina and Luigi were from the old country in the mountains of Italy. Their two family house in Brooklyn was completely devoted to foodstuffs. The enclosed porch had a bevy of plants that grandpa tended to. He grew Lemons, and Tomatoes as well as herbs which Grandma selected each Sunday for her tremendous pot of sauce which stewed all day long until family dinner time. A ritual that was a non-negotiable part of our weekends.

Out back by the garage a small garden held lettuces, cucumbers zucchinis and one or two other items depending on the season and what particular vegetable inspired them.

I didn’t think much of it at the time but in the heart of Brooklyn , this seemed an unlikely approach to sustenance. I don’t think my grandparents grew food because it was healthier or even cheaper. They did it as part of their heritage. They did it because it was a part of their routine and it felt right to them to be involved in their own food production. Once when I went shopping with my grandmother, we inspected the produce offerings of the local mart with a keen eye. She was unimpressed and remarked how small and potentially flavorless the tomatoes must be. “Not like your grandfather’s.” I had to agree.

In the basement of the house was the real treasure. A veritable factory. One third of the space was grandpa’s workroom. Tools and tables occupied the corner in a somewhat haphazard organization. At the other end of the basement, was the wine cellar. And by cellar, I mean, the area where Grandpa “made” the wine. He did the whole kit and caboodle. Crushing, fermenting, bottling. Something was always aging down there, and something was always getting uncorked upstairs. And Grandpa’s wine was strong! A few sips and my mother was giggling and flush. Her tolerance was never high anyway, something I inherited from her.

But the real prize was dead center in the basement. A sprawling table covered with a fine dust was the first impression upon arriving in the basement. A closer look revealed that the dust was really flour and the nearby glass jars, parchment paper and odd looking metal apparatus made it clear that this was food preparation at it’s finest. The Pasta making table ruled the basement. By far the largest yield of the house, Grandma was relentless in her pasta making – there was always a fresh supply on hand and always a partially processed batch at the ready.

This year my family has had the opportunity to grow our own produce. We’ve populated our land with fruit trees and bushes and they are growing and thriving. And now in the dead of winter when the fields are covered in snow and the trees are bare, I find comfort in the thought that below the surface something is brewing. Something we planted back when the weather was warmer in hopes that when the sun and heat came forward again we would celebrate in the “fruits” of our labor.

There is a stronger argument than ever for growing your own food but these days, it’s enough for me to see the joy on my daughters’ faces when the seeds they’ve planted and the bushes they’ve watered begin to give forth fruit.

I like to think I’m carrying on a piece of my Grandparent’s tradition.

I hope my children will do the same. Even if it’s just a little lemon tree.
——-

Here are a few resources to inspire you on a your own food journey!

Eaarth by Bill McKibbin
Read this!
Fresh: The Movie
Catch a screening if you can!
The Town that Food Saved
An amazing experiment with an incredible result.

Filed under: Slice of Life
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21
Feb
2011