When we were investigating locations for the ICI/PRO Conference last spring I looked at what venues other Fitness Conventions were using. Long story short, I got to know Sara Kooperman who is the founder of the SCW Mania conventions. Beyond being a very successful business women, Sara is also a sought after speaker and fitness presenter.
Sara regularly presents her Guaranteeing Instructor Excellence in Your Facility workshop. I felt that a portion of this presentation would be of interest to you. D.R.I.L.L TO HELP US CUE AND BE CREATIVE
CREATIVITY by focusing on:
Direction
Rhythm
Intensity
Lever
Length
CUING: We are translators, people learn in different ways
Police will hear Direction
Musicians will hear Rhythm
Psychotherapists will hear Intensity
Lawyers will hear Levers
Accountants will hear Length
In the introduction of this episode Amy (the senior Group Fitness Instructor at ICI/PRO) describes her trip to the Global Ride Studios to film a number of Indoor Cycling classes for Cycling Fusion.
This Free Podcast is provided to you through a sponsorship from our friends at CyclingFusion.com
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If you have questions about the changes in Music Licensing Fees I may have found someone with some answers. I'm interviewing Alexandra Williams – MA tomorrow at 10:00 Central time and would love your suggestions. Alexandra has written an extensive article in the latest IDEA magazine (sorry no link) about some of the changes going on in the Music Industry in different parts of the world.
Alexandra and her twin sister Kymberly, are fitness authors and together run FitandFun.org
Please post your questions below and I will try to include it in the interview.
Barbara Hoots joins me to discuss her session at the ICI/PRO conference, “G -String” Thongs and most importantly Barbara offers her suggestions on creating the perfect order of the songs in your Indoor Cycling class Playlist.
We had a near disaster at this years conference that could have been easily prevented. Without using any names, one of our scheduled presenters contacted us three days before the conference to tell us her computer's hard-drive failed and she lost her presentation power-point + everything everything else on her computer. The last time she had backed up her computer was many weeks before the failure and now she was looking at $500.00 or more to have a service “recover” as much data as possible. She had to literally reconstruct her entire presentation using her handout.
Had she subscribed to an automatic backup service like Carbonite this would have been a minor inconvenience, instead of a major panic.
I talked about this during my presentation on using iTunes and explained how I had a similar hard-drive failure last year. Because I use Carbonite, I was able to purchase a new hard-drive locally (about $70.00) and with a few clicks restored everything in just a few hours. I lost nothing.
Did I mention she uses a Mac? She could have easily borrowed someones computer, downloaded the files she needed and be ready to present in about 5 minutes.
Don't be foolish. It's less than $5.00 a month. Sign-up now.
BPM control for all of you who teach to tempo and use an iPhone or iPod Touch.
Here's the newClass Builder iPhone App for Spinning Instructors. Tempo Magic Pro is a new iPhone app that allows you to change the BPM of your music on your iPhone, while it's playing. You old Group Fitness instructors all know what that slider is for on the CD player. Looking to add a little more intensity to a song? Adding a few additional BPM may be just what you need.
I saw Tempo Magic Pro at IDEA last month being promoted by Petra Kolber and Yes! Fitness Music. They didn't have a working demo at the time and I just got their announcement that it is now available. I downloaded (purchased $4.95) the app and am giving it a try. I hope to have more about this as I play with it.
Here's what I do know so far:
It sounds great! Changes to the BPM seem to have very little effect on the pitch. No chipmunks in your class 🙂
It takes a while for the App to analyze the music in your playlist. But then it appears to work without delay.
The change in BPM is gradual, without a sudden change that would disrupt the flow of your class.
It only works with unprotected files (AAC or MP3), not with protected AAC files – which is no different than MixMeister or any other music software
You can add individual songs or a complete playlist. You can control the BPM of each song as it's being played or set it to match all the songs at the same BPM.
You lose the “now playing screen” that shows time elapsed and you will need to use the volume control on the side of your iPhone.
You can move ahead or back from one song.
Tempo Magic Pro iPhone App is another toy for you to play with and for 5 bucks it is something you will want to try in a class. As I type this I am thinking of all sorts of ways I can use this… Strangle Hold (my favorite climbing song) is at 148 BPM so it has you pedaling at 74 RPM. What would happen if I slowly increased the tempo at the half way point? Or started it a little slower so they really add on the load?
We had a near disaster at this years conference that could have been easily prevented. Without using any names, one of our scheduled presenters contacted us three days before the conference to tell us her computer's hard-drive failed and she lost her presentation power-point + everything everything else on her computer. The last time she had backed up her computer was many weeks before the failure and now she was looking at $500.00 or more to have a service “recover” as much data as possible. She had to literally reconstruct her entire presentation using her handout.