I remember back in Grade 4 or 5 hearing about the Grade 6 teacher whom I was destined to end up with (pending actually passing the previous levels) and the associated horror stories of her authoritarian rule over the masses. Turns out, once I arrived at that point, and established that I wasn’t a repeat of my brother who preceded me by a year, she was actually a pretty darn good teacher.
Flash forward to raising our kids and a repeat performance in a similar grade, except now you had the freedom to move your kid to a different school at your choosing to avoid real or perceived future conflict. Unfortunately, for our child in this case, the parental guidance units felt that one cannot choose things like future bosses, workmates and neighbours, and what better way to start learning to deal with the rich tapestry of people that will cross your path in life than childhood. Guess what? It turned out to be another good teacher and our child is now a contributing member of society, which to me indicates we all had some influence along the way in shaping this individual.
Backing away from this heady stuff but along the same tangent, programs play a major part in what we provide to you at the community complex and may be fitness based, aquatics, general interest — stuff like that. Programs require instructors and while it would be great if we could take the most fantastic instructor available and clone them, that technology at present has just gone as far a sheep that doesn’t quite meet our skill set requirement. But guess what? We already have fantastic instructors, all different and some at various levels in their careers, but all are passionate about what they are doing. As patrons, you may see a number of different instructors over your visits here and we appreciate your feedback on the good ones and your patience on the ones learning and not quite at that level. Great instructors did not start as great instructors. That leads to another tool that we can provide — the ability to “own your own workout”.
Those of you that work out regularly have learned there are modifications typically offered by the instructor during the class — kind of low, medium and hard variations of a particular move or a couple different methods to ease up or bear down more, depending where you want to be. Certain classes also focus on different levels so it’s important you select the right one to begin with. The bottom line is that the instructor is the guide — it is ultimately up to you how hard you push yourself as to what kind of workout you get.
I see it when I’m swimming. I can kind of halfheartedly breaststroke down the lane and not get my heart above the same rate as lying on the couch watching Coronation Street or I can bear down to the point where that vein on my forehead is visibly pulsing and I’m getting nosebleeds. I like to stay somewhere in the middle.
So, take control of your workout and stay tuned for a workshop that will get into depth on just how to do that. If you have certain requirements or limitations, speak to your instructor before you start or sign up. If you are not getting anything out of a class, talk to the instructor for modifications that will improve it for you or find out why it isn’t working rather than just not showing up again. Not only might that benefit you, it may assist the instructor in improving the class for others. Even if we aren’t able to perhaps help with certain circumstances, we certainly want to get feedback for the planning process in developing programs to better suit you. Try us — we don’t bite, but we might get your heart rate up.
Neil Ostafichuk is the recreation supervisor at the Creston and District Community Complex.