Where to start?
A comment was made on the 31st of May from Steff on the Les Mills BodyPump 102 track listing post:
Did the format of the chorey notes change?
At that time I hadn’t heard a peep about any kind of change coming so I reached out to Les Mills on twitter:
Can any BodyPump instructor help Steff? "Did the format of the chorey notes change?" : https://t.co/8rTDtEOYXd .@LesMills
— S Philp. (@siphilp) May 31, 2017
Unfortunately, no-one (official) got back to me and I didn’t think anything else of it :(.
Penny drops format changes
Wednesday, 14th June 2017 here in the UK our new Les Mills programs dropped. For me this was BodyCombat 72 and CxWorx 27. What I didn’t know was that the way the choreography notes are put together are now different.
BodyCombat 1 Notes
Current format (we’ve not launched 72 yet)
“New” Format
Eh What?
This is surely a balls up when converting to pdf?
First I took to twitter
.@LesMills chore notes? WTF? s it just laziness/cheapness or did you do a pilot group? Can we atleast have option to have old notes format?
— S Philp. (@siphilp) June 14, 2017
Then thinking about it I thought would be more sensible to send an email (was very straight to the point).
So reached out to .@LesMills regarding note format change(email). Doubt will hear anything back but can always hope… cc .@PhillipMillsCEO
— S Philp. (@siphilp) June 14, 2017
Official come back – Les Mills UK were well on the ball as they responded and DM’d me some information 🙂
What we know so far
Based on feedback from Instructors, we’ve made a few changes to the new Quarterly Release Kits to make it easier for you to learn the new material.
This includes more streamlined choreography notes, an improved layout, and better format of the video on screen.
Streamlined is key here? We read from left to right, right? Nothing about the font, the layout, the colours of the booklet is streamlined… am I missing something, Anyone? We as instructors are under enough pressure to learn the new stuff for a certain date and these notes look like they’ll add to this pressure, i don’t read downwards…. :(.
Follow Up from Les Mills UK – Voice mail 14/06/2017 13:40
please note this was before post was published….
Based on feedback choreography notes will be re-issued in around 2 weeks time. Format and layout will change but will not be same as “old” format. Hmmmm am confused even more, why did you have to change them, what initial feedback? #fingerscrossed #readable
What Next?
I am up for changes, lets face it, change is sometimes needed to make things better but if it’s not broken why fix it?
I am going to create my own “old style” notes as it’s just painful to use these ones. Feedback will be given here :
https://lesmills.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eFMXkBCcBiIXXI9?dm_t=0,0,0,0,0
What do you think?
Do you like the new format? Have I missed something? Do you think we as PAYING instructors should have the option of “old” or “new”? Are we as Instructors being listened to?
Final Words
Come on Les Mills, we love your programs, if we didn’t we wouldn’t teach them. Yes you’re a business and you need to make money but that doesn’t mean you have to push us instructors to the side…. #letsworktogether
While you’re here…
BodyCombat instructor or participant? Do you want to share your top BodyCombat Tracks with a chance to win an Amazon gift card why not share your top 3 tracks?
7 Comments
June
Simon,
Glad someone has taken the initiative to find out what’s happening and speak their mind. I saw the notes and thought what the hell. Lots of discussion about this on various Facebook groups mainly brown noses sayings it all ok. It’s not ok. Coming to the point where I don’t want to teach anymore. Let’s hope they listen. Keep up the good work. Regards..
Peter
This new format is a piece of —-. It’s impossible to see what is choreography, timing, lyrics, and repitions. I really liked the old format that we’re used to, because it was neatly separated into what is choreography, lyric cues etc. I don’t like having to squint my eyes and read a bunch of lines 4 times to find out what the notes want me to do.
I really hope this does not get permanent, it’s hard for me to believe this is easier to read than the previous 🙁
Lee
This is the last nail in the coffin for me. I have enough. I teach Body Combat, Body Attack, Body Step, CXWorx and Grit and this round is the last one. From this stupid point system, lack of workshops to the masterclass we get. It’s just money, money and more money for us instructors. Masterclasses are now very much on demand videos, bad road they’ve gone down. One day Les Mills will realise that fucking over us instructors will eventually slap them in the face.
FUCK YOU LES MILLS….
Erin
The format is horrendous. But, honestly, I’m sure we will all get used to it eventually. Just another thing we have to learn along with all the notes…
Simon Philp
I’ve already converted my notes back to the old format. I am also writing an app that will automatically do it for me in the future as well. Les Mills should be giving options and not forcing us to learn a certain way. Atleast they should have done a pilot group or something instead of just throwing us instructors into the fire. Live and learn, all respect for LMI has now gone which I thought I would never say :(.
Stephanie L
Thank you for doing this. I teach Flow and am at a complete loss with learning the latest release. I completed the online feedback form and have shared it with others. At this point, I may be subbing out for the release.
Melanie
The new format is very difficult to read and follow. I’m hoping they will go back!