|
SCW Fitness Education and Les Mills Pair Up to Offer the Best of Both Worlds:
An Interview with Sara Kooperman, JD
By Lisa Ackerman
 | Les Mills International is the creator of BODYPUMP®, BODYJAM®, BODYFLOW®, BODYCOMBAT®, BODYATTACK®, BODYSTEP®, and RPM®. Their programs are known to provide Les Mills instructors worldwide with safe, fun and effective choreographed fitness routines, set to motivating original-artist music.
|
 Sara Kooperman, JD, founder of SCW Fitness Education (formerly Sara’s City Workout) and the MANIA fitness conventions, and a long-time supporter of free-style group exercise instruction, recently joined forces with Les Mills International as their Midwest Distributor. Sara is also is in the process of becoming certified as an instructor for their BODYFLOW® program. I sat down recently with Sara, a thirty-plus year veteran in the industry to pick her brain about the appeal of Les Mills’ programming,
How did SCW first become involved with Les Mills?
Sara: In the Spring of 2006 Les Mills International was looking for an outside organization to run their quarterly choreography trainings in eight cities around the U.S. Les Mills needed a company that knew the US, training, and fitness. It was a perfect marriage. We are where the fitness professionals go to learn. It made sense for SCW to plan and host the Les Mills U.S. quarterly trainings.
Les Mills hired us for our ability to work quickly and professionally. They heard about SCW’s 2004 Philadelphia MANIA event. We were ousted from the Philly venue (due to the hotel’s closing) only seven weeks before the event was to happen. SCW had to re-organize, re-house and re-work an entire convention in only thirty-five working days! SCW did it without losing one participant, one presenter, or one employee. Les Mills knew that SCW was a company that could quickly pull off eight fitness education events, in one two month span! Transitions are what we are about.
Were you immediately sold on Les Mills’ programming?
Sara: Honestly, no! SCW had spent 20 years teaching people how to create, teach, and grow in the industry. It took talking with international friends in order for me to give this program a chance. They encouraged me to think “out of the box,” reminding me that doing just that has brought great growth to our industry. After all, fitness is not just about weight-training with rocks anymore. It’s so much more!
How did you come to see the benefits of Les Mills’ trainings?
Sara: I’m like any other instructor. I had to do it. I had to walk into the class and take it. Just like SCW’s seminars, Les Mills’ programs are based on safety, creativity, and surprisingly . . . humor. Yes, humor is definitely in the mix. These programs take an instructor and align all the stars into a perfect class - the music, the movement, the cues, the energy. . . everything is “in place.” I was sold by my very first BODYPUMP® class. It simply grabbed me and transported me! I found myself laughing, concentrating, working. I wasn’t doing what I usually do …. Being my old critical self – I didn’t have to look at body balance, instructor technique or music usage …. I was smiling and just enjoying myself. They had me at “hello!” I understood … I became a believer.
What makes this different from any other fitness program?
Sara: Les Mills uses international presenters – the best in the world. Les Mills reaches over 4 million students worldwide. Think about it. . . 4 million! SCW is lucky that we touch almost 25,000 instructors annually. The SCW MANIA conventions run in seven cities. And we return to an event site on an annual basis, once a year we return to Philadelphia, San Francisco, Orlando, Atlanta, Dallas, Boston and Chicago. However, fitness professionals need more than just once a year contact. The need constant rejuvenation and replenishment.
But don’t instructors benefit from elaborate certification programs available now?
Sara: Most definitely. 250 to 500 people earn their cert at SCW MANIA’s per city annually, and have reached over 10,000 instructors across the nation. However, the problem with cert courses is that you train with a participant once for a 10-20 hour period and then you’re set free to do whatever you want. While continuing education credits are required and available through workshops, home-studies and on-line training, there is no requirement that protocols be followed and used daily.
Les Mills’ trainings come to the customer four times per year through their full-day quarterly workshops. There, they offer educational sessions that feature safety techniques and exercise modifications applicable to all levels and all ages. Every three months, throughout the world, Les Mills provides new and exciting choreography and music! Their instructors get a packet that includes a DVD containing full-routine choreography with notes and photos, a companion music CD and a complete training booklet, which includes choreography, cues and technical guidance. Les Mills not only certifies their trainers; they give them the ongoing support they need. This is “safety built-in.”
