It's always an interesting experience teaching a new group of people because I never know what to expect.
Loida is on vacation for the next couple of weeks, so I taught today's Basic Step and Strengthen for her. I asked the participants whether they were really intermediate/advanced in disguise and one lady said they had all stepped before and the only reason why they were at the Basic class was because it was a convenient time. A-ha! With that, I launched into my warm-up that I had taken from Cathe's Step Blast:
Right Basic x4 (16) Right V-step x4 (16) R Side lift around the world (16) R Side lift 3/4 around the world (12) L 1/2 Revolving door (4)
I got as far as "around the world" and one lady in the front stopped because she had no idea what I was doing. Whoops. So I had to resort back to my standby Basic Step routine which I really have to update one of these days. I also need to think of a way to teach "straddle" moves, and in particular "around the world". As I'm thinking about this - I just had a brain wave: start with "knee travel/corner to corner" and tell people to imagine that they're doing the same thing but on the short end of the step!
I ended up doing about 35 minutes of step and then weights & abs for the remainder. I tend to run out of material for weights and abs, probably because I rarely teach it. I think I'll teach more step next time, and throw in more intervals to get the heart rate up.
That reminds me, I'm thinking of taking Body Pump training. My gym will reimburse me for the training since they BP classes now. I really like Body Pump. I used to take classes almost every day the summer of 1997 I spent in Hong Kong with my family. In fact, I joked with my mom that I wanted to become a Body Pump instructor! But it's quite a big commitment. Aside from having to spend an entire weekend in training, I'd have to spend even more time learning the pre-set choreography. Body Pump music is awesome but I hear that the music isn't 32-count so you have to memorize every single to move to make sure it matches the weird transitions etc. Hmm...
