What are some tips for creating and executing an excellent cardio kickbox class?
Cardio Kickboxing have come along way since the 90’s and like most group exercise classes they continue to evolve. Some classes are taught with gloves, kicking shields, hanging heavy bags or standing wavemasters. Most are taught to hard driving music or drill rounds of 3 minutes on/1 min rest. Many instructors (including Mr. Taebo himself) have incorporated various exercise equipment into the cardio kickbox class such as jump rope, free weights, & resistance tubing to name just a few. There are those cardio KB workouts that are choreographed with layers such as Turbo Kick… and I see that you are a TK instructor. While others may be more martial arts driven like the program I teach.
Defined, cardio kickboxingis a cardiovascular workout performed by using martial arts and boxing movements formatted to form an entire workout. The instructor must first and foremost be knowledgeable on those techniques and to be able to teach them properly so that participants do not injure themselves.
*Never lock out knees or elbows
*Keep body in neutral position
* Always engage abs
*All kicks kept low until mastered
*Music 125-135 until you see your class progress and then you can increase if you so wish. I find music selection is so important and try to vary accordingly.
*Since cardio kickboxing is high impact, always stay on the balls of your feet
Hope these tips help!
Thanks Steve! I would actually go onebetter on the kicks as far as teaching types of kicks.
As a martial arts instructor, I spend a great deal of time teaching the proper stance and foot placement when performing a particular kick. Certain kicks are more difficult to perform than others.
My peeve is seeing the side kick being performed without pivoting the hips so that the heel of the standing leg (with knee bent) is pointed in the direction of the kick. Yet another bad thing – knee injury!! Same applies to the roundhouse which I never introduce until the sidekick is mastered because you need to pivot even more!
I teach Turbo Kick, which is non-contact cardio kickboxing. I don’t do the choreography, that comes with each Turbo round that I get from the company (Powder Blue Productions owned by Chalene Johnson). I think it’s helpful to know the basics of kickboxing, finding music with the right bpm range, and creating a program that builds on itself as the class progresses.
For example, in Turbo, the sections are as follows: Warm up, Punches, Kicks, Punches and Kicks, Turbo (about one minute of anaerobic drills), Recovery, Finale, Finesse, Legs, Abs, Cool Down. Because I don’t have a full 60 minutes to teach, I omit the Finesse, Legs, and Abs.
Also, before class starts, I go over the basic kicks and punches relevant to that round, the turbo choreography, and any new moves since the last class. Again, the choreo builds on itself and I teach modifications to everything. I also constantly remind the class that form is most important. I don’t care how high they kick if form is compromised. Then have fun!
I used to teach a cardio kickbox class and my format always consisted of bag work (we had heavy floor bags) interspersed with some cardio (jump rope, jumping jacks, etc) plus body weight exercises. I would watch my class members to see when it was time to transition from one type of exercise to the next. I also tried to come up with different punching and kicking combinations for each class. Hope that helps!