Teaching at BoxBellFit

I've been a bit of a secret squirrel about something lately but it's now time to come clean and make it official.

Those of you who have been reading my blog for the past year or so will likely have encountered reference to BoxBellFit, a training facility in Wokingham that I've been frequenting for kettlebell, metafit, HIIT and turbo box sessions. Anna, the owner, is super lovely and I got chatting to her when I first blogged about the facility and classes. As such she knew I was a (then) trainee PT and even read my blog on occasion.

So when I was asked to cover some classes at BoxBellFit I was both honoured and delighted. I was then equal parts thrilled and terrified about the prospect of actually standing in front of a class of people and teaching. I coach my RunFitUK group every week, which I adore, but that was a group I started fresh. No one came with any expectations of my teaching style or the intensity of the sessions. By contrast at BoxBellFit I'm teaching people who have been taking these classes for months. They know what they like, are used to a couple of instructors and don't know me from Eve.

Everyone will know my name's not Eve

After the initial chat with Anna about what I might be able to take on I started trying to get to more classes myself. I started brushing up on my kettle bell moves and techniques at home, took the metafit instructor course and generally tried to prepare myself as best I could. When the timetable dropped into my inbox for real my heart started doing funny things. It suddenly became a Real Thing. I had a responsibility to Anna and the members. I had to step up!

BoxBellFit dog, Coco. Gonna miss her.

The first thing I needed to get over my nerves about was teaching one of each class with Anna's supervision. Absolutely right and proper that this should be done but I worried about making an complete mess of it. Would I forget what a kettle bell snatch was? What's a "get up" in metafit again? I know from experience that the nerves will fade with time and the anticipation is far worse than the event. No one wants you to fail and a sense of humour gets you a long way.

Anna gave me such a lovely introduction in those first few classes and as predicted I felt perfectly fine once I got going. The first HIIT class I designed, the only class that I'll be drawing up myself each week, didn't (quite) break anyone and people haven't run out the door on seeing me at the next class so I'm counting that a success.

I've done my first week of solo teaching now and it's going well. I instruct metafit, HIIT and kettlebells on Wednesday night then kettlebells again early on a Thursday morning. Despite the early start I feel so buzzy afterwards. It's a real joy to teach, to get people moving, to help them push their limits. I never thought, given the effort I used to put into avoiding presentations in my office job, that I'd ever find myself in this position but here I am! Long may it continue.

With sunrises like this it makes the early mornings a little less painful.

Have you got any secret projects on the go? Have you found yourself in a situation you never thought you'd be in, and loving it?