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I just passed intial training and I'm learning my first release.  I'm having a hard time keeping the beat.  Do you have any tips for staying on beat. Thanks.   

travislchristensen:

I just passed intial training and I'm learning my first release.  I'm having a hard time keeping the beat.  Do you have any tips for staying on beat. Thanks.   

 

How to explain it...there are plenty of us out there with strong music/dance backgrounds where a sense of rhythm comes effortlessly as it has been ingrained in us over many years of practice. This conditioning means I will rarely go off the beat for any circumstances and I cannot, cannot follow an instructor who is off the beat. When an instructor loses their timing, I will still keep on the beat in an effort to help them get back on track. Sometimes it does help but there are one or two who carry on and continue off the beat (what to do???). So one tip is to look to a front row regular who you know is rhythmic and steal a glance at them to help get you back on time if you find yourself losing the beat.

If you are really keen to work on your timing, then you may want to purchase a metronome (you can pick one up at any store that sells musical instruments). Try clapping along to what you think is the beat of the BC tracks that you are experiencing difficulties with. Then, try clapping again to what you think is the beat, this time, along with the metronome that has been set to the same timing as the song. At the end of this exercise you might find that your clapping has been lagging behind the beat. Keep practicing this exercise with other BC tracks and see how you go. Over a while, you should notice a marked improvement.

Hope this helps

 

 

Practise, practise and practise.  The more you do it the more you'll get use to hearing and feeling the beat of the music.

travislchristensen:

I just passed intial training and I'm learning my first release.  I'm having a hard time keeping the beat.  Do you have any tips for staying on beat. Thanks.   

you cant keep the beat? i have two tips: 1: dont give up your day job! 2: report however passed you to les mills so they dont make the same mistake again!

mrrocket:

travislchristensen:

I just passed intial training and I'm learning my first release.  I'm having a hard time keeping the beat.  Do you have any tips for staying on beat. Thanks.   

you cant keep the beat? i have two tips: 1: dont give up your day job! 2: report however passed you to les mills so they dont make the same mistake again!

Bit harsh MrRocket. How about being more supportive to new instructors? You were there once.

It's quite probable the OP nailed their track(s) at the module where all you really have to do is get through a track or two with near correct chore and a few basic coaching skills. Also keep in mind that a "pass" at module level is aimed at allowing you to team teach to refine and practice your module skills with a senior instructor before you fly solo. You still need to pass your video submission and this is where the buck often gets passed from trainers passing a candidate to an assessor passing a candidate.

When you are new to instructing, loosing the beat is easy to do. Especially if you don't have an ETM, music or dance background. With the multitude of things going on in a class it just takes one lapse of concentration or a participant to go off beat to throw a new instructor.

I liken it to driving a car. When you start, all you are concentrating on is making the vehicle go safely. Then you progress to looking around and before you know it you are singing to the radio, chatting on the phone and drinking coffee all at the same time - the car is driving itself!

As another poster said, it boild down to 3 things - practice, practice, practice.

 

That is the worse thing could happen. I remember one BC instructor in one of my previouse gym.Mainly all tracks was on the wrong beat... That was very bad.... front row on the beat... intructor off.. the rest of class just watching...  And the worse part  - she did pass her video. Unbeliaveble

Sorry to be blunt...but I just don't understand how you could ever find yourself offbeat... and I'm not even an instructor.

I guess my advice would be to practice heaps, and listen to the music a lot so you can familiarise yourself with the beat. 

enge_chic:

Sorry to be blunt...but I just don't understand how you could ever find yourself offbeat... and I'm not even an instructor.

As a participant, all you need to think about if follwing the person on stage and having fun.

The instructor is:

Performing the moves, explaining the moves, thinking about what's next, how to get back on to the chore they have just mucked up, keeping an eye on the class, watching the participants exertion levels, thinking how to correct participants tech, adjusting teaching style accordingly, involving the class, counting beats, trying not to get put off by that participants who is a mile off beat, trying to work out what the hell that participant is wearing, among with a multitute of other things.

