It’s a real skill class planning, here are some of our top tips to creating a good structured class plan
Know your students
See who is booked on first so you can plan accordingly. If you are planning before the bookings come in, prepare a varied class with lots of progressions and regressions
Variety
Make sure your class has a variety of components, here what we usually follow at Bendy Studio in Bristol
- cardio section
- conditioning
- strength section
- flow section
- recap
- new sequence or expanded sequence
- flexibility
- cool down
We all know that you can’t be ‘everything’ in pole and aerial. But as teachers we can try our best to offer a well rounded class for everyone to excel, be challenged and improve with
Repetition
Always make sure to have an element of repetition in your class. This could be in your conditioning or recapping last weeks moves or sequences. This will be the section where students are able to see their own progress.
Progress
Encourage students to make small and measurable goals. Keep coming back to them & document progress. Remembering that progress is not always linear!
Special Requests
Ask students before the course start if they have any special requests or goals. This means you can tailor the class to their needs (not yours!). Make sure their requests are within their level. If not find a way to simplify and break down a safer version to teach. Please note some students may not realise how difficult something is until they try it, so this can be quite disheartening for some students. Always try to put a positive twist on it. Sometimes I call difficult combinations ‘Super Hero level’ so students feel ok if they don’t get it too
Games and Challenges
It’s always nice to add an element of fun and teamwork into the class. Just make sure to keep it safe!
Always TEST your teaching content when you can!
Now this isn’t everyone’s teaching style. But for me personally I like to try the move before teaching it. This helps me understand exactly how the move works, what the risk factors might be, where the grip is, what muscles need to be active and which need to relax etc. First hand experience of the move in question means you’ve lived it and although your experience could be different to others you can share that wisdom you have gained by exploring it. Sometimes having a training session just working on student requests, learning how to break them down can actually be really fun and fulfilling.
I also know this can’t be the case all the time due to time constraints. But practising your class content will always give you more confidence as an instructor and give the students a better service.
Warm Up
Make sure your warm up is unique to you (shows your style) but also specific to the class in question. For example if you are teaching split moves always make sure to throughly warm up the legs actively and thoroughly. Including some hip stability and eccentric hamstring exercises when appropriate. The pace of the warm up should also reflect the class plan. For example if dynamic tricks are planned, make sure there are dynamic elements in the warm up
Cool Down
Cooling down is one of the most important parts of your students recovery after class. This helps reduce muscle tension & DOMS. But most importantly it helps get the body back to a resting state after exercise. Our classes here in Bristol are 75 minutes to ensure we always have enough time for a cool down at the end.
This is also a good time to check in with students if they enjoyed the class and to update them on studio updates & future courses.
Welcome
It’s always important to set the scene at the beginning of the class. Introduce yourself, explain the class structure and what you will be working on today. Check for any injuries before class and also preferred pronouns of any new students. One of our instructors Alexa has a lovely part of her class when she ALWAYS asks how her students are feeling mentally that day, and often uses the weather to describe different feelings. In the cool down she always remembers to then check in with them again to see if the class has helped brighten any lower moods.
Bendy Kate
