Beginner Pilates Cues, Instructor Cue Cards, Mat and Reformer, 134 Drawn Cards

Seller's description

Most of what we say in a beginner class we learned in our own first classes, and a fair amount of it fails with someone who has never done Pilates. She has not been shown what imprint means, and a warning about her back makes her hold it stiff. These 134 cue cards hold the cue that works in a client's first ten classes, on the mat and on the reformer, and on the same card the cue to drop and the reason.

Beginner Pilates Cue Cards is a printable deck for Pilates instructors. Each card is one cue for one beginner exercise. The cue is the big line. Under it sit the exercise and where it happens (the mat position, or the reformer load and what the spring is doing), then the cue not to say, in quotes, and one sentence on why. Every why is tagged with one of five reasons a beginner cue goes wrong: jargon, myth, strain, fear or overload. Every card is also placed in the first ten classes (class 1, classes 2 to 5, or classes 6 to 10), so you can layer the cues instead of giving them all at once. Print the sheets, cut on the lines, and keep this week's cards by the mat or on the reformer frame.

The deck takes a side on how we talk to new bodies. Research on what clinicians say about backs found that "protect your back" messages raise worry for years, and that cues aimed at the effect of a movement beat cues aimed at a muscle, for beginners as much as for experts. So no card asks a beginner to be careful or to protect a part, and the say side names something she can see or touch. Pain is said once, plainly: stop and tell me.

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WHAT'S INCLUDED
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✔ 134 beginner cue cards, four to an A4 sheet with cut margins
✔ 66 mat cards and 68 reformer cards in one deck
✔ Five parts by teaching intent: Alignment, Breath, Imagery, Correction, Transition
✔ The cue to avoid on every card, in quotes, with one sentence on why
✔ Five reasons a beginner cue goes wrong, with an example of each
✔ Every card placed in the first ten classes, with a drawing of the three stages
✔ 24 beginner exercises drawn, from Breathing, Pelvic Curl, Toe Taps and the Hundred with legs in tabletop to Footwork, Frog, the short box, Knee Stretches, Elephant and Mermaid; each card shows its own
✔ Transition cards for the moments a first class goes wrong: down to the mat and up again, on and off the reformer, the feet into and out of the straps
✔ An index by exercise, and every cue to drop in one list by reason
✔ 55 pages, A4 PDF

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PERFECT FOR
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• Newly qualified teachers taking their first beginner classes
• Instructors running an intro course or a beginner series on the mat or the reformer
• Teachers who have heard that "navel to spine" might be the wrong cue and want the replacement
• Studio owners setting a shared way of talking to new clients

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WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT
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✓ Say this and not this on the same card, so you can change a habit mid-class
✓ Plain words for class 1, a refinement for class 6, so new clients are never buried in cues
✓ Every drawing is the beginner version of the exercise
✓ Reformer loads are light, medium or heavy, never a spring color, so the deck works on any brand of reformer
✓ Tactile cards ask first, inside the cue, and keep the hand on the ribs, the back of the head, the sacrum and the outside of the knee

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IMPORTANT INFORMATION
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• Digital download: one A4 PDF (55 pages). No physical item is sent.
• Print and cut the card sheets, or read them on a tablet.
• For personal teaching use. Please do not resell or share the file.

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DISCLAIMER
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These cards are a professional resource for trained Pilates instructors. They are not medical advice. A client with pain, a recent injury, surgery, pregnancy or a medical condition should clear their exercise with their healthcare provider first. Pain is a reason to stop and refer, never to cue through. The cues are examples of instructor language; use them with your own training and judgment in the room.