With all those plates spinning at once, it's easy to drop one.

Well said turnitup!!!!  It looks easy from the front row and i feel like saying to those who complain about the instructor they should get up there and give it a go!!!!  It only takes one little distraction, movement, noise, comment to put you off - especially when you are starting out....  Get out there, practice and team teach and you will get better!!

turnitup59:

mrrocket:

travislchristensen:

I just passed intial training and I'm learning my first release.  I'm having a hard time keeping the beat.  Do you have any tips for staying on beat. Thanks.   

you cant keep the beat? i have two tips: 1: dont give up your day job! 2: report however passed you to les mills so they dont make the same mistake again!

Bit harsh MrRocket. How about being more supportive to new instructors? You were there once.

 

Especially if you don't have an ETM, music or dance background.

What is ETM?

travislchristensen:

I just passed intial training and I'm learning my first release.  I'm having a hard time keeping the beat.  Do you have any tips for staying on beat. Thanks.   

1. It's great that you are noticing that you are off! That is the first step. Many instructors with timing issues just don't even understand that they are off - they just literally don't hear it.

2. The most important thing is to work your butt off to NAIL IT NOW. If you don't fix it now, you NEVER will. Serious ... Because the habit gets ingrained.

3. See if you can work with another instructor who has great timing. Do mirror work, running through the same track. See if you can turn away from him/her for a while, then come back and see, are you on the same beat they are? If you can do this over and over again you may figure out when you're getting off beat.

Keep in mind, sometimes people race the beat simply because they're nervous. So teaching experience may help.

Most importantly - you need to work on this OUTSIDE OF CLASS. I have seen new instructors who seem to think classes are for their practice. Uh, NO, that's for participants. If you're having timing issues, you need to be shadowing not teaching for now. Get it nailed down, then move on. But don't use the class as your guinea pigs.

From someone who once struggled with timing, believe me that it CAN be done but you just need to work at it

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Free the body. The mind will follow.

delphene:

What is ETM?

Exercise To Music

Bass volume helps me keep in time with the music.  Knowing the song and choreo also helps.  But at the end of it all, practise makes perfect.

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Whitebelt

Can't add much to the other suggestions but I was worried about keeping the beat when I started out (hell, I still am).

Knowing the music inside out helps (and yeah, there are some tracks where the beat isn't always that clear depending on the gym stereo - at one place I've taught at I struggled to hear the words to "Speed", let alone the beat) but turning it up a bit helps if you start to go off track.

It also helps if you've got a participant in there who is bang on the beat all the time, especially if you've got a class all over the place as that can be amazingly distracting (as already mentioned, there's a lot of plates to juggle while you're teaching - it's easy to drop one). Avoid looking at the rest and focus on them for a minute until you're back on track.

Finally, practice does make perfect - sounds silly but even know when I'm walking along listening to the iPod (usually LM stuff.....sad, I know) I try and match my footsteps to the beat so it's ingrained. 

I like the idea of a metratone! And I would say practice A LOT with your DVD and get Dan and Rach to help you along...

I have a really hard time with instructors who go off beat -- ruins the hole class for me.

However, I understand that a lot of BodyCombat instructors come from the martial arts or sports world, and not the musical/dance world, so I can feel for them.

In particular, the tracks that have the jingas in it are a nightmare for these instructors! 

I am a participant with a strong dance background, so as much as possible I try and help my instructor friends to get 'back on track', although in the end if that doesn't work I just go with their flow... same as if they accidently change the choreography...

Good luck.... once you master the timing, just think how much better you will be on the dance floor! 

 

 

 

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So damn easy to say that life's so hard Everybody's got their share of battle scars. As for me, I'd like to thank my lucky stars that I'm alive and well... It'd be easy to add up all the pain And all the dreams you sat and watched go up in flames. Dwell on the wreckage as it smolders in the rain. But not me...I'm alive (Kenny Chesney)