Maybe there is a third, grasshopper.
When it comes to motivational instructor types. And more specifically the two main types of indoor cycling instructors. Always a metaphor for humanity as a whole and we as the subject.
That is, IMHO, the task we, and I am speaking as one, are asked to determine and then portray.
This is of course as gross a generalization as you will find on this fine Thursday morning, but it might help me work through its hidden nuance, so let’s give it a go.
Type One is that I call the cheerleader. Rah-rah high energy, all smiles and grins. Everyone is a winner and the main ingredient of value is perpetual motion via low resistance and peppy cadence. It is most likely accompanied by whatever current pop music is favored by the teenage children of the mostly well-intentioned participating parents. I have been guilty of playing the head cheerleader role on occasion more because it requires little thought, planning or preparation. Just be happy and lead pleasant, non-threatening, mixed-gender, low-risk, middle-of-the-road, vanilla, fence-sitting, apolitical hour-long, low-output, bland and uninspiring spins. And be sure to whoop it up every five minutes or so. I use the imagery of the pat on the butt when speaking of the main motivational tool employed by the cheerleader. A pat of butter.
Type Two is the DI. The Drill Instructor. While I appreciate this approach and use it on a regular basis, it is risky. There are professionals, pillars of the corporate world who aren’t used to being yelled at for more focused effort. They are used to dishing it out and sometimes it is a chasm to long and too deep to leap. Be careful with this one, if you choose to get in someone’s grill they might take it like a pitbull having his bone confiscated. Ego is a funny thing. However, if you have an group with some sports experience they will undoubtedly relate to the traits demonstrated by champions developed as a result of hard work, team effort and sacrifice for the greater good. They like to be pushed. You can scream and call them maggots, sissies and pukes with positive results. I once suggested that we take a page or two from the Navy Seal playbook and was immediately reminded by a female class-mate they we are NOT Navy Seals. You are correct I replied but that should not keep us from training like them, eh? I took her guttural ’hurrah’ in the affirmative. I call this the kick of the mule, the antithesis of the pat on the but is a kick in the ass.
There, then are the two. There are a thousand between their polar extremes. I feel that the most important type is the type that best fits the character, style, experience and attitude of each individual instructor. I need to be me. I must exemplify my belief in my system. I must, through a combination of experience and accumulated wisdom that only comes from years of practice, lead, facilitate and motivate my team, the class, in the courageous and relentless fight between who they currently are and who they wish to become. That is never easy. Because easy is easy and we never improve or grow when everything is easy. It takes some hard. It talks a challenge. It requires failure, setback and disappointment. You gotta be tough and it takes tons of patience. This is truth and I will echo it until hoarse.
Your true nature hides somewhere between that pat of butter and the kick of that mule. It is the third possibility.
Find it grasshopper.
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