My Turbo Kick Certicifation Experience!

Wow! Wow! Wow! What a day. Last Saturday I drove up to Layton, UT for my Turbo Kick certification. Turbo Kick is the live version of Turbo Jam. I love it! I absolutely love it! It makes you feel so powerful and tones your body like nothing else that I have done. The music is powerful, motivating, helps you let loose and helps me, the instructor, get into it and pump up the class--and myself! It's kick boxing, martial arts and hip hop rolled into one. Dusty often tells me it was made for me. I love all three of these elements and I have a blast doing them.

I love to teach, especially dance. I know I get this from my mother. When she is in the spotlight, she shines so bright; no wonder her name is Starr :) I am a different person when I teach. I love to have a connection with my students. I love to feed off of their energy and give them a little of my own ;) I love to motivate. I love to see results in myself and those in my class. I love to push it to the next level. I love to see how far I can go, what would happen if I go a little bit further.....push a little bit harder... When I am in my element I feel like I am the person I want to be.

These feelings and experiences I have had from teaching dance is what ultimately got me to go for the Turbo Kick certification. Tonight I was doing one of the Turbo Jam home videos and I kept thinking that "Now I am the instructor. What am I going to give my students? ENERGY!!" I was able to push through it so much better now that I have a goal and direction. Whenever I get my class(es) they will be looking up to me and I owe it to them to give it my absolute very best every day whether I am teaching them or not.

My instructor last Saturday gave me just that--her all! She had energy bursting through her toes and finger tips. She had so much stamina, energy, form and FUN!! The workouts, no matter how difficult they are, are FUN!! As a teacher it is not only my responsibility to teach my students, it is my responsibility to entertain them as well. Encourage them. Motivate them.

I started out last Saturday in tears because I got lost. :( The directions I had were confusing and the place was very hard to find and I ended up being like 45 mins late!!!!! I called Dusty crying and asked him to say a prayer for me and within a few minutes I found it. I felt so stressed out my body literally felt like I had gotten the flu or a bad cold from the stress of being late and getting lost. My joints ached, my head was pounding with a headache and my body felt so heavy. I got registered and my instructor was already doing a lecture but she welcomed me with a smile and made sure she new my name and I started to feel a bit better. I started to feel a lot better when 3 other girls showed up later than I did!! I felt bad for them too because I knew what they had just went through but happy it wasn't just me.

After a little bit of lecture we went through breathing, form and technique and punches, kicks and signature moves. Over and over and over again as our instructor went through giving advice to people and encouragement. We went right in to learning our first Round. a Round the live version of what a 60 min video would be. The Round is what I will teach to my students. 60 mins of non stop, no-holds-bar workout. It was great. Wow was it tough but it was great. Afterwards we had a quick lunch of about 35 mins and then back to the grind.

We were then divided up into groups and each group took turns getting in front of the class and instructor and teaching our segment to the others. It was actually a lot harder than I thought it would be. You have to make sure that your energy is high. You need to be careful of the pitch of your voice and make sure it's not too high and annoying. You need to make sure you aren't saying a lot of words when you cue your students to the next move and confuse them. You need to learn when and how to make your visual and verbal cues so students can easily transition into the next move. There is a lot to remember! Everyone kept messing up but that was OK. It was a good experience for all of us. When it was our groups turn there for a while no one was cuing so I just started to do it. I was messing up a little but I was proud of myself for just stepping up and not being nervous and just willing to learn. It was great...and an eye opener! Wow! It was hard.

After that we got our lesson on music utilization, teaching on the 32 ct phrase, cuing, making your class FUN and a lot more. It was a lot to take in in one day. I will never stop learning! I want to be the best instructor I can be and those kinds of instructors learn something new and get a little better each day!

After more review of form and technique it was time to do Round 31 again, but this time we would be judged. We were lined up in rows and the music was turned on. When you are in the front row you are being judged and you had better be doing your very best. Holy cow!!! 60 mins of giving it your all!!! It was great!

I got one compliment when she was standing in front of me she told me I had awesome kicks!! Yay! She said it like 3 times :) That was a big compliment to me. It was towards the very end of the day and I was trying so hard. That made me feel good.

After the practical test we had to take a written test. The test wasn't that hard because if you were paying attention to stuff throughout the day it's really just a repeat of what you learned that day. There seemed to be a few trick questions so it needs to be read carefully. By the time I got to take the written test my body was in overdrive and I had a real hard time concentrating on what I was reading. It was one of those tests where you had a question sheet and an answer sheet. I always think that I marked the wrong letter when I have to mark another sheet but I am sure I did fine. I always freak out like that :)

Afterwards I stayed around and talked to the instructor (she told me I did a great job) and other people that were there certifying. I also bought 2 pairs of workout pants and 2 belts. I will have to show you pictures I LOVE them.

After my BIG day I made my journey home for 1.5 hours. I called a few people to spill the beans about my day...........and just Dusty was home. Dusty was laughing and said that sounds like his life. Your triumphant news and no one is there to hear it. lol He said it reminded him of his mission. When he got home from 2 years of being away his family was 2 hours late to come pick him up!!! To this day I have that image of him sitting next to all his belongings in an empty parking lot....SAD!!

Anyway. I am so looking forward to learning and teaching and getting better with every class. Maybe when I come and visit you we can do a class together :) I have a long way to go to be a good instructor. I even have a long way to go before I teach my first class....but what I LOVE about teaching Turbo is that it's almost like I just bought my own little franchise. I purchase Rounds and that consists of the music perfectly mixed, a DVD to teach me the pre-choreographed moves and written choreography. Awesome!! All of the guess work is taken from me and I just learn it and deliver a powerful class to my students. You have the freedom to modify where you want within certain guidelines but it is just awesome to just have all of that done for you and you just buy a round, learn it and teach it!

I really want to have an active lifestyle and this will definitely help me achieve that! Please keep on encouraging me and helping me to always do better. I am so glad that I made the decision to do Turbo Kick and I am thankful for all of your support.