Welcome back to another edition of the XPERT blog, where we chat about all things pole, aerial, teaching and professional development. If you’ve been following along for a while, you’ll know that we’ve talked about everything from continuing your education and finding your confidence as an instructor, to managing your own training alongside teaching and adapting your classes to suit different students. This month, however, I want to talk about something that I think many instructors quietly struggle with, but perhaps don’t always like to admit or talk about: you don’t have to be good at everything.
Sort of sounds obvious when you say it out loud, doesn’t it? But I do think there can be an enormous amount of pressure within the pole and aerial world to become this mythical, all-knowing, effortlessly confident instructor who can demonstrate every trick, teach every discipline, explain every movement perfectly and work with every type of student. The more experience we gain, the more we can sometimes feel that we should be adding another skill to the list, rather than recognising the skills we already have.
Of course, continuing to develop is important. I am a huge advocate for learning, taking courses, attending workshops and generally staying curious about what we do, but there is a difference between continuing to learn and constantly feeling as though you are not enough. Being an excellent instructor does not mean being the best at every single part of pole and aerial, and trying to become that person can actually distract you from something much more valuable: understanding what makes you a good teacher in the first place.
Your strengths might not be what you think they are – When we think about instructor strengths, our minds naturally tend to go towards the obvious things. Perhaps you focus on bossing those strength moves, coaching flexibility or being able to demonstrate advanced tricks that make your students stare at you in complete disbelief. Maybe you are fantastic at choreography or have a beautiful flow and pass on all those details to your students. These are all wonderful abilities, but being a good instructor is about so much more than what you can personally do with your body.
You might be the instructor who can instantly put a nervous beginner at ease, explain a complicated movement in a way that suddenly makes everything click, or spot when a student is struggling, even when they haven’t said anything. You could be brilliant at creating an environment where people feel comfortable making mistakes and asking questions, or perhaps you are the person who remembers everyone’s name right off the bat (hats off to you if this is you!), notices when somebody has had a difficult week and somehow manages to make a room full of very different people feel like a community. None of those things necessarily look particularly impressive on Instagram, but they can make an enormous difference to someone’s experience in your class. Sometimes we become so focused on the things we cannot do that we completely overlook the things we do exceptionally well.
You don’t have to teach exactly like someone else – Social media can make this particularly difficult, because we are constantly exposed to instructors who seem to be amazing at absolutely everything. It is very easy to compare your own behind-the-scenes reality to somebody else’s carefully selected highlights, whether that means questioning your choreography after watching someone else’s incredible flow, feeling inadequate because another instructor can demonstrate a trick you have never managed, or wondering whether your own teaching style is too quiet, too silly, too serious or simply not polished enough.
But there is no single personality type that makes a great instructor. Some instructors are naturally loud and energetic whilst others are calm and measured, some fill a room with jokes and conversation while others create a quieter environment where students can really concentrate, and some love demonstrating every part of a movement while others are fantastic at verbal explanations and visualising the technique with their students. There is room for all of those approaches, and more.
In fact, some of the best instructors I have come across are the ones who have stopped trying to emulate somebody else and have become comfortable with their own teaching style. They know what they are good at, understand where they still have room to develop and don’t feel the need to pretend to be something they aren’t. That confidence can take time to develop, especially when you are a newer instructor, but over time you start to realise that your personality is actually one of the most useful tools you have.
There will be things you are not particularly good at – There will be tricks you cannot do, disciplines that don’t come naturally to you and areas of teaching that make you feel much less confident than others, and guess what? That is completely normal. Being an instructor does not magically make you immune to being a student, and we all have things we are still working towards. Sometimes, acknowledging those limitations is actually a sign of professionalism.
There is nothing wrong with saying to a student, “I’m not sure, but let’s look into that.” There is nothing wrong with modifying a demonstration because something doesn’t work for your own body, asking another instructor for advice or recognising that somebody else has more experience in a particular area than you do. In fact, being comfortable with your limitations can make you a better instructor because it teaches you empathy, and reminds you what it feels like to be confused, frustrated or nervous about a movement. It also helps you understand that not every body will move in the same way, encouraging you to find alternative ways of helping your students rather than assuming there is only one correct route. Sometimes, the instructor who knows what it feels like to struggle is the very person a struggling student needs.
