Think You're Good At Zumba? Try Filming Yourself

I thought after 2 years of doing Zumba, I would know a thing or two about dancing. How wrong I was.

After teaching an imaginary Zumba class in my living room I realised it takes alot of hard work to be a good instructor. 

I'm only aiming to be a passable instructor at this point. It's more than just knowing the moves and doing them well. You have cue commandingly at the right time. You have to make eye contact and encourage participants to do more than they think they can. 

I'm not a shy person but I'm certainly not the most confident. When I had to direct a class of only three people at Bokwa instructor training, I was so nervous my voice cracked like a teenage boy. There was lots to learn before teaching my first real class.

Recently I filmed myself in my living room (and in sleepwear but that's not important!) It was a game changer when I watched the footage. Why? Because I realised I wasn't the dancer I thought I was.

I was off time. My arms were flailing about everywhere. My head was down, my shoulders were slumped and I had a stony look on my face. This must be me in every class. *forehead slaps*

There were three lessons to learn from my first home video:

1) What is seen in a mirror reveals a fraction of one's form. Don't completely trust a front facing mirror in class. At least check what it looks like from the sides. 

2) As for keeping the right tempo, keep filming and watching to recalibrate my brain to slow down as needed. 

3) While I'm normally in a trance-like state of concentration, I should keep my head up and smile more. Just like what they do in the ZIN DVDs. 

So if you want to be good at Zumba, especially if you weren't trained as a dancer, try filming yourself and watch. The camera never lies.