Okay, Sara. . . SCW sells fitness DVDs, so it sounds like you’re actually competing with yourself.
Sara: Good point. SCW has created more than 300 DVDs. This alone is evidence of today’s fitness professional’s need for continual material and motivation. In 2007, every DVD that SCW distributes will also contain choreography notes for the fitness professional, and music recommendations. Our customers asked for this, and we’re giving it to them. They want it all - choreography, notes and music.
The myth that choreographed programming decreases creativity is just that -- a myth. Fitness professionals have been buying choreography for years! They love DVDs, they beg for DVDs and they even want the notes to teach the DVDs. What Les Mills provides is a world-class system. Les Mills is actually opening my eyes to an international perspective, catapulting SCW to another level.
The more I learned about Les Mills’ philosophy, the more I realized that their approach is unbelievably beneficial to the industry . . . and something which would only enhance SCW Fitness Education. There is room for both approaches – free style and choreographed programs. I can’t emphasize this enough.
What do you see as the greatest benefits of Les Mills choreographed programming to group fitness instructors?
 Sara: Hmmmm… that’s a tough one. I guess what attracts me both personally and professionally to these programs is how they fit beautifully into our fast-paced, multi-tasking, overachieving world! I for instance, work full-time, have four boys ages 15, 12, 10 and 9 …. and one who’s 48 (my husband of 18 years.) Whether you are an experienced veteran or a beginner, Les Mills programming takes so much of the time-consuming, difficult work off our shoulders. The choreography, safety, muscle balance, musical interpretation, cuing advice and effectiveness are programmed in. This gives instructors the opportunity to spend their time focusing on their most important responsibility -- teaching. . . connecting with, motivating, and inspiring their students, leading them down a path toward a healthy lifestyle. For this reason, Les Mills’ choreographed programming takes a mediocre instructor and makes them magic!
You seem so passionate about this, Sara.
What drives this commitment?
Sara: On the whole, Americans are an obese, inactive population. I watched my own mother die of obesity just last spring at the young age of seventy-two. Caused by an inactive lifestyle, her death has left me with a strong, personal commitment to helping others live a happier, healthier and more fulfilling lives. Leaving behind a loving husband, two dedicated children, and four young vibrant grandsons, her life could have been better and more fulfilling. So many people are dying from obesity, and we know that cancer, diabetes, depression and countless other ailments that plague our society can be effectively counteracted by exercise.
There is a shortage of good fitness instructors. For most of us, finding a substitute for our fitness classes when we are sick or leaving town is a nightmare. Further, staffing quality programs with quality instructors has become increasingly difficult, if not impossible. With the Les Mills programs, even a novice instructor leads the same class as an expert instructor. It is quicker, easier and more efficient to get a new instructor up to speed and able to sub using the Les Mills system.
I hear from Les Mills’ instructors that the music is one of the aspects of the programming that they love the most. Tell me about it.
Sara: Yes, the music is phenomenal! It’s original-artist music that totally motivates the instructors and the participants. Rest assured, Les Mills is complying with all international and national laws and regulations regarding music licensing. As an attorney, I could not support an organization that was not in full adherence of the law. Les Mills is!
How about the benefits of Les Mills programming to the individual student?
Sara: Again, I have to mention how motivating the music is and the fact that Les Mills has highly-trained instructors. Another beauty of the Les Mills’ programming is the fact that every Les Mills trainer of a particular “system” (A.K.A program) is teaching the exact same routine set to the exact same music. So, regardless of which instructor is teaching the class at your club on a given week, the participants know what to expect from the class. This familiarity helps the students to feel more successful with their exercise. Also, once the participant has become familiar with the routine, they can focus entirely on their form, exercise execution and proper body alignment. They get the maximum benefits from the workout. Les Mills’ programs help students to be more successful. If a participant isn’t successful in their exercise routine, they will drop it.
Les Mills is doing an excellent job at keeping people active, helping people to stick with their programs and getting participants in the best shapes of their lives.
Also, critical to Les Mills’ programming is their built-in periodization benefit. This can’t be emphasized enough! As fitness professionals, we know from every research study and every exercise physiology article that we must vary our exercise to continue to challenge for our bodies. Research shows that ideally a person’s exercise routine should be altered every 10 to 12 weeks. (In fact, every research study attempts to run for 12 weeks.) Les Mills does exactly that. Their instructors are presented with new choreography to teach to their classes just when the participants’ – and the instructors’ -- physically and mentally need it!
