Cueing is how a fitness leader communicates with their class. A smooth and transitional class is only possible when cueing is done properly. Too often cueing is overlooked, but a good instructor knows the importance and the art of cueing skills.
Cueing is an art that takes patience. The more you teach, the better you will be at communicating with your class. There are many styles of cueing, such as:
- action cues
- kinesthetic cues
- imaginary cues
- motivation cues
- engaging cues
- safety cues
The most important thing to remember is cueing energizes your classes. The more upbeat your cueing is, the more energy your class will have because they feed off your energy so put some fun energy into your cues!
Why Do We Cue In Our Fitness Class?
- To allow time to transition into new movement
- To give foresight into the drills ahead
- To offer feedback
- To motivate and encourage
- To communicate
- To keep our classes and participants safe
CUEING is about moving with your participants in a positive energizing way versus commanding them or making negative comments. It is simple to make this mistake but easy to fix.
Instead of commanding a movement, “Run up the Hill”, try using words that motivate the group to flow together such as, “Let’s run up that big hill coming our way”.
Eliminate the word “don’t” from your cueing vocabulary. Instead, instruct a positive movement such as “relax your shoulders”.
There is a time and a place to cue. Have you ever been to a class where the instructor is constantly cueing movement positions, choreography, and just will not stop yapping? Personally, I find it distracting as a participant. I go to a class to enjoy the ride, to be motivated, and to follow the lead of the instructor with great cueing.
Your participants are there to enjoy the music, have fun, and sweat. The best time to cue is when it is helpful to a class.
Cue to challenge your participants, not make them feel out of shape. Have you ever had the instructor that yells at you and tells you to go faster when you were really putting your best effort forward? Encouragement is the key and the best way to challenge a person is to visually cue them.
Describe how they can increase their effort through what they will experience when they have achieved a high heart rate or conquered a giant hill. “We are about to approach a very steep and challenging hill. As you go through this climb, you are going to experience your heart rate wanting to pound out of your chest, your legs fatiguing, and your mind wanting to quit. But you can choose to look at that hill face to face and know you are going to conquer it”. Now you have prepared them for the hill by letting them know what to expect and how it is going to feel when they finish.
Set an Intention for Class
Before I start my classes, I always give them one thing to focus on in class. I make it simple such as "let's focus on sweating", "let's see how uncomfortable we can get in class today", "how hard are you going to work today?", "what's your big goal that your riding towards", "let's kill it today!" Then in the middle of the class re-instate the goal so they are thinking about it through their workout.
13 Verbal Cues to Energize Your Riders and Deliver them with Excitement and Enthusiasm!
- Ride it like you stole it!
- Own that hill!
- Feel your heart pumping!
- Let's get uncomfortable in our breathing
- Catch the rider in front of you!
- How fast can you get your fly wheel going?
- Get ahead from the pack in front of you
- Ride to the beat under your feet
- Generate power with your pedals
- The finish line is yours, own it!
- 11.If you are twerking with your butt on the saddle, add more tension
- Get out of that saddle and kill that hill!
- Imagine how good it is going to feel at the end of class!
Bonus List of MOTIVATIONAL CUES For your Riders
- Great job team!
- Love your energy!
- Way to bring it today!
- You did it!
- Way to go!
- I am happy to see you each working so hard
- Can you feel the sweat?
- Let's do that again!
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