If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be an instructor in this facility - you may find this interesting. (Or you may find it boring, but your ability to stop reading and click the ‘x’ button is yours to control. If, however, you’ve ever wondered, well allow us to give you some insight.
No matter the instructor, their age, the class they teach, water, land, whatever, there is a common misconception that this person is confident and has their fitness-related crap together.
But here’s the real story.
They don’t. They are just like everyone else in the sense that they aren’t always confident in their abilities. They work hard in their own time to plan out their class workout and sometimes its awesome and leaves the class feeling empowered. Sometimes it’s meh and on those times the instructor feels it - acutely.
If you’ve ever taken a class and left feeling like it was an ‘okay’ workout. Good but not great. You’re glad you took it because it was ‘at least something’ but it didn’t leave you feeling like you could conquer the world - know on those days, most likely, that instructor went home and chewed her fingernails to the quick (if she was the fingernail biting type.)
She worried and fretted that the meh workout was not going to be enough to bring people back to her class next time. She sat and thought about what she could have done differently or better and she wrote and rewrote her next workout probably eight different times trying to make darn sure it was not going to be another meh.
And here’s another thing - have you ever had the best of intention to take a class? Put it in your calendar? Packed your gym clothes only to arrive at the gym for class and realize you forgot your (shoes, sports bra, leggings, towel, etc)?
Yeah?
Us too. As instructors, that stuff happens to us AND we still have to figure out how to stand in front and lead. As a participant you can decide if you want to attend the class with your missing piece and make the best of it or if you want to scrap it and say, “I tried.”
As an instructor - the show must go on, baby. Borrow, use some duct tape, do it barefoot - whatever you have to do but you don’t have the luxury of saying, “no class today since the instructor forgot her tennis shoes at home.”
No sir-ree. If you have people that show up to take it, you’re leading it.
So, not to let this detain you if you’ve ever felt the call to lead a class, by all means - step up. Send an email. Put a bug in someone’s ear and get the ball rolling. Don’t give up the thought after reading one blog post. We need motivated people who feel the call to motivate others.
But on the flip side, if you’ve ever had the ‘meh’ experience - maybe offer a little grace and give it another chance or two. Or just talk to the instructor in charge and be up front saying something like, “I was hoping for a little more push than I got last time, is that the standard burn I’m going to feel in your class and if so, can you recommend one that may offer a little more intensity?”
It’s perfectly okay to do that. We, as a fitness team, are a team first and foremost. We support one another and often times recommend someone else’s class if it may be a better fit. This wouldn’t offend any of us because the bottom line for all of us is - are people in our community coming to and enjoying the classes that Unity has to offer? We want that answer to be yes.
We’re not perfect. We know that not everyone who takes our class will mesh perfectly with our version of fitness. But that doesn’t mean we won’t work at helping you find a meshier instructor.
That’s the definition of team. We’ve got that down pat. Just don’t ask us the definition of “meshier” - that one is a little unclear to us and probably the Webster's people as well.