So, as I write this, I want those who read this to know, that this was my experience to become an instructor. My journey was pretty much fueled by pure instinct. And those choices, opportunities etc paid off. As Instructors, we all have our journey as to how we came to be.
I had been doing mat pilates for 8 years, before deciding to look into this Pilates Instructor thing. So i started to look into Joe Pilates and his life, and his work and who he chose to carry on this exercise system, and this person is Romana Kryzanowska. So I googled her, and found Romana’s Pilates, found the Aussie constituent representing Romana’s and I hit GOLD!!!!! I found Cynthia Lochard and learned about her and her training by Romana and then actually being a Grand Master Trainer in the original method! Boom! i knew that I had found my place. I knew and more importantly, I FELT this was the right direction, and then everything just fell into place. Like it was all meant to be. I very much respect this training program with Romana’s Pilates, and I can say that from my experience was thorough, fully immersive, organic and challenging but to be given back so much knowledge, support and absolute expertise from all the Teacher Trainers and Pilates Instructors aussie wide and from Cynthia herself, for me it was a genuine life changing experience. Perhaps comparable to a Mid Life Crisis ( well I was in my late 30’s). It was most excellent. And still turns out to be that way. My mid life crisis is awesome!!!
Pilates is a discipline. To me, it is an art form of exercise. And I firmly believe, that any discipline is a lifelong commitment and learning experience, and Pilates is this. To be able to articulate and understand this work, should never be expected to be learnt - both physically and mentally - in a short time frame (It took me 16 months, pretty much full time, to get certified as an Instructor!!). Patience is always a good virtue to have upfront, or patience is also a skill and lesson learned, along the way (which is my situation) and this patience lesson still challenges me greatly. To be frank, I changed my life for this whole Pilates thing and at the time I didn’t realise it, because I was in the right environment for learning (and I wanted to learn, not study), I could channel all of my focus and energy into Pilates and had incredible inspiration along the way and it just felt natural. It felt right. I feel incredibly lucky and honoured to be trained to an extremely high level and having this direct lineage to Joe Pilates himself.
So I ask you, WHY do you want to become, or WHY did you become a Pilates Instructor?
Dependent on your response, will genuinely determine your level of training that you want or wanted to do, or would be able to do, or have been able to do. I imagine there would be a myriad of different responses. Each story is unique and interesting. But if you truly dig Pilates, you never stop learning.
Ever.
If you are open and humble to this kick arse method, you will always learn, from your mentors, from workshops and seminars, your clients, and yourself. And those self learning epiphanies are magic moments. And I hope that you are passionate about practicing and teaching Pilates. And I hope this passion is found within that Pilates training studio where you were trained or where you are going to be trained. The instructors found within these Teacher Training studios should inspire you to be a better instructor each day. They inspire us as we aspire to be.
So hell yeah, I am one proud Leo woman who is super proud of my training achievements within this Pilates world. But I am even more stoked that I have absolutely brilliant intuition. Following my good old fashioned gut lead me to Romana’s Pilates and Cynthia Lochard, where I flourished and began one helluva journey. Which has serendipitously culminated in me writing on my own blog on my own website because I have my own studio. Yayyyyyy me! Like I said, one helluva journey.
I hope that however you were trained, or how you are going to be trained, that you are fortunate enough to be on this journey too, but actually truly understanding what “that” Pilates journey is. Then you’ll totally get it.
And if I ever get to meet you, and you’re a Pilates Instructor, then I can’t wait to hear your Pilates story!