I'm putting together my teaching plan for my class I'll be teaching next month. 🥂 I'm really excited. I wanted to get some input from everyone else. When teaching an intermediate level pole class, in your curriculum do you have a set number of moves you teach? I was thinking of 3 or 4 moves each class- all of which build upon each other. This will be the first time many of my students have inverted so I was wondering if having 3 or 4 moves preset for class might be too much to start? I was thinking a lot of safety and getting comfortable with being upside down like simple walk into handstands and watching themselves in the mirror with leg control in handstands. Simple inverting that will help get them to build up their strength and get the feel for bodily control.
For current instructors, once your students are comfortable, do you then incorporate 3-4 moves into one class or is that still too much to grasp in an hour class? Thanks for all your feedback. 👍
hey kobajo! awesome re: teaching intermediates. sooo much fun! and a whole new set of teaching challenges.
it's tough to say without seeing your lesson plan, but off the top of my head i would say that "intermediate" and "moves" are completely subjective.... tough to know what you mean! also, what i PLAN on teaching and what i actually get around to teaching are very differnet things.... a lot of times we'll take a tangent, or i'll see that one class is doing better with one kind of spin or movemetn and need a lot more work on another. for that reason, i don't plan out what i'm teaching until the week of class.
generally, i don't teach more than 2 or 3 moves in a 1 hr class. here is an example of what i actually taught this past week. each of my students (class of 8 ) has their own pole.
beginner intermediate: we spent literally 20 mins of the entire class working on the cradle, on both sides. for the girls who were really getting it, i showed them three different ways to add more momentum and spin. then we worked on a footwork sequence from a dipspin (halfspin) to backwards step, to spinning climb, to sit, to basic plank (both hands on top), to prance down. the only thing new in that sequence was the plank, but they spent a lot of time working on getting the sequence fluid on both sides without extra steps in between. most of the girls in this class have been with me for 12+ weeks, but there are three that have only been in class for 9 weeks. the new girls are all dancers or very, very coordinated and already able to hold their own body weight for 15 seconds at a time.
intermediate: we worked on a step-thru chair spin transition (like a chair spin but you don't hold it for as long, and it looks more like a prancey push-pull momentary hold then a real spin) into a spin climb into a CAR to wrist seat. we also worked on doing the press dismount from an invert on both sides (looks like lowering yourself down from a pushup) and the corkscrew/body spiral. this was their first time doing the CAR, press dismount, and body spiral. however, i would say that only 1/2 the class actually worked on all of those things. others did variations: practicing their CKR instead of CAR, and working on a baby body spiral/corkscrew instead of the full spin. girls in this class have been with me for about 18 weeks give or take.
i hope that helps.... 🐱
