“It was during the first Covid lockdown that I seriously started researching Pilates Teacher Training courses. I was unsure whether it would be for me, whether I was “good enough” at Pilates myself, worried that everyone could be gym bunnies, or ex-dancers, that I wouldn’t remember the anatomy and scientific bits , how long would it take to train as a Pilates instructor?

“In the beginning, although I really wanted to do my teacher training, I did have some reservations. I’ve done Pilates for a few years, but there are still things I can’t do (not sure I will ever be able to do them) and my core and flexibility are not as good as I would like. How much would it cost to train as a Pilates instructor?

So one of my biggest reservations was that I thought “how can I teach pilates, if I can’t do the moves” ?!

But Tanja FOY put my mind at rest and was encouraging and as she says ‘Usain Bolt’s coach can’t run as fast as him!’ Which when I thought about it properly made sense so I went for it!!

I looked at a couple of training venues but I chose Elite as it seemed a lot more personal. They offered more than the basic course and weren’t about the hard aggressive sell like the other company I had contacted. It seemed more about helping you as a teacher rather than take your money, here are the moves now off you go!

The course was really well taught and very informative, not just learning the moves but teaching us alternatives and what to look out for as well as learning which muscles are used.

There is also a catalogue of online materials to refer back to whenever you need it even after the course has finished which I don’t think anywhere else offers.

Tanja and Paul are very supportive and happy to help with any issues. We had another lockdown in between our weekends so our second half of the course was delayed, but they worked around this and sent supportive messages and emails.

They were very accommodating and flexible with finishing the course as a few of us wanted to finish before Christmas and some wanted to defer until the new year. They worked out some weekends that would suit everyone so those of us that wanted to qualify before Christmas were able to.

I don’t think other training facilities would be quite as flexible – they were happy to work around us rather than the other way around!

As strange as it may sound the best part of the course for me was getting through my practical assessment. I was very unsure of myself and lacking in confidence for the first half of the course but by the time it came to the assessment part I felt a lot better about what I could do (even though I was a bag of jelly for the whole hour ).

It felt so good teaching a class. I think that is down to how well the course is taught and the teaching practice we are able to do.

I think it took the time off, in between the sets of weekends, to process everything we had learned. The first 2 weekends are very full-on and it’s a lot to take in – I found it quite overwhelming to start with.

Although when you have that time to think about everything you have learned you realise that you have taken in more than you think and all the extra teaching practice given at the studio helps massively (even though it’s nerve-wracking at the time )!!!!

I can’t wait to start teaching my own classes now!