Teaching principles, not exercises
Eve Gentry asked the question “Do you teach concepts, or do you teach exercises? Are you a teacher, or are you a conveyor belt?” She went on to say “If you’re a conveyor belt then, sooner or later the...
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“How might I be wrong about this?”
“Pilates teachers are control freaks who can’t let go.” This was said to me by someone who has been teaching for decades, whom I know not mean or judgemental. It was said with a degree of affection, a...
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Does education always equal growth?
I believe that, as a profession, Pilates teachers are generally eager to learn and driven to keep doing courses and workshops long after their initial training. I recently discovered the term “course...
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The Alignment Problem
I imagine that there’s near universal agreement amongst Pilates teachers across the globe that alignment is important. Perhaps it is even the central tenet of the Pilates Method. I’m increasingly of...
View ArticleVulnerability, not ‘vulnerable’
This is, sort of, “How might I be wrong about this?” Part II. I have to confess that I don’t care for the word ‘vulnerable’ as it often appears in the media these days – “in need of special care,...
View ArticleTeaching Experiments
Last year I attended a seminar during which we were asked what we could teach with our eyes closed. There are some foundation exercises that I believe I could teach with my eyes closed, so I...
View ArticleWhere does ‘I’ finish, and ‘We’ start?
An argument for using a wide-angle lens in a person-centred approach to teaching movement. Anatomy is ‘the science that studies the structure of the human body’. If we’re teaching movement we...
View ArticleThoughts on ‘re-opening’
The first thing that I should declare is that the forced closure of our studio, along with the all the other elements of the ‘lockdown’ proved to be an extraordinary gift to both of us. It was a gift...
View ArticleEmbodiment and the Limits of Language
One of the books I have ‘on the go’ at the moment is ‘Affluence Without Abundance’ by James Suzman, subtitled ‘The Disappearing World of the Bushmen: What We Can Learn from the World’s Most Successful...
View ArticleCrossFit > Pilates?
Though I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard Pilates teacher suggesting that CrossFit is good for business because “They’ll injure themselves and then come to us” (or words to that effect),...
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