I've taken the AFAA certification before and if you have no experience whatsoever I think they're pretty good start with. The testing is over the course of a weekend which is good for those who have never taught at all. Saturday is review and learing how to do a warm-up, cool down and simple choreography for teaching a group. Sunday is review again in the a.m. which is good for those who are only attending the test day. You break for lunch come back, short q&a, then the test.
I was lucky enough to belong to a gym, one of the instructors saw potential in me as well as the Aerobics Coordinator (AC). The AC started a training group, there were about 6 of us (one dropped out when she found out she was pregnant) and she taught us all the basics for teaching a class. We met every Saturday two hours before the gym closed (2-4 p.m.) It was great. After she felt that each of us was ready she paired us up with one of her regular instructors and we team taught for a while. I think the team teaching was probably just acouple of months during the summer. That fall, I had my own class!
We also started meeting again as a study group for the AFAA exam. Same time on Saturdays again.
I felt vey fortunate going into the test site that Sunday because most of the girls there who also attended the Saturday session had just learned who to put together a warm-up, cool down, etc. the day before and were so nervous. But we had lots of practice time that morning after the review of the textbook. The lead examiner was there to correct form, offer suggestions, demonstrate exercises for different muscle groups, etc. Of course the three from my gym were fine but I would have been so nervous had I not learned how to do any of this stuff until the day before!
As we broke for lunch, the other two examiners showed up and when we returned, we had a short q&a session, then began the practical portion of the testing. As a group we performed what ever was requested - if the examiner said I need to see a warm-up, the music would start and you would begin your prepared routine, if you got to the end before all of the examiners circled the room, you just started over. You basically repeated the routine until the music stopped. Kind of nerve wrecking because you weren't allowed to talk but sort of fun too!
You did this for the cool down and your aerobic rutine also. Then you moved on to individual body parts. They weren't calling us by our numbers, you just volunteered to go up and then you were told what muscle group you needed to demonstrate for the whole group. Whew! Short break or breather rather, then it was time for the written portion of the exam. I think that took about an 1-1 1/2 hrs. Six weeks to get the results though!
The first three days afterwards, I was a wreck! But after that I went about my own workouts, teaching my classes and was surprised when the results came in the mail!
Enough of that! You can order workout music from Collage, Sports Music, Muscle-Mixes-Music (?)...just run a search!
Good luck to you! Keep us posted!
Angie
