Yeah, i will. I am hoping to start some drama workshops in my local area as this is something i have wanted to do for a while, and then look to teaching hoopdance when Im better, i was thinking in the summertime. I have not been hooping that long but i am picking it up so fast, i am quite comfortable with most of the moves on the hoopdance for beginners dvd, (I learnt eagle today!) - I have lots of yoga and dance experience so i guess that helps. I am thinking of booking onto the teacher training in July. Ideally id like to be certain of my abilities as an hooper before making such a large (£300 to me is large) financial commitment, but July is a while away so enough time to practise, i would not want to have to wait till next year. I know that most people would tell me to wait, but I have fallen in love with hooping and im prepared to take the risk, as most people, no matter who or what they are in love with, are. x

Sorry - just gone back and read the rest of the thread, so I was just repeating everything. Oh well.... it was written with the best of intentions!!

hi gems, I've taken the Hoop Girl level 1 and I'm finding this thread quite interesting! The reason being on how the focus seems to be so much on physiology and fitness etc (I know this happened because it followed on from insurance etc).

I felt the main focus of the level 1 was how to physically run a class. There wasn't a lot of emphasis on actually learning the move yourself, although I certainly did improve on some and came away with some new ones!

The teaching style lends itself very well to NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) around how to recognise different learning styles, confidence levels of participants, how to encourage everyone to make the most of it etc. It also uses a lot of imagery like waves and birds and mountain tops! I'm going to use this phrase in the nicest possible way, but there were aspects of it that were so 'happy-clappy' that it made me giggle inside! I loved it though.

I found the training focused more on how to create an holistic learning experience through hoop dance and how to physically create the right environment to learn. Also how to build confidence in people and encourage them to want to learn and have fun!

i remember one girl in my first class crying and running off. She never came back. ;( I think she expected some kind of drill/fitness class and couldn't handle it when she had to pair up and hand-hoop whilst being chased by someone trying to get the hoop from her!

There is part of the training that covers insurance, starting up, advertising etc etc. Unfortunately a lot of the references in the manual last year were american but between us all we were able to exchange some good UK knowledge.

Just as an aside, another way to get public liability insurance is through Equity but this is more as a performer i think rather than an instructor.

x

Hi, I just wanted to say that i don't do hooping for fitness, that is a bonus, and if i were lucky enough to find any hoop dance classes in my area, i would be looking to learn hoop as an artform, not as a fitness activity.
just as Kitty is a trained fitness instructor, and can bring lots of her knowledge and experience of fitness to teaching hoopdance, there are lots of great hoopdance teachers out there who are not trained fitness instructors, and have come from many different backgrounds.
Obviously its important to know how to warm up and cool down, when you are dancing. But if you are looking to teach hoopdance as an art rather than a keep fit class then as long as you are a good hooper, and attend a good teacher training course like hoopgirl, then i cant see any reason why you would not be able to run fantastic hooping classes. As Sue said earlier, half of teaching is enthusiasm.