I enjoy poking around the RateYourBurn Instructor review site to get an understanding of what participants are looking for in our class. Sure some of the comments can be a bit harsh, but many of the actual reviews are well written and offer very specific "If you would do ___________________ I would enjoy your class more" advice.
Case in point - this RateYourBurn Review on a new SoulCycle Instructor named Chris The Curious Case of the Missing Countdowns
So yeah, I liked a lot of things about Chris, but the ride was... improvable. Luckily for Chris, these nits are absolutely fixable.
-
A little head's up, please? Countdowns: We really, really need them. Without countdowns, I start to wonder if you're just making up moves on the spot; I don't know when to exert the most effort, and I start worrying whether we'll be in a second-position jog FOR ETERNITY.
-
Choreography was not really timed with the music. Chris could work on ending the choreography segments to time up with each song. There were three different songs where we ran out of music while continuing choreography. Again, this feels like the class is a little bit tossed together in the moment rather than planned out. According to his bio, Chris has been a dance educator for more than a decade: timing choreography to the music (and giving countdowns to help with that) is likely second nature for a dancer. Just bring it to the bike!
-
Timing of pushes. These felt a little awkward and were usually too short. One thing that would help would be for Chris to cue us ahead of time when we were going into a push, but the pushes always came with the command "pick up your legs now!" and ended with "slow down" - no warning, and no countdown to the end. Help me gear myself up for a 30-second push, and then let me know when I'm just a few seconds from the finish line - I'll work much harder when I'm not ambushed by a sprint!
There's an old adage about giving effective presentations that goes something like this;
- Explain to everyone what you're going to say or expect them to do.
- Say or do it.
- Remind them what it was you said or what they just did.
In the first and third comments above, the reviewer is frustrated because Chris is skipping #1 - and not giving advanced notice to what's coming next. I can't speak for the women in your class, but many of the the men who ride with you are sequential thinkers like me. We like to start with A, move on to B, C, and then D. It drives us crazy when you skip one or more steps and completely throws us off our game.
I'm completely guilty of point #2 - not getting my choreography matched to the length of the music at times. I'll blame the combination of my slowly failing eyesight and those tiny little numbers on the Spotify App for not understanding the time remaining for a specific track. My classes are very cycling specific and feel I do a good job prepping everyone for the upcoming efforts. Where I feel I get into trouble is I take too much time leading up to the start of say a 4 minute Best Effort, using a 5:00 minute song. I can't see the time remaining and the music ends before the interval - not very professional 🙁
I'm very tempted to move back to iTunes music and use the new Schwinn Class Tamer App simply for the option in the settings to really embiggen the font size so I can see it.
Question for you [wlm_firstname]...
If you had access to this type of constructive criticism, would you accept and use it?
If so how?
John is a member on the AFS (Association of Fitness Studios) Advisory Council.
Holding certifications from; Schwinn, Heart Zones, Team ICG and Life Time Fitness, John's held regularly scheduled cycling classes between 1998 and 2015 when he moved to Florida.
When the weather permits, you'll find him riding and leading outdoor groups by himself or with his Tandem partner (wife) Amy.
- ICI Podcast 234 Coaching (not teaching) a class with cadence - January 13, 2025
- ICI/Podcast 128 Introducing Threshold Field Testing to your class with Karen Bernardo - January 4, 2025
- Indoor Cycling Class As One Long Climb – Very Nice! - December 29, 2024
This is why I continue to use simple index cards to write my ride notes on. That, and the fact that my iPhone is on a charging station as I teach. If I had to rely on my phone being charged for each class and trying to read from the tiny screen, I’d probably be in trouble a good deal of the time. I actually would say my cueing and timing are strengths for me. This probably comes from my 20 year (plus) experience teaching young children. They work best when you give them expectations (objectives), check for understanding and overplan, overplan, overplan! To answer your question, I would definitely love to hear what my riders would like for me to do differently and I would try to accommodate.
Thanks Chris – but how do you keep track of the time remaining in a song?
I may be the only instructor on earth that does this, but I write out the total length of the song on my trusty index card and then use a stopwatch that I start and stop with each song. Old school, I know. 🙂
I am a HUGE fan of countdowns and advance warning. For interval rides, letting the class know what’s coming, and when they’re in it, how much longer they have, is critical. I do my own training the same way I teach, and I use my bike chrono to know how much longer I have in a particular interval. I teach my classes the way I like to train, so knowing what’s coming, and knowing how much longer I have to suffer, is critical.
when it comes to choreography, I use my iPhone for everything. I write out cue sheets in Word, and save them in a Dropbox file for Spinning workouts. I can read them in class while I’m teaching simply by switching back and forth between my music and Dropbox. I also use the timer on each song, keeping notes of when particular exercises start and stop in each song. My only issue is that as I’m getting older, the numbers on the track counter seem to be getting smaller.
First of all John, Yes I would. Taken in context it would be very useful. Taken from an irate customer that had to fight for a bike not so much.
That said, i recommend you start using iPad. No more small numbers, easy to read cues (if you are using a CLASS BUILDER type app). You won’t go back to your phone. EVER.
I’m still a bit in shock to read that instructors are still using index cards or multiple applications to deliver a great well thought out class.
With the introduction of Class builder I put all that away. I KNOW it cannot take any longer to create a class in the CB App than to write it all down on index cards or word doc in dropbox.
Chuck I’d kill for an iPad – just not in the family budget right now.
There is an answer to prevent fights over bikes – I’m working on a post for this weekend about the very cool Indoor Cycle reservation system Karen Casler is using at CB Cycle Barn in San Clemente. Amy and I were there on Monday to take Karen’s class and we knew exactly what bike we had two days before the class.
Side note: don’t go to San Clemente if you have future aspirations of moving to a warmer climate. Amy fell in love with the place and firmly decided; “this is where we’re moving to John!”