1. It's expensive to sign up, and I recommend doing it early and intentionally. I registered in April for the June training, which lowered the price somewhat. However, it was still $$$. That being said, you CANNOT teach "Zumba" as "Zumba" without this training. If you are wanting to do it, make sure you are serious about it and budget for it as an investment/ plan ahead.
2. You need to bring a lot of stuff that day. I brought: an overnight bag stuffed with three giant water bottles, three changes of exercise clothes, deodorant and bodyspray, my paperwork, a journal, a pen, my wallet,an extra pair of athletic shoes (in case the arches in my dance shoes weren't up to it) and a box of protein bars.
Some others brought less, and many others brought all that PLUS coolers with their lunches, chairs and/or yoga mats for the lectures and cutely coordinated Zumba accessories. I can see the benefit of a yoga mat and a towel. Overall, I think that the things I brought worked for me-I didn't really need anything special to sit on, and the protein bars were fine for me throughout the day. I also feel more comfortable the less things I have to keep up with. However, if you go, keep this list in mind as reference. I think I was the only I saw who had body spray. I was proud of myself on that call. It was a good call.
3. Did I say three changes of clothes??? YES I did. They tell you beforehand to bring three. Why? LOTS OF SWEAT. SO MUCH SWEAT. I honestly did not expect to sweat so much, but several hours of Zumba throughout the day combined with the fact that there were about 60 other people dancing in the same medium-sized room resulted in a great deal of perspiration. It's not like you dance ALL day. There are several breaks and a couple of lectures. However, I would not reccomend going if you don't feel like you are at least in pretty good shape. I'd been working out a lot for several weeks before I went-lots of jogging and Zumba at home and in class. I had a blast dancing all day. Even though I was tired/sore at the end of it, I never felt like "OH MY GOSH I AM GOING TO HAVE TO STOP FOR A SEC" during the day. I could tell there were a few people who were not anticipating the physical aspect as much and they looked pretty miserable at the end. However, most of the people in my particular training seemed to be fit and pumped for the exercise. So if you go, I would recommend conditioning for it for awhile beforehand. For me, this made the day so much more fun than if I hadn't done so.
4. Be prepared to learn things about teaching Zumba that you didn't know! I learned a whole lot of new things about the formula used to choreograph the dances, the fitness aspect of the program, and the importance of Latin rhythms to Zumba. Just the basic steps for the basic rhythms are a lot to rememberI had no idea it was as complex as it is!
5. Be prepared to get called up in front of EVERYBODY. My trainer did this several times, putting individuals and groups on the spot to lead the entire group and MAKE IT UP AS YOU GO. We'd all be doing a group routine and then he would just point to somebody and they'd have to run up there and lead. I had a turn up on the stage and that was probably the scariest part, but it was also really cool.
6. Be prepared to sign up for ZIN (The Zumba Instructors Network), and bring your credit card. While you are at the training, you will learn that you can't do a whole lot as a Zumba instructor without signing up for ZIN. It helps you find jobs, gives you a Web site, allows you to attend future trainings, recieve monthly CDS and DVDS with new music and routines from the home office and gives you huge discounts on everything from insurance to Zumbawear. You have to have a credit card to sign up, and it is about $30 a month. From someone who is pretty poor, I'm just going to tell you that it's already been worth $30.
7. Here is a run-down of what your day will look like. Since you may have to travel a few hours to get to your location, you may opt to spend the night at a hotel near the location. Many folks did that.That wasn't really in our budget, so we left around 5:30 a.m. I have the best husband in world who drove me 2 hours both ways through the crazy Atlanta traffic. I love that guy. :-)
Schedule-ish
Registration
*Master class (1 hour to 1 1/2)- Intense and fun, great workout and start to the day
(Change clothes to set 2 because SWEAT)
Lecture about class layout/importance of warm up
*Practice choreographing a warm up (pulled people up on stage here)
*Learn the basic steps for the Merengue and practice to music. We were divided up into "dance groups" for each Latin rhythm we learned for the day.
*Learn basic steps for Salsa (same format)
Lunch break
(Change clothes again)
Lecture/Explanation of ZIN
*Dancing with practice using verbal vs. visual cues
*Learn basic steps for the Cumbia
Explanation of choreography/putting it together
Practice
Break
*Basic Cumbia steps and putting it together
*Basic Reggaeton steps and putting it together
(Change clothes AGAIN)
Lecture
Review
DONE!
*Note, wherever there is a *, it means that this part involved actually doing quite a bit of Zumba, so you can see there is a lot of movement throughout the day, though it is nicely spread out.
8. During all this, be sure and take the opportunity to learn from watching other people and ask questions! Almost everyone is coming from a different class, so you see lots of great movement and a variety of styles.
9. Since I went to the training Saturday, I really feel like I have so much MORE to learn. They give you DVDs to review the basics that you learned, and I have been working on that. You also have to develop your first class, get to work on marketing, ect. Your work really starts once you've done the training. However, it's FUN. I'm not complaining! I really felt the training gives you all the tools you need to get started, what you do from there is at your own pace and level of interest!
10. HAVE FUN! If you love Zumba and have seriously thought about instructing, I think you would have a blast and learn so much through doing this training!
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