Use Your Words

Have you ever stopped to consider your language when you teach Pilates? When you are instructing someone to do something with their body, it can be interpreted in many different ways. I love telling someone to do something new and seeing how their interpretation of the words shows up in their body. I am often amazed at the number of ways I’ve seen ‘bring your knees to your chest’ interpreted. Of course there is no judgement at all, but I am fascinated. 

This year I moved to a new studio and had to consider how I describe things to my students. Working with new people helped me to see how some of my regular language could be hard to understand. There are some words I used that I decided to stop using. Having my words repeated back to me when people were clarifying what I was asking this to do was an interesting experience and it made me think a lot harder about the words that I use, their effectiveness and why I use them or refrain from using. 

This summer, I wrote a series on the Language of Pilates. I discussed my least favorite phrase, the unattainable goal of perfection and the most famous ‘I can’t.’ What we say to ourselves and our clients is so important. I’ve heard things and said things myself that made me cringe. I’ve grown a lot as a teacher over the past nine years and my language has changed as a result of that growth. We have to think about why we are using the words. We have to think about what we want to accomplish with those words. Are we trying to empower our clients to make their own choices? Are you giving them those opportunities? Are you asking them to do one thing or are you giving them options? Are we saying things to our clients that we would want to hear from our own teachers? 

Teaching Pilates is not an easy career, as much as people may think it is. We have to consider people, their bodies, mindsets and how they might interpret what we are asking of them. There can be a better way to ask for things. Some things are going to be interpreted multiple ways, no matter what we say. There are people that will never actually hear us. There are people that will hang on every word. But we do have to consider what we say and how we say it. Have you changed your language at all? If you want more about language, Pilates and writing be sure to sign up for my newsletter.