Have you ever wanted to kick a participant out of your class?
I feel awful about this…Out of my 10+years of teaching group exercise classes, this is the first time that I have wanted to kick a participant out. I have had a young woman come to my kickboxing class 3 times now with a group of friends, she clearly doesn’t want to be there, but she comes anyway. She is disruptive (answering her phone when it rings, she stops and yells, “if she makes me jump one more time!”, stands in the middle of the class with the biggest attitude and won’t do anything). I swear, It’s completely disruptive, and no matter how much I try to motivate her, she is the biggest Debbie Downer! Has anyone else experienced anything like this before?
Hi Serena,
You poor girl. Your job as the instructor is to give an amazing, safe workout for the people who want to be there. I’ve taken classes where there were people like that and the instructor didn’t do ANYTHING! I was so distracted by them that I actually moved across the room. Sadly, I never went back and the instructor was awesome.
I have been teaching for almost 10 years also and luckily I’ve only had to kick one person out.
I had a teenage girl who was there because her mom made her come. At the beginning of class I walked over to her and introduced myself (my classes are small enough that I notice when someone is new). I asked if she had ever taken a kickboxing aerobics class, she said no. I continued to show her all the safety stuff and when I got to the part where I showed her the basics, she just gave me this horrible look (hands on hips) and didn’t say a word. Her mother then said “She’s a boxer, she knows what she’s doing”. So I said ok great. I started to teach class and during the warm up she just stood there and glared at me. So I walked over to her and said, “you can’t just stand. You have to do something or I need you to leave”. I continued with the warm up and again she just stood there. So I started to walk over to her again and this time she headed for the door.
For some reason, I still felt bad. My class was happy though and that’s more important. I did feel much better after it was over though. People like that have a way of infecting the entire class with their negativity. You’ll feel better once she’s gone. Promise.
Good luck.
Karen