Preparation
Since booking my AIM Module I have been trying to up my game and concentrate on the basics so that I gained the best I could from this day. I filmed myself many times teaching (still do) and asked fellow instructors to comment. Special thanks going out to Barbara Bailey and Vicki for giving me honest and constructive feedback. Cheers guys.
Calm before the storm
Couple of weekends ago (5/11/11) saw me going back to Broadwood, the place where it all began going from a body combat participant to an instructor to do my Advanced Instructors Module (AIM1).
It’s been just over a year since I done my module through there with Tanya Walker on Body Combat 44 and the day brought it all back. I wasn’t sure what to take with me, so I punted out an SOS on twitter to see if any of my fellow instructors had any advice.
Michelle – errr some spare training kit, a pad and something to write with?
Barbara Mate..Lots of clothes. A jumper & warm trousers 4 in between hard work! Make sure u have clean feet 🙂 karate requires barefoot…
Glen – wraps if you’ve got them. Def need for pad work. Gloves on their own aren’t enough. Have fun mate
Phil …. enthusiasm and an open mind! …….yay! I win first prize for cheesiest answer, right? but seriously, enjoy and learn much.
Dan Cohen :O
u need boxing gloves and ideally muaythai forearm pads so u and ur partner can punch and kick.. U need to feel the full drill.
know ur track you will present to whole group twice
The day started with Tanya allocating us a track from Body Combat 49. I got track 2 (Kick In The Teeth – Badlands Inc). The group was fairly large with varying experience. Was interesting listening to the various backgrounds other instructors had from teaching experience to martial arts backgrounds.
It’s all about you
We started off, each of us teaching our track and getting feedback that we had to think about before presenting our track again later. I was quite nervous infact I even had a memory blank and gave myself 10 press ups. I delivered my track and listened to the feedback Tanya gave me:
- Kata timing (nerves, but taken on board).
- Levels and powering more through the hip on the front kick.
I listened to all the feedback given for the presentations, taking notes as I could relate to some of the comments. Now remember, the day is all about you being honest with yourself and giving as much as you can if you don’t then what are you going to come away with?
The Storm
Body Combat is inspired from various different martial arts each having it’s own characteristics from speed, movement, discipline and origin. Knowing the foundations of these arts can help set the track you’re going to teach.
Tanya explored each martial art in knowledge and drills. Pairing up it all began, pad work, kicking drills, punching drills,guards , it went on and on. Was a right eye opener and was anything but easy.
The calm after the storm
I was exhausted. We were all exhausted. I personally noticed that we were all pro-active, implementing feedback from our 1st presentation but this came at a cost. What we gave, we lost elsewhere. We all learned that finding a consistent balance across the tracks and the pillars of delivering an awesome class wasn’t as black and white as you would think.
It came down to information overload, taking on-board feedback and knowledge from Tanya and implementing it into “our” way of teaching.
Final thoughts
I came away buzzing with thoughts. I have deliberately not gone into too much depth about what happened on the day. It’s really an experience that as a body combat instructor you have to do as it’s all about you.
I have started to apply what I learned that day into my classes and the difference is amazing. If you’ve thought about doing an AIM module and you’ve talked yourself out of it why? Don’t wait just do it, you will benefit, your class members will benefit.
Check out the AIM page over on Les Mills UK – http://www.lesmills.com/uk/training/advanced-training.aspx
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