Six tips to build your confidence before you teach

For Pilates teachers and studio owners

First published on Tania's Hearts and Bones site, October 2022. Lightly edited; a draft for her approval.

Consider your strengths

What are you good at? Every teacher brings strengths to a class and has weaker areas to work on. To build your confidence, start with the positives. Make a list of your strengths, and focus on what makes you distinctive as a teacher. Then ask another teacher to list the strengths they see in you — their list is usually longer than your own.

Get some perspective

When it all feels like too much, break it into pieces you can manage. Think about the exercises you want to teach. Can you relate them to an everyday action, so people see why the exercise matters? Focus on helping your clients reach their movement goals. When they do, your confidence goes up with theirs. You will have helped someone move better and make better choices for their body. When your clients succeed, so do you.

Remember a teacher who was not so good

Did you ever have a teacher who put you to sleep? I would bet you are a good deal better than that. The fact that you are reading this at all says you care about your clients and about getting better at teaching.

Celebrate what your clients achieve

Acknowledge progress with specific praise rather than general encouragement. You might even mark the end of a block of classes by going back through everything they have learned. Remind them of the exercise they used to struggle with and can now do with ease. Celebrating their progress builds their confidence, and yours.

Cheer yourself on

Write positive statements about your teaching and put them somewhere you will see them. Say them out loud before you teach, to put yourself in the right frame of mind. At the end of a class, note what you did well. Celebrate the wins, however small.

Teach, because only teaching gives you experience

The best way to build confidence is to teach. There is no way around the first step. The more you teach, the more confident you become. When something does not work, learn from it and resolve it next time. That is the job, and it is what keeps you interested in it.

Why it matters

Two reasons stand out. The first is money: a business has to earn. The more confident you are, the better you communicate, and the better you help clients solve their problems. When they get there with your help, they tell other people.

The second is the good it does. You are helping people and making a difference to their lives. Being asked what you do for a living and being able to answer that you change people’s lives is an extraordinary feeling.

If you would like a hand with your teaching, that is what coaching is for, and there is more on this in Teach Pilates with Confidence. Or book a free 20-minute call and we can talk it through.