Why Les Mills versus other choreographed programs?
Sara: Les Mills has been creating and implementing choreographed fitness programming for over 20 years. Two decades to perfect the programs, evaluate effectiveness and develop techniques that guarantee success. There are other companies who now offer choreographed programming, but they haven’t been creating their own programming for even one full year yet. Les Mills has established themselves as the originator of and authority on this type of exercise.
Is the Les Mills program expensive for their instructors?
Sara: Frankly, I’m amazed at how cost-effective it is. Every 12 weeks, each instructor receives a DVD containing full routine choreography with photos, the accompanying music CD, and a manual, for only approximately $29 on autoship. Full-day training seminars are available for about $50 every three months. It’s affordable, it’s easy, and I just can’t believe the professional quality. Trust me, I know what it costs to produce a DVD.
Now what about the clubs?
How is it cost effective for them?
Sara: I am so impressed by what clubs get for the license fees. I am amazed at the marketing that is provided. Posters, banners, brochures, postcards, class passes, articles, schedules …. The list goes on. If you compare just the expense of design work alone, a club has made up its costs five-fold. And just imagine that these design and marketing offerings are updated quarterly. Clubs also receive world-class training modules, music and moves updated quarterly, access to group fitness management seminars preceding every quarterly workshop and 24-hour access to an international network of support. Then add to all this, the countless health club testimonials that emphasize the additional revenue fueled by Les Mills’ programs. Sky-rocketing membership sales, decreased employee turn-over, increased staff and member loyalty, are all part of the package.
In your opinion, should an instructor pick choreographed training over standard, non-choreographed training?
Sara: That’s a tough one. I think the best instructors provide their facilities with both types of teaching. It’s definitely not an “either/or” situation. The MANIA fitness conventions offer a full-range of fitness programming on topics ranging from Pilates to Pregnancy and from Aquatics to Aging, going beyond what Les Mills currently offers. Les Mills, on the other hand, conveniently brings brand new material to their instructors more often and more easily than the MANIAs ever could. You’ll pack a powerful punch as an instructor if you pursue both types of trainings.
SCW/Les Mills Midwest: Full-Time, Product Director
SCW Fitness Education and Les Mills Midwest, two dynamic and trend setting fitness companies located in Northbrook are seeking a full-time Product Director to oversee daily operations of the company's product department. Individuals and strong management and organization skills and a seasoned understanding of sales, products, and events are encouraged to apply. Experience in the fitness industry required. Ability to manage diverse staff, analyze problems and ability to implement solutions needed. Strong ability to establish systems and streamline operations as needed. Applicant must be a team player as well as a team builder. Compensation commensurate on experience. Full company benefits are available. Please note this is an in-office position only. This position will report to the CEO and CFO. Please forward all resumes with professional references to hr@scwfitness.com
LES MILLS MIDWEST CLUB COACH
SCW Fitness Education, your Les Mills Midwest agent, is growing! We are in need of another Les Mills Midwest Club Coach to work in our Northbrook office and guide Group Fitness Managers through the process of successfully implementing the Les Mills System into Group Fitness Facilities. This is a full time salaried (commensurate with experience) position. The Club Coach position is an in-office position ONLY based out of our Northbrook, IL location. You will also provide retention and acquisition advice to GFMS, directors, marketing managers, creative departments and Club Owners. We require at least 3 years experience in the fitness industry and a strong understanding of the Les Mills programs, website and marketing opportunities. Excellent phone skills and writing ability required. Only team players need apply. Please forward all resumes with professional references to hr@scwfitness.com
Les Mills full-time, in-office Events Coordinator
Les Mills Midwest needs a full-time, in-office training and events coordinator. If you are detailed-oriented, have impeccable follow-through skills, Les Mills experience and love to plan please apply to manage the flights, hotels and scheduling of initial module trainings. Also, this coordinator will plan the locations, flights, hotels, schedules and talent for quarterly events and conferences. A strong understanding of all MS Office Suite Products strongly desired. Please do not apply if you are unable to work in the Northbrook, IL office.
Send cover letter and resume to: HR@mw.lesmillsusa.com
|
 |