Turning Mistakes into Teaching Moments
To make mistakes is to be able to grow. To develop in any practice we have to make mistakes. Perfect rarely exists anywhere in life, but especially in any detailed practice, such as Pilates, we continue developing and learning throughout the length of our commitment.
Long before I was a certified teacher I had conditioned myself to be worried about making mistakes. As a dancer, I come from a background that's based on perfectionism and repetition. As a student, as a dancer, and as a Pilates practitioner, I've always been worried about making mistakes, wanting to be the best and perfect in everything I do. So when I began my teacher training program I remember my concern about needing to do everything well, and not wanting to make any mistakes in my practice hours or demonstrations.
Once I began teaching I assumed if I made any mistake in cueing choice, spring load, preparation position, or anything through the process that I was a terrible teacher. Similarly, in dance classes and rehearsals, it was always devastating to do something wrong, forget choreography, fall, or miss a step. But it's in the rehearsals, before the performance, where it's ideal for this to happen. Not only do we then improve motor skill retention when we make a mistake and are corrected, but we also become more resilient, learning how to recover quickly and move forward.
Every Pilates teacher and client will make mistakes no matter how long we've been teaching or practicing. As teachers, we need to listen compassionately to our clients and observe their natural tendencies as well as their physical response to our cues and corrections. Often teachers correct client mistakes too quickly and immediately when they see something. This might be because in our training programs we are taught to continue layering on cues and to always talk through the session. It could also be that as teachers, we think if our client is doing something wrong or less than perfect that it reflects poorly on us as a teacher. However, by rushing to correct we are losing out on a vital moment to see how the client works through the exercise, to learn what their natural tendencies are, how they initiate movement in their body, how old injuries might still be inhibiting movement on one side of the body, and any compensations that naturally occur.
If we can take a step back and allow the client some space to work through the process we might notice that they can begin to self-correct. Maybe they remember old cues we’ve given previously, or they begin to feel the difference in the body and naturally adapt. By allowing the client this time they gain the ability to self-correct, gaining ownership of their practice and self-efficacy in their movements. This self-efficacy is our ultimate goal since we're not teaching the client only for the Pilates studio. We're training them for movements in their daily life, conditioning the body to be able to respond to novel stimuli and loads, and we won't be following our clients around through their day shouting cues at them.
As teachers, we're learning about our client, how they think, how their body responds, and how they interpret cues. When a client makes a mistake, they are learning about themselves and their body, about the method of Pilates, and how to approach an exercise. We're all constantly learning throughout the practice. Because of this, we shouldn't keep stopping ourselves when we feel we can't do something. It's way too easy to stop ourselves when we make a mistake or before we even make a mistake, simply when we’re worried we will make a mistake or do something wrong. As a teacher, it’s essential not to consistently stop the client to correct or fix to perfection, but rather let the client move through and figure it out. As a client, it's necessary to try the movement multiple times to allow the body to work through the confusion, finding coordination and motor control in order to embody the exercise. We must encourage mistakes instead of trying to stop them before they happen. We need to keep trying, using the physical feedback for the body from the exercise to learn how to change and adapt.
Gaining the ability to self-correct and detect errors not only takes time to cultivate but also only happens through repetition and making mistakes. As a teacher, if I am not comfortable making mistakes this causes me to doubt my teaching abilities and could inhibit my clients' progress. Even after many years of teaching Pilates we still make mistakes. After decades of practicing Pilates, we still have much to learn and improve. We are constantly changing, learning, and growing no matter how long we have been teaching or practicing. Our movement constantly changes our Pilates practice as life flows and our bodies adapt over time.
After teaching for over a decade I have developed a greater understanding and even appreciation for the learning process that mistakes allow for in both teachers and clients. Mistakes not only foster learning but enhance the learning process as well. When we're learning a movement, making mistakes can be an extremely beneficial experience, allowing for movement refinement, informational retention, and situational problem-solving. Even knowing all these benefits it can still be an uncomfortable feeling to make a mistake, especially in front of other people. Often we get embarrassed, defensive, or irritable. For this reason, it’s important for teachers to be able to create a comfortable and supportive learning environment to decrease discomfort and curate a space that allows for learning and trying.
So the real question we need to ask ourselves as teachers is how we handle these moments when a mistake is made, either as the teacher or as the client. We need to look at how we can each foster this learning process, developing a supportive space to allow clients to want to play and explore and possibly make mistakes.
To be able to be comfortable enough to try something we have to create an environment that allows for this. As a teacher we should always try to maintain a light and calm environment in the studio, encouraging play and trial. Not only does this allow clients to be comfortable attempting something they don't fully understand, but it keeps the idea of perfection out of the way in order to be able to focus and develop insights. We need to listen to clients while keeping a calm and positive tone of voice to guide them. For teachers, it is important to respond to clients' mistakes with understanding, encouragement, and positivity instead of frustration, confusion, or fear. In this way, we build resilience and persistence, but also self-compassion.
Mistakes simply give us information. When we do something that doesn't quite work that's okay, this is just information for us to use in order to learn and improve. There are countless scenarios that can emerge in sessions, but some of the most common ones that occur are placing the wrong spring set-up, not lowering the headrest for overhead flexion exercises, or starting a different exercise than was cued. How we recover from these moments can change how both the client and teacher feel. Since we want these moments to be learning experiences we don't want to create a feeling of panic. If the teacher is calm then the client will be calmer feeling that their instructor is confident and knowledgeable and will take care of them. We want to maintain this sense of calmness when we notice we've made a mistake ourselves, not just in response to the client. When a client starts an exercise with the incorrect spring load or the headrest still lifted, we can ask the client to change the spring or headrest set up after they finish the repetition they are on. It’s not an emergency. If it looks like they are handling the load of the springs decently even if it's heavier than normal, we can ask how that feels for them with a bit of extra weight, using it as a moment to cue them to reflect on how their body is moving through the new sensations and feedback of the springs. We must have the confidence to guide the client through an exercise without worrying when something unintended happens.
By using these moments as tools, guiding the client to pause and think about what they notice, we can navigate calmly and effectively to learn and grow in any situation. We've been told since we were kids that we can learn from mistakes and that still holds true. Truly we learn the most from making mistakes, and when we try to be perfect all the time that can actually hold us back from experiencing and learning.
As a Pilates teacher it is easy to get into thinking we have to know all the answers and that we can't make mistakes in front of a client. But it's okay to not be sure of something or to say the wrong thing, as long as we acknowledge when we realize a mistake was made. Saying "I might be wrong" or admitting when we made a mistake is not a mark of ignorance or incompetence. It actually reveals maturity and humility. We can share our educated opinions and evidence-based guesswork, but to state corrections quickly and definitively to a client removes the detective work for the client to move through the work themselves. We have to share in our detective work each session, a give-and-take between client and teacher, allowing the client to try and possibly make mistakes so we can observe where their body and focus are in the moment. A lot of times, we have to work through a few exercises or repetitions to understand how or why the body is moving a certain way. Being able to admit to and acknowledge mistakes is an important skill set for all avenues in life even outside the studio. It takes confidence to admit uncertainty. While it can be intimidating to admit when we're wrong having the confidence to be wrong and learn allows us to move forward from these moments both inside and outside the studio.
So next time that mistake happens let out a breath and try again since this is when we grow the most in our work.
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