Teacher vs. Trainer

With the influx of new students in the studio, I've been thinking a lot about my role as an instructor. Whenever we have a new student come in who indicates that he or she has previous experience, it could mean numerous things. Essentially, it means that I have to get to know two people in the training relationship without ever usually getting to meet the other trainer. Sometimes, it's lovely, and I want to send a thank you note for teaching such precise technique. In other cases, I wonder what happened. A student will insist that they are "advanced" but have never done short spine or will have no control or focus. Whatever the case, the best thing to do is roll with what the student brings into the room and try and isolate what the student wants: a teacher or a trainer.

When I began my Pilates education, the person who lead you through workouts was called a "Pilates Instructor." To me, that made a great deal of sense. What I was approaching was more than just exercises. It was a system, a language, and what made it all so interesting was the complexity of it.  Back then, Pilates was not yet listed in Webster's dictionary and not many average people knew what it was.

While I went from student to apprentice to full fledged PMA certified instructor to studio director, Pilates went from a somewhat obscure practice to something performed by an estimated 10 million Americans.  With that evolution there have certainly been growing pains throughout the industry, and several different species of instructors came into existence.

I am most comfortable as an instructor when I emulate those who taught me. While the workouts were always challenging, they were also educational. I always left invigorated with something physical to work on and something to think about. Instructors who teach this way I think of as "teachers."

Sometimes, however, I find that some people do not prefer to know or understand the work intellectually. They just want to move and often they just want to "feel the burn." As a younger instructor, I would have been easy to assume that those people just wouldn't "get" Pilates work, and I probably would just let them go their own way. Over the years, I have learned that there are all kinds of ways to learn and process information. I came to appreciate that some people can still connect with Pilates work without needing to understand the function. They just want or need to move. So, I learned to move them. In some ways it's easier,  to give them physical direction and keep them in the right spot without explaining the why.  When I put on this "role" in a class or session, this is when I feel like a "trainer."

Over the course of a training relationship, I find that I am both: the educator and the driving force. I have to figure out how that particular person receives instruction. Some people are more cerebral and some people are more kinetic. Of course, I also try to help them with balance between the two modes of learning. Sometimes, I have to work hard to get those cerebral folks moving so on some days I try to get them to "not think", and sometimes I have to focus in those kinetic learners because without a little bit of mind in their bodies, they lose control.

Teaching Pilates sometimes feels like spinning a plate at the tip of a stick, you know?