Group Kick Training

I just finished my third and final day of Group Kick training at Bob's Gym. I'm pretty sore. What is Group Kick? For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, check out the video as I think a visual would give a better idea of what I was doing.



All in all, there is a program comprised of 10 tracks of music with sequenced fight moves of varying levels of intensity. Each song has ten rounds -- five for the right side and then repeated in full on the left side. The program uses boxing, martial arts and Muay Thai movements and strikes.

There were six of us taking the class. Our instructor's name was Rex (or his unofficial nickname of "Sexy Rexy"). We started out Friday running the entire program for top to bottom. After the cooldown, we discussed a number of concepts regarding the overall brand of Group Kick and Body Training Systems. Then we started reviewing the various boxing strikes and kicks and the proper techniques for displaying them. We focused on the three boxing tracks by reviewing them as a group and running each track twice. I was assigned Track 6 -- the "Superbox" track -- to learn and teach the next day. The music used for the routine was Waterloo by ABBA. (I'll admit, I got lucky because the kick track is my weakest of the three. I was a little happy to not get it.)

One thing to be aware of, the instructor has to act as a mirror to the participants. We learn and teach everything on the reverse side. So if I am calling out a right handed movement, I demonstrate it simultaneously on my left side. For simple movements, it's not that big of a deal. For combinations, it can get complicated.

I picked up the track pretty quickly that evening. On Saturday morning, the first thing we did after our warm-up was teach our tracks to each other (even though we sort of knew all of them already). Rex recorded each of us and we reviewed/assessed them afterwards. After some more discussion, we moved onto learning the various martial arts and Muay Thai movements used. We then moved into reviewing the four tracks that use these concepts...running each of them twice. I was assigned the second "fight" track; set to "Don't Bring Me Down" by ELO (part of it is shown in the trailer video above).

I was able to pick up the sequences pretty quickly which was good for me because I spent a good portion of the evening watching the Packers DECIMATE the Falcons. The next morning was tough. We had an early start and I was starting to hurt. My back was tightening up and my knees were taking a beating. My ribs were getting a little sore and anytime I sneezed or coughed (I think I am coming down with something), I felt it.

We started Sunday morning with our warm-up and moved right to teaching our assigned tracks. I was the only person to be assigned track #7 so I had the option of teaching the full class with the mic headset. How could I say no? We repeated the assessment sequence by watching some video of our instruction. I was pretty happy with my work. It wasn't perfect, but I felt comfortable enough with the routine to have a little fun with it.

After some more discussion, we had a Team Training session with 8 tracks of music with power and cardio peaks after each track. Power peaks target certain muscles groups for a full minute. Cardio peaks lasts about a minute and a half and gets your heart pumping. In a normal program, these are spread out. In this training session, they occurred after each track. I think they were shorter in length, but doing eight of them after a pretty intensive weekend was tough.

I'm chilling out now with a heating pad on my back. My work isn't officially over. I still have to submit a video of me teaching the full 10-track program with a class with at least 5 willing (or non-willing) participants. I'm shooting to do my class at the end of February. I'm planning on getting the entire routine down by the end of January and using February to work on proper technique and general review.

I don't have a date set yet, but I would enjoy having as many warm bodies in my class as possible. Stay tuned.

On a side note: It may look tought, but you do what you can do. There are some things that are on the video that I can't do...or can't do well. If it looks tough, well, it is challenging, but a lot of fun. I only did it for about a month and saw a sign that the gym was looking for more instructors. I thought to myself, "I can totally do this." If you make it to a class once I start teaching, I'll make it worth your while.