The move to teaching Pilates online
We catch up with two of the PAA Executive Committee to hear how they are finding their recent transition from face to face to teaching Pilates online.
PAA Vice President Chris Lavelle
Is the online world familiar to you?
No, I’ve never taught online. The closest I’ve come is Zoom meetings for the Pilates Alliance’s committee meetings!
When did you start online?
I could see the writing on the wall and decided to move early. I announced my transition to online on the 15th March and started classes a few days later. My husband usually travels a lot for work so I was already feeling a responsibility to isolate myself from my more vulnerable clients. I emailed clients letting them know that I was moving to online so they could let me know their interest. Generally, the response was positive but a few older clients felt it was all too much. I am currently working with privates and small groups – generally maintaining groups that worked together in the studio.
How are the sessions going?
I needed to work with the technology with some clients (usually older, that are less familiar). I do this by opening meetings early and not booking back-to-back appointments. I have also done a couple of pre class meetings, just to work on set up.
All the sessions are a combination of Pilates mat work, reformer mat, with some DNS (Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilisation), Swiss ball and active stretch – whatever I’ve been trained in – I’m using!
To begin with, I kept to safer, easier to teach repertoire that the clients were familiar with. I am gradually adding new repertoire, mostly in response to the changes I am seeing in people’s bodies from the extra sitting and reduction in day to day movement.
It took a few weeks for some clients to settle in with the technology, but we are largely there now.
What do you think is the biggest change to your teaching?
I have kept my classes at 60 minutes, but often the session is longer due to set up at the start, and a chat at the end. People want to interact and I need them to give me feedback! I am finding myself spending more time on preparation, I would say for each hour you teach, add a half hour to plan and run through the class format to iron out any kinks and practice your online cueing skills.
Initially, I found teaching online much harder than normal teaching. I relied so much on touch and also using other class participants to demonstrate. Now I have to be very articulate and consistent in my instructions and cues. I am also finding I need to demonstrate a lot more, so have set up my work station to allow a quick transition from sitting to demonstrating – a wheelie office chair is ideal for this!
I think the hardest thing with online classes is not having the face to face “energetic” feedback that we usually get, it’s so subtle in the studio setting, but those small reactions let us know how clients are going. So now, I’ve been asking for feedback more often, and checking in with clients privately if I sense they are struggling.
I’m also having to be more flexible with session times as people are not in their usual schedules and often sharing their workout space with other family members.
Would you move to this being your new normal?
I’m happy with this as an interim, but no, I want to teach face to face. That said, now that I know this is a possibility, if I need to for my clients or me, I could definitely use it in the future!
What about pricing?
I have seen some discussion about this online. Personally, I think this is a private matter between you and your clients, factoring in each person’s financial circumstances and cash flow.
Just remember, we are still providing a high quality and valuable service and should charge accordingly.
PAA Secretary Felicia Darbyshire-Pirie
Is the online world familiar to you?
Not at all! Other than zoom sessions and using Pilates Anytime, this is my maiden voyage!
When did you start online?
I was definitely not in the first wave of people moving online. I actually felt tremendous pressure to get going with it and didn’t really want to (some of my tears were about not knowing what I was doing). But as time rolled on and other studio pressures eased, I started looking into it at it was actually pretty straight forward. Phew.
How are the sessions going?
We have had two so far, one Private for me, and a group mat class taken by one of my instructors.
The Private was better than I had expected, although I did find myself touching the screen as part of my cueing (fortunately the client didn’t see that extremely unhelpful part of my cueing!).
The mat class was good, although I managed to have a home school conference booked at the same time, I still don’t know how I fixed it (clearly pressing lots of buttons and swearing can work), so they were fine (and couldn’t see or hear me!). Hopefully by the end of the week I’ll have a better grasp of how to fix glitches!
What do you think the biggest change to your teaching is?
Having only taught one Private so far, I’m pretty happy with it. I definitely needed more verbal cues and maybe didn’t appreciate how much visual and touch cueing I use.
As the weeks progress, I can also see that I’m going to need to put more time into programming as the repertoire will need to be kept safe and familiar. But I think that will be a nice challenge compared to other things we are all dealing with at the moment.
Would you move to this being your new normal?
No, it wont be, I love face to face teaching. But this could be useful in the future – who knows what is around the corner!
Comments are closed.