Help with Amy Bento

Dawncharlie

Dawncharlie

Cathlete
Hi--

I am new to kickboxing and am loving it. I have KPC, Kick Max, and Cardio Kicks. Then I saw a clip of Amy Bento's In the Ring and bought the DVD. I'm so used to Cathe's queing that when I first played In the Ring, after the warmup, I just stood and stared. I didn't feel like Amy told us what she was doing and then she was going to the next move too fast. I always felt I picked up choreography just fine, but In the Ring baffled me. Am I missing something? Or with Amy's kickboxing, do you have to watch, stop, rewind, watch again, and then try it?

Thanks for the advice.
Dawn
 
Dawncharlie said:
Hi--

I am new to kickboxing and am loving it. I have KPC, Kick Max, and Cardio Kicks. Then I saw a clip of Amy Bento's In the Ring and bought the DVD. I'm so used to Cathe's queing that when I first played In the Ring, after the warmup, I just stood and stared. I didn't feel like Amy told us what she was doing and then she was going to the next move too fast. I always felt I picked up choreography just fine, but In the Ring baffled me. Am I missing something? Or with Amy's kickboxing, do you have to watch, stop, rewind, watch again, and then try it?

Thanks for the advice.
Dawn
Click to expand...

Dawn-
I'm sure you'll get lots of help but for me....as much as I adore Amy I cant do any of her cardio workouts for the exact same reason. I like her strength training and I love her kick but for the life of me I cant catch on to her style of cueing or even the transitions.... There is something about her method of teaching that doesnt gel w/ my brain....I've tried every kick DVD from her over last 3 years and have finally decided to stop wasting my money. I might buy her strength in the future but thats it.
So dont feel bad! I catch on pretty easily to all of Cathes cardio....... maybe its a gene we're lacking!;)
 
I have KickBox Extreme and I have to agree with the other comments. I know I could learn it with time and practice but at 5:30 in the morning I do not have such patience and end up with my trusty Cathe vids. I like a no nonsense kickbox workout that isn't choreographed hence my love of KPC and KM. I did entertain the idea of buying her latest but I don't see it getting my hear rate up enough to justify purchase.
 
Hi Dawn...Amy's kickboxing is definitely challenging. I have her Kickbox Extreme and ITR. You do have to "watch, stop, rewind, watch again, and then try it?" I do that and then don't use it for a few days and try again. Once I get it down her kickboxing workouts are quite fun. But her step ones have me completely baffled or as Beav's said I have no patience for them!!
 
Hi Dawn--I'm a bit choreographically challenged myself. :p The key to Amy is really just learning one of her workouts. Once you get used to her style the rest of the DVDs are less difficult to pick up. I do always watch them all the way through at least once before attempting.

ITR is probably my favorite KB workout--it's low impact but high intensity, & also SO much fun! A super high cal burner. I'm not a huge fan of KBX, it's too high impact for my taste & bones. ;)

Her step is way more complex, I have to preview it about 5-6 times before I'll even try.

Stick with her--you'll be glad you did b/c her workouts are major fun once you learn them.
 
I must be really odd. I pick up on Amys workouts pretty fast. not that with the first time thru I never had a moment of whoa what was that on the first example, but for the most part I pick up pretty fast and after I do it a few times its easy. I still haven't tackled my Cathe step workouts. I plan to soon. I keep putting it off cause I'm thinking I won't get much of a workout rewinding and trying to figure it out. She always leaves me scratching my head. I'm feeling encouraged though since everyone else says Cathe is easier to follow. lol.
I'm still a newbie to step so thats probably it. She may call out the move but I don't know what it is. And when they spin around backwards they loose me. But I'm not new to kickboxing at all and In the Ring wasn't difficult for me to pick up. I haven't done Amys step workout yet either. It will probably be the same issue.
 
I've only attempted ITR once. Amy tends to throw a whole string of cues at you at once, making it all sound very complicated. Then when you actually see the move, it's not what you expected it to be. It left me confused. And combo 2, I think it was, with some sort of weird roundhouse spinback thingie... Gah! Even at slo-mo, watched over and over again, I still couldn't get it.

KBX took awhile for me to catch on to. But it was great fun once I did. I do still modify those silly sidekicks to a couple of jumping jacks. There used to be tons of modifications, but I've eliminated them one by one. And I take a lot of the impact out.

