[SandDancer]

So we've just released this and I taught tracks 7-9 sideways as shown in the DVD and booklet. However, I found that many in the class were facing the wrong way in the twists no matter how many times I told them about facing me/back wall.

I'm thinking about amending the setup so that we face front for 7, 8a and half 8b (up until we roll to supine stretches, which seems like a good time to switch back to side view). I think we all struggle with understanding 'back and front' arms/legs rather than left and right.

Has anyone else been frustrated and changed the view?

[Fizzio]

There are no rules against showing different angles, or teaching side on vs. front on. Your idea sound good

[Placebo]

Thanks for your reply Fizzio, I had also been struggling with this as well.

[Mel]

To be honest in to start with in this track it doesn't matter too much if participants turn the wrong way, since we do turn both sides eventually. With other moves such as the lunging twist it does matter, as it's important that you only turn towards your leg and not away.

But I think that while these side previewed moves are a test of clear instruction, it is possible to get everyone going the right way. Any that are still lunging the wrong leg can be fixed by a clear crc.

As fizzio said, while it's probably ok to face participants to the front for these tracks, I think it's a bit of a problem that participants can't see you easily if you're facing that way. This is probably why they were choreographed side on. By being side on they should be able to see you clearer before facing the back and doing it without seeing you.

Try different words to try and get across really clear instruction perhaps? I find saying things like "listen carefully" and really emphasising which leg they must lunge and I clearly say "don't look at me" or "don't lunge the same leg as me" usually works.

[SandDancer]

I'm glad I'm not the only one! My trainer says she is starting to 'get tough' and assertive with ones who don't listen!

When teaching side on, I do tend to use cues such as "turn towards me" during the first set and then "the back wall" during second set...when that fails in the first part, I say "we should be looking at each other"...all falls on deaf ears! (the twists in #42 went relatively well most of the time!)

Participants are actually doing the moves correctly, i.e. turning their heart towards the thigh when they're supposed to in Pyramid Pose (for the open lunge twist in 8b I'm cueing to put their lower hand to the floor and lunging back with the same leg - works a treat!), it's just that they start off twisting the wrong way initially, which defeats the whole object of them seeing me do it! At least front view teaching means that I have some chance of catching mistakes...and we do have mirrors on the side walls so it's a bit easier for them to glance there to check.

I'll give the front view version a go tonight and will try to remember to post how it goes!

Thanks y'all =D^

[redrobin]

While I have mixed and no longer do 8b i tried every cue I could think of to get members to turn the right way. My favourite was to state back hand ( and I often added that this was the hand closest to the back wall and furthest away from me) and then for those who didn't know which was their back hand I would say same leg as hand. I would also use cues about turning into your thigh and so on. I could cue until I was blue in the face and I still had members who went the wrong way. I even tried mentioning that they needed to check which way they had turned because if they had turned the wrong way they would probably fall over or have difficulty in staying up. I figure some members just don't listen after they start a move. The only way I could get their attention would be to single them out and I would never do this. I taught this track for about 8 weeks and I do a minimum of 6 classes a week and it never got any better.

I never gave up. I just kept trying cause I figured that was all I could do.

Caz

[Mel]

redrobin, just a thought but maybe you are cueing too much, and the words are getting "lost"?

Just an idea, because I'm currently trying to teach in a foreign language, in a foreign country, and despite my poor dutch and often the participants with poor English, I still have no probs getting them going the right way.

If you do miss 1 or two, there is nothing wrong with connecting via eye contact and asking them to change legs...........this isn't really "singling them out"

[SandDancer]

So I did this on Friday night facing the participants and coaching left/right....it worked a treat! / Everyone faced the correct way, using the correct arm/leg. I still had good visibility to be able to do corrections (even if there weren't any side mirrors).

If it's a very wide room, I could understand why the sideways teaching would be beneficial for round 1, since you are facing each other ....however, when we're all facing away from each other, you can't do CRC - you lose the connection and you can't see the participants to check technique (we all know that one side is not necessarily as strong/straight/etc as the other side).

I recommend giving it a go front on (up to the supine stretches in 8b - there's a lot of time to kill here anyway for rolling down) :great:

[melanie]

I tend to teach both of tracks 7 and 8 with the mat facing across the room so when we twist we either come to the mirrors or the back wall. The best way i feel to teach these tracks is to go on the same leg as the participant as then they know well if she twists to the mirrors so do we etc and no one gets lost with that But thats just how I teach those 2 tracks