How we deal with assessments anxiety in our Pilates & Yoga Teacher Training
If anyone knows how horrible it is to sit assessments or exams – it’s me. I am not academic at all and have probably failed most exams in my life at least once! 🥺
And it’s not that I didn’t study….
In fact I would study really hard….
But then you’re sitting there and the paper is in front of you and all of a sudden my mind goes blank and I can just about understand anything that’s written on the paper! 🤯
Or…
Just before I have to teach an assessment I don’t know whether I want to 💩, pee or 🤮 or everything at the same time and let’s not mention the sweaty hands, sweaty cleavage and all those other areas!! YIP I get that too! 🙈
Because I always want to make sure our courses are among the best, I do lots of my own teacher training courses to ensure our level of expertise is among the best!
Recently I completed another 500hr Yoga teacher training course and I was SO nervous about teaching, even though I’ve been teaching Pilates and Yoga for nearly 10 years! It never goes away BUT 10 minutes in your nerves will settle and by the end of it you’ll be buzzing! 🤸♀️
You’ll never get over the anxiety by sitting at home and trying to plan your way or think your way by getting over anxiety.
The only way to get over it or through it is to do the thing that makes you anxious in a supportive place. So whether that’s sitting for the written assessment and doing that several times or standing up and teaching, you get better and better each time.
During our Pilates and Yoga Teacher training we spend ALOT of time getting you teaching practice so that you start to feel more comfortable and confident standing up and I know that sounds really scary but it’s the one thing I notice the most as the weekends progress and teachers start feeling like they’re real teachers and they begin to shine. 💞
We create a safe space where it’s okay to mess up or get tongue twisted or even go completely blank! In fact we encourage it! When you get used to making those mistakes and seeing that the world doesn’t end you’ll stop aiming for perfection and actually ENJOY it.
We play fun games that help develop your teaching skills and your knowledge and as a result each time you stand up there your confidence will grow and grow and grow.
We encourage our teachers to experiment with their teaching style so that you can find what works best for you rather than be cardboard cutouts of your own teachers. We want you to develop your own style and way of teaching so that YOU bring your own personality and quirks to your classes and you can do that in the safety of a judgement free zone.
No one is perfect, not even us and we support you, your fellow teachers support you and even our clients that volunteer to be guinea pigs are also there to support you.
Here’s some of the ways that we make your experience easier:
✅ There’s mock theory papers for you to practice your exam with
✅ We have clients come along to some classes so you can teach other people and actually see different body types / accessibility and modifications
✅ Our teaching skills exercises are fun and will help to develop your skills super quick
✅ There’s no limits to how many times you can take the theory test and there’s no extra cost
✅ We run mock group teaching assessments so you know exactly what to expect on the day
✅ I check all your paperwork before hand to make sure you hit all the assessment criteria so that there’s no way you can “refer” because of something missed
There’s always going to be some kind of nerves, which is actually a good thing as it shows that you care about your performance, but you will have less stress.
I will let you all in on a little secret of mine.
When I first started teaching there was NO WAY I was going to teach classes because I was so scared!. I only wanted to teach private clients.
NOW I absolutely ❣️ teaching classes, and do not like teaching private clients – I send them all to Paul LOL
I love the energy I get from a class and the group enthusiasm and it’s like spending an hour with friends!
It gets even better when you start to teach your own clients and they’re your classes and you start to see how your classes are really helping other people to live better lives:)
Lots of love
Tanja
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