I took the YMCA Martial Arts Exercise Instructor course recently. It was an 8 hour course offered on Saturday. It was a lot of work, but very rewarding. I learned a lot that will enhance my martial arts training and instruction. A new YMCA is being built in Mt. Juliet that I may start teaching at a couple of times a week. Before I do that though, I need the last prerequisite course for the YMCA MAEI certification. The last course is now being offered only one time in February in Columbia. I keep checking the calender (http://www.ymca-le.org/), but so far that is the only time/place it is being offered.
The MAEI course focused on the following:
- Effective leadership qualities.
- Physiological and scientific principles of martial arts exercise programs.
- Structure and components of properly designed martial arts exercise classes.
- Skills required to teach martial arts exercise.
- Safety and injury prevention factors.
- Practical experience.
There were five of us in the class plus the instructor and I was the only one with actual martial arts training (beside the instructor). A couple of the others had been taking some form of Martial Arts exercise (aka BoxAerobics, Cardio Kick Boxing, Tao Bo) and the others were proficient in other cardio exercise programs (specifically dance) and their goal was to round out their YMCA certifications. I think the practical exercise portion of the class, which was about an hour and a half, was hardest on me since my normal training only consists of about 20 minutes of cardio twice a week. It was very intense interval training and followed a work/rest duty cycle that increased in intensity as the work out went on. I thought I was going to have to bow out a couple of times but just as I thought I couldn't go any more the rest cycle would kick in and I would build up enough energy to make it through the next set. I don't want to give the wrong impression about the rest cycles though. During the most intense sections of the work out the rest cycles consisted of Jumping Rope, Jumping Jacks and Boxer Shuffling.
The course materials consisted of about 40 pages. They did a good job of distilling the most important aspects of the martial arts and utilizing them in a cardio program that, if done properly, can only enhance your martial arts abilities. The main moves utilized are Front Punch, Reverse Punch, Hook, Upper Cut, Front Kick, Side Kick, and the Round House Kick. The course also gains my respect in that it spends a significant amount of time talking about the Kinetic Chain (the motor pattern for production of force during a strike) and the various energy systems of the body (Creatine Phosphate, Anaerobic Glycolysis, and Aerobic Glycolysis).
I learned of a good website for workout patterns called TurnStep (http://www.turnstep.com/). MAE patterns are listed under BoxAerobics. They have several hundred to choose from. If you know of any other good pattern sites, please let me know. There are so many to choose from that I don't even know where to start.
Lastly, I finally learned the importance of music in a workout routine. Up until now I had dismissed music during workouts as somewhat silly and unnecessary. But, after having taken this class I now understand music's place in the dojo and will utilize it where appropriate. I also found some good websites to order music from. When choosing workout music, it is important to choose based on Beats Per Minute (BPM). The following websites specialize in music to work out to and list the BPM for each of the songs in a given collection.
- http://www.johnsines.com/
- http://www.dynamixmusic.com/
- http://www.powermixmusic.com/index2.html
- http://www.musicflex.com/
- http://getfitmixes.com/
- http://cardiomixes.com/index1.html