Play to your strengths – Once you start recognising your strengths, you can actually begin to use them more intentionally in your teaching. If you are fantastic at breaking movements down into tiny pieces, lean into that. If your greatest strength is encouragement, make that part of your teaching identity. If you’re brilliant at creating choreography, give yourself permission to be known as the instructor who brings creativity into the studio, and if you have a particular passion for beginners, don’t feel as though you have to rush towards teaching increasingly advanced classes just because that seems like the natural progression.
There can be a tendency to think that we should always be working on our weaknesses, but I think there is equal value in developing the things that already come naturally to us. A brand-new student who is terrified that they are going to embarrass themselves may not care whether their instructor can perform the most complicated trick in the room. They may care much more about whether they feel safe, welcomed and encouraged enough to come back next week. Likewise, a student who has been training for years and has hit a mental block with a particular skill may not need to see the trick demonstrated another 10 times. They might need an instructor who can break it down, reassure them that struggling is normal and find a different way of approaching the problem. Knowing what you bring to the room allows you to become much more intentional about the kind of experience you want to create.
There is still room to grow – Of course, embracing your strengths does not mean deciding that you have nothing left to learn. Quite the opposite, actually. Knowing your strengths can give you a much healthier starting point for identifying the areas you genuinely want to develop, because instead of approaching every new course, workshop or training opportunity with the feeling that you are somehow behind, you can approach it with curiosity and a genuine desire to learn something new.
There will always be another skill to work on, another course to take or another area of teaching that you could improve, but that doesn’t mean you have to treat your professional development as a never-ending list of things that are wrong with you. You can be a great instructor while still having plenty left to learn, and I think being able to recognise both of those things at the same time is a much healthier way to approach your development.
Your students don’t need a perfect instructor – Ultimately, your students are not looking for perfection. They are looking for somebody they can trust, somebody who cares about their progress and understands that everybody learns differently. They need an instructor who is willing to adapt when something isn’t working, who celebrates their successes without making them feel as though they should constantly be achieving more, and who creates a space where mistakes are simply part of the learning process rather than something to be embarrassed about.
Perhaps most importantly, they need to see that being a human being is okay. If you are willing to laugh when something goes wrong, admit when you don’t know the answer, modify something when your body isn’t feeling its best and celebrate the things you are still learning yourself, you are modelling something incredibly valuable for your students. You are showing them that progress does not require perfection, and that struggling with something does not mean they are failing. Sometimes, the instructor who knows what it feels like to struggle can be exactly the person a struggling student needs.
Find the instructor you actually want to be – So, if you have been feeling like you need to be better at everything lately, perhaps take a moment to step back and ask yourself a slightly different question. Instead of asking, ‘What am I not good at yet?’, ask yourself, ‘What do I bring to my students that is uniquely mine?’
Maybe you’re the instructor who makes everyone laugh when they are nervous, the one who can explain a movement in five different ways until it finally clicks, or the person who is incredibly patient and encouraging with students who have lost confidence in their bodies. Whatever your strengths are, don’t overlook them simply because they don’t look impressive on a checklist or translate neatly into a qualification. Those qualities are often the things that students remember most about their instructors, and they can be just as valuable as being able to demonstrate the latest trick.
There will always be things we can improve, and I don’t think we should ever lose that willingness to learn. There will always be another trick to learn, another course to take, another discipline to explore and another area of your teaching that you could improve. That’s one of the wonderful things about working in pole and aerial, because there is always somewhere else to go. However, there is a big difference between wanting to grow as an instructor and constantly feeling as though you need to become someone else.
You don’t have to be good at everything, and you certainly don’t have to teach exactly like anybody else. Sometimes, the best thing you can do for your students is to become more confident in the instructor you already are. Perhaps the best instructor you can become isn’t a completely different version of you at all, but simply a more confident version of the instructor you already are.