I'm not ready to give up ITR yet, but it's not one I'm eager to reach for.

Diane
 
I did Kickbox Xtreme this morning, and I still struggle with it (after having done it about 6 times)! I enjoy it but for some reason her moves are not intuitive for me. I like the workout, but my brain is working as hard as my body.

Just keep doing it (rewind as necessary), and you should get it eventually.

That's what I keep telling myself, anyway!

Good luck!
 
Amy

Hi Dawn, I do the NEW Amy workouts on my day off. ;) First I have to learn the moves and then I can insert them in my other daily workouts. I do Cathe every day,:D she is tuff to do, but easy to learn. And just like you said when you are doing Amy workout for the first time you have to stop, watch it again, stop, .....:(

Timea
 
Amy's choreography is more complex than Cathe's whether on the step, on the floor, or in her kickboxing. I don't constantly rewind when I'm learning a new Amy, I just do SOMETHING, i.e. punch or kick, and try to pick it up the next time. Her cuing is definitely a different style than Cathe's and there's an adjustment to that as well. "In the Ring" was a little trickier than KBX, IMO, and I was doing a lot of my own thing during some of the turning moves, that's for sure. I've probably got about 90% of it down, and that's after doing it probably 10 times. I guess I've changed my expectation that I'm going to get all of it the first time like I do for most other instructors including Cathe.

I also wouldn't be doing it at 5am like Beavs, however. My brain wouldn't be functioning enough to learn it. I don't do ANYTHING at 5am except sleep if I can help it.:p
 
I have Amy's KBX and ASC, they both frustrated the heck of me the 1st go around. I got KBX figured out the 2nd time, her cueing is just way different and I could never figure if I was supposed to be on my left or right!! I about chucked ASC across the room about 20 mins into my 1st try. I've done it maybe 3 times now and its gotten much better, although I still end up confused in some parts. You just have to keep at it. I like Cathe's teaching much better, but Amy puts out a good workout once you get the hang of it

Nan
 
Thanks

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts. I want to like Amy's kickboxing. I just have to work on my patience to learn the workout!

Have a great day!
Dawn

P.S. It does make me long for Cathe's Mixed Martial Arts project, which I do think she plans after STS.
 
No wonder!

I just realized why I had so much trouble trying to learn In the Ring. When I first put it in my DVD player, I decided to try the Quick Premix, thinking I would learn the routine slowly. But the Quick Premix starts right away with combos of 1 and 2 put together, without instruction. The next time I tried the DVD, I went to the chapter menu of combo 1 and Amy broke down the moves she was doing. It was so much easier! Thanks, everyone, I'm glad I did not give up on Amy's choreography. It was a lot of fun!

Dawn
 
I had that same problem the first time I did KBX. :) I thought, well, I just want to try a short workout today, so I'll do this Quick NRG premix and was totally lost. Now I don't try her premixes until I've learned the workout.
 
You know, come to think of it, I think my first intro to Amy was trying a premix. LOL Yeah, that's definitely not a good idea. Yes, her cardio can be confusing, but it's fun and challenging, so I'll never part with mine.
 
I don't really have any advice and I do have to "learn" most of Amy's cardio workouts but as others have said, they are VERY worth it. She is my top pick for cardio, especially step. I won't digress, as I easily could, because you are asking about kickbos. ITR is so much fun and I love the med ball intervals. KBX is fun also and a bit more complicated to me. I find that after I've tried to learn a complex workout, if I take a break and come back to it, it kind of clicks! Good luck!!!
 
Amy is definetly difficult. And if you try a premix without learning some of the workout you can certainly be confused and frustrated. But I think once you get one of her workouts down, then the next one your ready for her style of cueing.

Try one combo at a time. Add it on to the end of another workout that you are more comfortable with until you learn the moves.

Don't give up.

Good luck.
Jenn
 
I'm with Beavs, I have neither the time, coordination, nor the patience to learn complicated stuff, which is why Cathe kickbox is so great in my humble opinion, basic in your face straightforward and effective.
 
I have a LOT of trouble learning Amy's step workouts, but no trouble whatsoever learning Cathe's. I think it's because I've been doing Cathe's step workouts for so long (since the early 1990s) and I know her style so well, so it's so much easier to learn new material. I've only been working out with Amy for a short while. I would really love to master her step workouts, but I haven't had the patience to take the time to do it. Hopefully soon!
 
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