Teaching the Pilates Method : The Art of Connection
From Instruction to Education
Every Pilates teacher begins by learning the steps: where to place the feet, how to shape the spine, when to breathe. These are important foundations; yet they do not, on their own, create a teacher. Teaching the Pilates Method means translating principles into experience so that each client discovers control, not merely copies form. It is a shift from giving directions to guiding attention, from counting repetitions to cultivating understanding. Module Two, Teaching the Pilates Method, is designed to help you make that shift with confidence and grace.
Seeing Before Saying
Good teaching starts with clear seeing. Observation precedes correction because, without an accurate picture, even the most elegant cue becomes guesswork. In this module you will strengthen the simple, difficult skill of looking. You will learn to notice breath before you change it, rhythm before you impose it, strategy before you judge it. When you see how a client organises movement, you can work with what is present rather than fight what is absent. The result is fewer words, more clarity and faster progress.
Language That Lands
Words have weight. The language of Pilates can invite curiosity or shut it down; it can clarify intention or cloud it with jargon. Teaching the Method asks for language that helps clients feel, not merely obey. You will practise choosing words that are precise without being pedantic and encouraging without becoming vague. You will learn how to pair verbal prompts with simple tactile or visual cues so that information arrives through more than one doorway. When clients understand what to attend to, they move with quieter effort and greater confidence.
Programming With a Point
The best sessions read like good writing. They have a clear opening, a developing argument and a purposeful close. Programming in this module is presented as a conversation between principle and person. You will learn to set intentions that organise your choices, to create progressions that respect tissue tolerance and learning pace, and to select challenges that ask for quality rather than spectacle. A well-built programme feels coherent from first breath to final transition. It teaches skills, not tricks, and it leaves clients steadier than when they arrived.
Adapting Without Compromising
Adaptation is not dilution when it serves purpose. The Method offers a rich vocabulary of options for those who need an on-ramp or a detour. The art is to modify in ways that reveal the point of an exercise rather than avoid it. You will practise changing lever lengths, bases of support and breath strategies while keeping the intention intact. You will learn to recognise when classical expression is both safe and useful and when a contemporary approach better suits the person in front of you. This is practical judgement in action, and it is the heart of professional teaching.
Empathy as a Professional Skill
Clients arrive with histories, hopes and hesitations. Some carry injury or apprehension; others carry ambition and impatience. Empathy allows you to meet each person where they are and to communicate in a way that feels respectful and steady. In this module empathy is treated as a skill that can be refined. You will explore how tone shapes trust, how pacing affects attention and how small successes build durable confidence. When people feel safe, they learn; when they learn, they move better; when they move better, they return.
Assessment That Informs, Not Intimidates
Assessment is most useful when it clarifies the next step. You will learn to organise information from posture, breath, movement history and goals into simple priorities that guide programming. The process remains light and collaborative. Clients should understand what you are looking for and why you are looking for it. In this way assessment becomes part of teaching rather than a separate gate to pass through. It keeps sessions focused and it helps clients see their own progress over time.
Honouring Lineage While Teaching Today
Pilates has always balanced fidelity to source with responsiveness to reality. Joseph and Clara taught people rather than pictures; Romana Kryzanowska staged learning so that students could progress safely and with pride. Teaching the Method in the present continues that tradition. You will revisit the classical rationale for flow, breath and precision and learn how contemporary insights into motor learning and pressure management can support, rather than replace, those values. The aim is not to modernise for its own sake; it is to teach in a way that works for real bodies in real lives.
What Competence Looks Like
Competence is visible. It sounds like calm voice and clear timing; it looks like tidy demonstrations and steady hands; it feels like sessions that move without rush or fuss. Assessment in this module reflects that reality. You will have opportunities to submit short teaching videos, to reflect on decisions with tutor guidance and to refine plans so they read more cleanly. The emphasis is on practical skill that transfers directly to the studio floor. By the end, you should feel not only more knowledgeable, but more capable.
A Moment for Reflection
“Pilates teaching begins when the cueing stops. ” Consider what that means for your practice. Do you rely on familiar phrases, or do you help clients discover the principle beneath the instruction. When intention leads, cueing becomes lighter; when clients understand purpose, they organise themselves more skilfully. This is the difference between directing movement and educating movers.
Who This Module Serves
Teaching the Pilates Method is for instructors who wish to move from competent instruction to confident education. It suits those who are early in their journey and want good habits from the start, as well as experienced teachers who sense that their work could be simpler, clearer and kinder without losing rigour. It is also valuable for physiotherapists and allied professionals who want to integrate Pilates with clinical reasoning while keeping the experience human and engaging.
Join the Movement
Enrol on Teaching the Pilates Method through the Mbodies Thinkific portal and bring your professional voice into sharper focus. Learn to see before you speak, to programme with purpose and to adapt without compromise. Your clients will notice the difference in how they feel; you will notice it in the quality of your sessions and the quiet confidence that follows.
Author: Chris Onslow - Pilates Consultant
Chris Onslow, has run Pilates focussed businesses since 1998. He and his team specialise in supporting Pilates entrepreneurs and business owners. With a rich history of owning and running successful Pilates studios in the UK, and supporting others in Europe and the Middle East, Chris has broad expertise in maximising profitability and optimising operational efficiency. His agency provides top-tier advice on selecting new, pre-owned, and hireable Pilates equipment from renowned brands such as Align-Pilates, Balanced Body or Stott-Pilates/Merrithew. As the founder of Mbodies Training Academy, Chris continues to revolutionise Pilates education, offering premier online and hybrid CPD and qualification courses for Pilates apparatus instruction and special population CPD.