Confession - I am totally addicted to the Pilates Studio (equipment) environment. For the last 20 years, this environment not only shaped my body but also shaped who I am as a teacher and in many ways as a human being. It is true that I have been recording classes and teaching online for the best part of a decade, but it has always been a part of and not the whole picture for me.
The last three months have been a revelation. Not being able to teach in the studio means the only option is to teach online. As much as I miss hands-on teaching - being with clients in the studio, observing them move and offering real time corrections - I am delighted to see how beneficial the online teaching can be and how happy my clients are with the results.
Over the years, on yoopod, I have heard so many reasons as to why some people find it difficult to engage with and sustain online classes… But what I have been seeing in the past few months really shows me that when there are a need and a will - there's a way. I have seen people taking classes in less than ‘ideal’ conditions: In their front room, bedroom, kitchen, attic, and garden; while their kids and pets are running around and their partners cooking meals and having to stop-start because of technical problems. But despite these challenges they have been benefiting from the classes all the same if not more.
I honestly don’t know if this ‘new norm’ will become a new way of being. I think we’ve been programmed to want and expect certain things in life and will rush back to old habits as soon as allowed to. But I do hope that this extended period of “lent” is giving people a real flavour of how some aspects of life can be lived differently to what we all thought was the ONLY way to be; and that what so many of our members call “the one good thing to happen about lockdown” - online classes that is - will keep benefitting people long after the C-19 will be gone and forgotten!
Be well
Amit and the yoopod team