Fundamentals and Pilates Workshop

I have these moments where I am just sure of something I need to teach. And so far, when I get these feelings I am successful.

Yesterday afternoon I got a sudden thought to teach a Fundamentals of Pilates and How They Apply To The Matwork workshop. Very small, only 5 students. Two hours. One hour and a little focused on the Fundamentals from Eve's work, and the rest of the time applying the Fundamentals to the matwork. The cost is $50. That was last night, and by lunch today I had the workshop, scheduled in March, filled already. I scheduled another for May and it already has one student.

I am so excited to deeply share this work with students who, instead of just wanting to mindlessly do matwork, they want to understand what they are doing and why.

So happy!

I've not taught group mat class for a couple of years so that I can focus on other studies, but I do love teaching the matwork! And when I taught twice a week, 8 week sessions for WOTC, I got to take the time to explore these fundamentals with them. I had a beginning one-hour class in which I always warmed them up with the fundamentals, not all of them, but those that applied to the matwork I was going to give. I gave lessons every tuesday on the ideas of the fundamentals and on thursdays we really worked deeply with them on the mat in the repertoire. My intermediate/advanced class I warmed up with the fundamentals almost every class. They didn't have to be told, after awhile, what the order was or what to do, they just did them. One class per session I would take them through the full matwork repertoire that I could cover in one hour without warming them up with the fundamentals, so they could feel in their own bodies how much different the matwork was without that warm up. They didn't do as well in their form, and didn't enjoy the work quite as much. But, because I knew that they could not take from me forever I wanted to prepare them for the many pilates mat class experiences I'd already gone through myself, where I was literally started out in the 100 and off we went. I believe it is vital to do some fundamental warm ups before the full repertoire.