ICI/PRO 28 Day Instructor Challenge Week 1 Recap

Hey-hey, everyone! Happy Hump Day!

Today’s post is about ICI/PRO 28 Day Instructor Challenge Week 1 Recap, since the week 1 ended this past Sunday.

If you missed the beginning, read this post to find out what the challenge is all about. You can also listen to a special edition of the ICI/PRO Podcast below that we recorded to give you a better idea of what the challenge is all about and what cool prizes will be awarded at the end.

We’ve had an incredible response to announcing this challenge! As of today, we have 189 instructors who joined the challenge in our Facebook Group.

First of all, I wanted to THANK all and every one of those 189 people for joining us on this adventure. You guys absolutely ROCK!

The way you all approached this challenge with creativity and enthusiasm is truly amazing and SO rewarding for me personally. I love reading your reports about completing challenges every day, your feedback about what it allowed you to learn and how it helped you look at things from a different perspective.

When we announced the challenge, one of the things I committed to doing was post here every 7 days about the challenge participants and their success with the challenge.

Please, remember that the choice of people I featured here today was entirely subjective and does not signify any better chances of winning the challenge.

People featured here today are those who impressed ME personally the most with their attitude and accomplishments in the past week’s challenges. So, drumroll, please – for my favorite challenge completion reports 🙂

Day 1: Publicly commit to one tangible improvement at least for the next 27 days of the challenge.

A lot of instructors committed to changing up their cueing from more technical to more mind-body/imagery related cueing, starting their class on time, etc..

My most favorite commitment was the one by Jenny:

I have many regulars, people who have taken class with me since I began teaching at this gym a few years ago. And while it is embarrassing to admit, I don’t know many of their names. And I am to the point where it is hard to ask, because you feel like you should already know. But it’s time to learn their names and start using them. To find out more about my participants. What they want? What they don’t want? What music do they like? What do they like to do for fun? My goal is to learn 5 new names a week!

It is our riders who “put food on our table” and I think a lot of fitness industry professionals and facilities shift focus to something else from their members and class participants. Good job, Jenny!

Loved Corrine‘s post under this challenge of the day. Not only did she take another instructors class, she analyzed it and snapped a pic of the instructor 🙂

So this is Lauren. I would say she and one other lady are the teachers people want at this gym. Lauren has people follow her from gym to gym to take whatever class she is teaching. I think what makes Lauren so good is the following: 1)she knows everybody’s names and somehow she never forgets them. 2) uses as many people’s names during the class as she can to cheer them on. 3) she knows something about her members that is outside the gym. 4) she has a fun sense of humor and knows just when to use it… 5) she gets off her bike a few times during class and finds ways to coach you along. 6) She also teaches a good class. I would really like to go the other lady’s class but so far her schedule and mine never match up. Maybe next week. …Oh I forgot you can tell by her picture that she just has personality. She was totally posing and said she models for free!!

Day 3: Time to get social with your team. Arrange an off-site meet up (drinks / Lunch / Coffee) with the other indoor cycling (or group fitness) instructors from your facility.

Here’s what Laura did:

Sent an invitation out on Sunday when the challenge began for later in the week. This initial effort wasn’t successful for several reasons. First, I’m a new instructor at this facility so most don’t know me. Those who responded have full schedules. As a substitute, I’ve enrolled in a continuing education class that will be bringing together other local instructors with the intent of using this as a networking opportunity.

I absolutely loved this post by Laura. Think about it: you’re new. This challenge already takes you out of your comfort zone where you not only have to approach people that you barely know or don’t know at all, but also extend an invitation to them to meet in an informal setting. And then you get no response or “Sorry, no” as a response. But you don’t give up and find a way to complete the challenge and network with others. Way to go, Laura!

Day 4: Reach out to your facility’s Physical Director/Manager and propose at least one concrete idea on how to make your facility’s IC program better – and offer to help implement your idea.

This challenge just exploded the feed with awesome ideas and suggestions. I can’t possibly express how much I was impressed with the feedback we got on this daily challenge from the participants. Here’s just one of many that stood out for me. This one is by Chris:

I have proposed to have the management take a look at the child watch schedule. As it was, I had three complaints (and who knows how many that just didn’t say anything) because my Friday class runs 5-6:30 and child watch closed at 6. People weren’t coming to class because they had no place for their kids for the last 30 minutes. I suggested extending the child watch hours and looking at the child watch schedule to see how it might affect other classes.

It’s those little things that matter the most. We had wonderful suggestions from all the challenge participants related to their facility’s cycling program, class formats and schedule…but this one was special for me because it was suggesting to do something that would DIRECTLY impact students’ lives and I’m sure they would notice and appreciate it a lot. This instructor will show them that she cares on a whole different level.

Day 5: Record your class audio from one class and report back what you hear – or don’t hear.

Here’s what Rebecca discovered while reviewing the class audio she recorded:

In reviewing the recording I found that I met my first challenge (using every rider’s name at least once during the ride). I cue mostly on form, breathing, and upcoming terrain & time remaining on a drill (in reference to the elevation graph that I had posted next to my bike). It took me about 1/2 the class to relax and interact with the class more naturally as if I were riding along with them. Once this happened I felt I was more motivating. I will need to figure out how to get to that point earlier in the ride.

If you ever want to record your class – QuickVoice® Recorder iPhone app will record a 60 minute class.

Day 6: Ask some of your participants to fill out the feedback form after your class.

John shared a feedback form with our participants which focused on what they would like to see in a class, rather than on evaluating their instructor. John wrote a good post about impressive results we got from our instructors after they asked their riders to fill out the feedback form. Read that post – you’ll be amazed what riders really want the most in a class!

Day 7: Give a fellow instructor a day off – ask them to take a day off and teach their class for them.

This was one of my most favorite challenges last week – because it implies reaching out to people and offering something to help them out. Here’s an example – Laura completed this challenge perfectly:

I have been doing more of this lately because one of our key instructors broke her foot. So I have been teaching two classes for her-several lately and one this week. The most challenging one for me was teaching her Senior Cycling class since it is completely different from any of my other classes. It was good to learn how to modify intensity, to check in with riders more often for feedback, to experiment with new music, to collaborate with the regular instructor beforehand, to utilize the knowledge I gained earlier this year in a training sessions about working with older adults, and to make some really awesome new friends! 🙂

So that’s how it went last week, guys. I am LOVING our challenge! I think it is a great opportunity to grow as an instructor and to meet new people and make new friends in our community.

If you’re an indoor cycling instructor and would like to take the challenge – we still have almost 3 weeks to go, join us here!

If you’re a challenge participant and you posted a recap of your challenge completion progress, link it up below! I’d love to read your post.

Ride on, guys, and keep challenging yourself. Because what doesn’t challenge you, doesn’t change you.

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Need more ideas for your Spinning® Class / Indoor Cycling Class? Check out my cycling class profiles and playlists.

New to teaching indoor cycling? I have a whole page with resources just for new instructors!