DEEP WATER TEMPO TRAINING

Tuesday, July 02 2019

Welcome to Deep 124, a deep-water routine that uses music tempo to set the challenge and a Latin beat to energize the moves. Take away 8 choreography tracks for your more experienced deep-water clients.  Aqua legend, Pauline Ivens is retiring but her education lives on as we close out 2018 with two of her last DVDs.  Both will include online AEA CEC quizzes (January 2019).   

Leaving behind her first career as a physical education instructor in England, Pauline Ivens moved to Eugene, Oregon in 1988 to start a second career as a land and water fitness instructor.  After crossing paths with HYDRO-FIT founder Craig Stuart, her second career soon evolved into a 25 year stint educating aquatic fitness instructors with HYDRO-FIT, AEA and eventually her own company – Aqua Aerobics Unlimited.  Known for her passionate embrace of knowledge, she certified and educated thousands of instructors and her name became synonymous with educational excellence.  Given the 30-year anniversary of her fitness career, Pauline decided that the end of 2018 would be a good time to take a bow and retire so that she could spend more time with her husband. 

Over the span of her career, Pauline created countless workshops and produced several DVDs.  Fitmotivation is posting two of her last DVDs, including Deep 124, to celebrate her contribution to the industry and to ensure that her education lives on.  Choreography for the Core, Pauline’s homage to vertical core training, will post at the end of December as a special two-part video.  Part 1 includes 60 shallow water exercises and combinations; part 2 features some of Pauline’s favorite non-supine core exercises using a noodle.  

New online CEC quizzes are coming in January 2019.   Both Deep 124 and Choreography for the Core will include CEC quizzes designed by Pauline with her unique brand of instructor education.  Like other Fitmotivation Online CEC Quizzes, these will be worth 2.0 AEA CECs.  However, unlike typical Fitmotivation online CEC programs, Pauline’s quizzes cannot be answered from a simple handout.   Watching the videos and absorbing the purpose of the movement is paramount to successfully completing the quizzes, thus leaving a fitting legacy for a master trainer who exemplified and coached educational excellence. 

DEEP 124:  VIDEO-AT-A-GLANCE

1\. Using **Movement Tempo**, this workout is specifically designed to keep up with music at 124 bpm.  According to Pauline, that is the #1 challenge. The music speed compels participants to use more energy and chase the movement.

2. Instructors will learn how to use base moves and add simple, but challenging extras for Advanced Balancing. For example, any deep-water move performed without using the arms increases the difficulty level. will learn how to use base moves and add simple, but challenging extras. For example, any deep-water move performed without using the arms increases the difficulty level. 

3. Move-Pause Principle is used by playing with rhythm to add another level of challenge. Instead of constant momentum, a pause is added for one or more counts.

MUSIC TEMPO
As Pauline explains in the video and in the workshop handout, designing choreography for deep-water requires a good understanding of water tempo movement. Instructors need to teach an appropriate rate of speed to allow for slower reaction time and full range of motion in water choreography. Deep-water moves have no contact with the pool bottom and thus they flow very differently from shallow water equivalents.

MUSIC RECOMMENDATION
SilverSneakers 7 Latin by Music Mixes Music

NEUTRAL BUOYANCY
Flotation belts are required for deep-water workouts.  For more information on the placement of buoyant equipment and on assessing appropriate buoyancy and alignment in your students, please see the workshop handout.  

Deep 124 – Pauline’s 24 Suggestions for Adding Variety & Challenge

  1. Jog with many upper body limbering movements like arm waves, shoulder rolls, sweeps
  2. Insist on good body alignment & body control for stationary exercises
  3. Insist on good body alignment & body control for all traveling exercises
  4. For this particular workout you do demand that participants move to the music. It is an integral part of the challenge
  5. Use repetition reduction to increase the challenge
  6. Periodically remove the use of the arms as ‘training wheels’ so that the core and leg patterns have to take on all the work
  7. Use asymmetrical movement patterns to further challenge good movement execution
  8. Demand high energy traveling to tempo
  9. Demand speed over distance, as well as doing faster exercises
  10. Maximize frontal resistance for increased challenge
  11. Add rotational movements – a rotating ski is harder than a regular ski
  12. Add turns – random changes of direction on a signal; specific ¼ turns; specific ½ turns; specific full turns.
  13. Use advanced transitions, where the core needs to show its ability to control the movement
  14. Use off-axis movement……….tilts and leans, as long as alignment is not compromised
  15. Make full use of the power intensity variable – strong, determined, dynamic
  16. Make full use of the elevation intensity principle – downward forces to send the body up
  17. Use pathways that will allow each person to maintain their intensity level
  18. Use partner challenges to increase workload for each person
  19. Use upper body to pull lower body through the water
  20. Use 3 levels of speed to provide increase and decrease in challenge
  21. Use 3 levels of power to provide increase and decrease in challenge
  22. Use pauses in movement combinations – 1 ,2, 3, hold, 1, 2, 3, hold
  23. Use travel and stop to provide more challenge
  24. There should be no down time in this workout. It’s non-stop activity

Fitmotivation extends a huge thank you to Pauline for passing on the torch of educational excellence to Fitmotivation subscribers.  Her official retirement is Dec 31, 2018 and there is still time to buy DVDs, music and online education from her website - Aqua Aerobics Unlimited.  Stay tuned next week for Choreography for the Core, a special double video and a Fitmotivation interview & blog honoring Pauline’s contributions to the industry. 

 

Author: Mark Grevelding is the founder of Fitmotivation. He is also a training specialist and consultant with the Aquatic Exercise Association’s (AEA). Mark has been active in the fitness industry for 22 years as a group fitness instructor, personal trainer, international presenter and a continuing education provider for AEA, AFAA & ACE.