Written by Jayne Smith
1. Why did you choose TPC?
The international reputation of being a top training center, the great TPC trained teachers that are in Minneapolis and the flexibility of being able to keep my full-time day job.
2. How did you find out about TPC?
I was taking classes at my local gym and my teacher got the opportunity to teach at Centerspace Pilates. She said it was the best studio in town. I started taking her classes at Centerspace and found that the studio was a TPC licensed training studio.
3. Why do you want to become a Pilates teacher?
In order for people to get a lot of benefit from Pilates, someone has to guide them for a while. I think I can be good at that because I believe Pilates is an exercise system that makes sense. It’s something I can combine with my career experience to help people feel better about their lives instead of just making some company more money.
4. What are you enjoying most about your training so far?
Teaching my students, the friends I’ve made, slowly finding out what this deep knowledge I’ve been taught actually means.
5. What are you finding most challenging about the training so far?
Keeping things simple. There’s so much knowledge and language within iTPC and the TPC network, sometimes it’s hard to remember to just be quiet and get into the sensation of Pilates, feeling that moment the exercise demands that you take control of it.
6. How are you finding TPC TTP during this season of Covid?
Great. I think this group of trainees has the potential to be the best ever because of the extra strain, training time, and personal time that Covid has given us. It’s allowed us to be part of a truly international community with a direct, participatory, and live connection to Boulder through Zoom. TPC has gone all out to allow us trainees to benefit during this time.
7. Do you have any tips for potential future TPC teacher trainees?
Do it. Be patient. Spend time in Boulder as soon as you possibly can and participate with Boulder through Zoom as much as time allows. Find the teachers (wherever they are) that best fit you and study with them, and then go find more of them. When observing on iTPC make a separate book of notes with the title of the session, who the teacher is, who the students are, and what exercises you found most enlightening. You’ll want to refer to that index when you want to recall something like “how did (teacher) cue (student) during (exercise) and how did that student respond?”.