If I was to Rate An Instructor...

With today's internet age there's no hiding criticism or compliments. People blog, tweet, and Facebook more often than call their loved ones. You either can embrace it, or ignore it. Either way it's going to be out there for the world to view, good or bad.

I cherish the fact that members take time to write about their experience in class with whomever they took class from. My fiancée on the other hand likes to stay more in the shadows and keep the experience within the studio walls. As much as I see her point, we both look at rottentomatoes.com before renting or going to a movie.

As a long time (nearly 10 years) in the fitness industry both teaching and training I've seen and taken a lot of classes. With numerous certifications in my pocket I have a good idea of how things should be run in a room. Everybody has their own style, but certain things should always remain.

What I look for when taking a class is...
1. Is the instructor there 5-10mins early to setup class and greet new members.
2. Is the instructor prepared to teach (clothes, music, mic...)
3. When class starts is everybody setup in an orderly manner.
4. When describing the class, is it concise and then asks for issues/injuries before starting.
5. Can you clearly hear and understand the instructor.
6. Are they attentive to watching and correcting improper form and technique.
7. Is it their own workout or yours.
8. Is the music on par with the format (yoga-calming, spin-driving beats, step-uptempo...)
9. Was your time spend efficiently in the allotted time with a proper warm-up, workout, and cooldown.
10. Lastly, did you take away an experience from that class or if given the script you could just do it yourself.

Those are my 10 things to look for if I was rating instructors.

This wouldn't be complete with referencing and thanking rateyourburn.com. This website allows the members to rate their class experience and whatever their individual guideline is. It's great, but also hard to take too much away from an anonymous review. I understand it's the backbone of the website, but I'd rather have somebody tell me if they loved or hated my class!