Season 6, Episode 7: What makes a cue actually work?

Tania Huddart: Another word for cueing is communication. It's how you talk to your clients. Our words are what we use to move people. And because we understand the body at quite a high level, the real art is to take all of that complexity and make it simple. Simple, and usable.

Host: Welcome to Build Confidence and Purpose with Pilates. I'm here with Tania Huddart: Pilates teacher, teacher trainer and author of Teach Pilates with Confidence and Pilates & Purpose. Both voices you'll hear are made with AI. Every word Tania says is her own, and she's approved each one.

Last episode was about when to ask, and when to touch. Today we're still in Part 2 of the course, your teaching toolkit. What makes a cue actually work?

Tania Huddart: Simple words, chosen with care, for the person in front of you. And then watching what their body does with them.

Host: Simple sounds easy.

Tania Huddart: It sounds simple. It isn't, for most of us. And I know, because I fall into this trap myself.

I love knowing things. I love learning. And sometimes I get a bit carried away with the minutiae. I get so excited about it. And that is not about me. It's about my client. They're probably not going to get quite as excited about the details of the movement as I am.

So leave out the nice-to-know. Lie on your back. Lie on your tummy. Stand up. Can you feel equal weight in your feet? Just be very clear.

Host: How simple are we talking?

Tania Huddart: Teach to the lowest common denominator. I don't mean that unkindly. Imagine you've got a ten-year-old in the room. How are you going to help them understand what you want them to do?

It's not teaching your adults like children. It's remembering that simple is more powerful. It's more accessible. And your clients feel more successful.

That goes for the names of body parts, too. If I was talking to a whole group of nurses and doctors, I could get away with the word femur. With my everyday clients, I'd first have to explain that it's the thigh bone.

I've asked people to touch their hips, and they've touched their ribcage, and everywhere else but their hips. So don't assume. Start where they are.

Host: Once it's simple, what makes one word better than another?

Tania Huddart: Think about words that tell them the quality of the movement. So instead of saying, "Lift your leg," could you say, "Float your leg"? Could you say, "Melt your thigh bone down into your hip socket"? Words about feeling and sensation are usually quite good.

Push, pull and squeeze have their place. On the reformer, you're going to say, "Push the carriage out." That's the sliding bed. But they're quite abrupt words. And often the body doesn't respond to them very well. We've got a lot of subtlety we can bring in instead.

Host: What about the old favourites? Belly button to spine?

Tania Huddart: It's very easy to get stuck in a rut. "Draw your belly button to your spine." "Zip up from your pubic bone." Sometimes those are unhelpful. A lot of people bring too much tension into the movement, and then they can't move with ease any more.

So you could talk about smiling your abdominals across the front of your pelvis. Or lengthening through your spine, rather than reaching your head to the ceiling. Stay flexible with your cues. Be willing to change the way you say things.

Host: The course quiz lists different types of cue. Can you give me the tour?

Tania Huddart: There are lots of them. You could probably come up with more. Anatomical or form cues name a part of the body. Move your thigh. Find the middle position of your pelvis. Imagery cues are pictures. Float your leg. Imagine champagne bubbles rushing up your spine. Add a sound to that, and you've caught your auditory learners. "Can you feel that fizzy movement?"

Then descriptive cues. That's your word choice. Float, lengthen, reach, sink, melt. Tactile cues are touch, yours or theirs, which we talked about last time. Then there's encouragement. And demonstration, from two episodes ago.

Host: You've left one out. Directional?

Tania Huddart: That's the bit I was saving. It's one of my favourites, because I have a real hard time with left and right. So you know what? I don't use them. I say, "Can you move towards the door? Can you move towards the window?" Whatever you've got in your room.

It's so much better. Otherwise I'm so busy trying to remember which is right and which is left, it's just a disaster.

Host: Do the words you use about the body matter, as well as the cues?

Tania Huddart: They do. Positive words of encouragement matter for everybody. Especially for the auditory-digital learner we talked about in Part 1, the one with the little voice in their head.

I often have conversations with clients about their negative self-talk. They'll say it out loud in class. "This is my bad side." So I'll ask, could we rephrase that? Think of that side not as a bad side, but as a side that's different. It moves you through life in a different way. And right now, it's complaining a little and looking for some help. It's not doing it because it's naughty. It's not trying to punish you.

We all do it. But that kind of talk can really stop people moving forward.

Host: Is there an order to building a cue?

Tania Huddart: First, understand the exercise yourself. If you haven't put it into your own body, it's very hard to teach. Then cue the starting position. That's straight from the quiz. "Lie on your back, bend your knees, and place your feet on the floor, sitting-bone distance apart." Then decide whether to cue the breath or the movement first. And once they've got the mechanics, layer on more. We went through that order in Season 3, so I'll keep it short.

Host: Where do your cues come from?

Tania Huddart: Honestly, I struggle to come up with cues just by thinking about a movement. I like to see the way people move. That's where my cues come from. Observation is an amazing tool.

But be careful with it. It really isn't about fixing anybody. It's about inviting them to move in a different way. If you're lacking confidence because you think you have to fix people, I'd invite you to come out of that mindset.

Host: So when I see something going wrong, and I don't know how to fix it?

Tania Huddart: Hand it back to your client. Say their pelvis is hiking up on one side as they move. You might say, "Can you feel your hip moving up towards your armpit? Can you do that again, and see if you can keep your pelvis level?" And let them figure it out.

They probably won't get it the first time. Let them do it a few times. Often I don't cue at all for the first one or two repetitions. I just want them to get a feel for it. Then I'll say, "Let's stop for a second. Did you notice that?" And they might say, "If I push my foot down a bit more, it helps me keep level." Now it's their cue, not mine.

You can even ask them to come up with a word for what the movement feels like. Some really wonderful, rich cues come from the words clients choose.

Host: Do you practise cues, or do they just come?

Tania Huddart: There are three steps in the course for improving your cueing. We'll come back to them at the end of the season. But my go-to is practice. I'm a kinaesthetic learner, so I learn by doing. If there's a teaching idea I want to work on, I'll teach it to all my clients, to see how it lands in different bodies. And I practise on my own body. Every cue is an experiment.

Host: And what about when you get it completely wrong, in front of everyone?

Tania Huddart: Stay calm. Laugh at yourself. Your clients don't know you've got it wrong. They're so busy working out what they're doing. I've told people to put their elbow in their hip socket. It's not a big deal. Even if you get the breathing mixed up, who cares? Just change it on the next one.

Host: So what could a teacher try in their next class?

Tania Huddart: Pick one cue you say every single class. Maybe it's belly button to spine. Find two other ways to say it. Try them on different bodies this week, and watch what happens.

And for one exercise, don't cue the first two repetitions at all. Then ask, "What did you notice?" You might get a better cue than any of yours.

Host: So, three things to take away?

Tania Huddart: One. Keep it simple. Imagine a ten-year-old in the room, and leave out the nice-to-know.

Two. Choose words that carry the quality you want. Float, melt, lengthen. And use the door and the window, not left and right.

Three. Watch, and hand it back. You're inviting a new way to move. You're not fixing anyone.

Host: And the question to sit with?

Tania Huddart: Which cue do you say so often that you don't hear it any more? And what is it actually asking the body to do?

Host: Everything we talked about today is in Part 2 of Tania's online course, Teach Pilates with Confidence: Your teaching toolkit. It's open now. You'll find it at taniahuddart.com/academy.

Next episode, we finish Part 2. How do images and stories help people move?

Tania, last word?

Tania Huddart: Finding the words is one of my favourite things about teaching. How many ways can I say this, for all the different people in my room? Enjoy that. It never runs out.