Setting Sail With Gymstick

Recently I took part in my first Gymstick course run by Marietta one week before going on holiday. It was the Gymstick for PT workshop held in Narrewarren and I purchased a Bootcamp Gymstick with a view to using it in my Personal Training sessions

My alternative motive was to take the Gymstick away with me to maintain my fitness. You may be thinking what’s so special about that! Well our holiday was on board a sailing ship. A clipper to be precise. There were 159 passengers on board and 80 crew, no gym, two small plunge pools one of which enabled anyone at the bar to peer through the portholes into the pool…. The Aqua fitness class was viewed by all and sundry!

However, being a competitive masters swimmer I was not to be deterred and took my gymstick up aft every morning with the sunrise. There were not many passengers about at that time and I did get some strange looks from crew members who were more used to seeing passengers relaxing on the sun loungers than flexing muscles on deck. I followed the routine on the poster given with the gymstick and worked up quite a sweat as well as creating quite a bit of interest amongst the passengers; several of whom enquired as to how it worked and where to obtain one. I maintained some strength and flexibility during the cruise around the Mediterranean but couldn’t quite manage to keep the kilo’s from the wonderful food and cocktails at bay. The gymstick folded up and fit in my husband’s suitcase, mine been too full of souvenirs and clothes. I was a bit worried about the commando type camouflage bag that it came in especially going through customs but as in the check in luggage no one queried what it was. Thanks Marietta for introducing me to this wonderful portable, do anywhere exercise stick. I hope that you have had several overseas enquiries since my holiday.

Marietta packs an awful lot of personality into her tiny frame. A wealth of information, and extremely generous with her time and expertise, Marietta’s sessions are always fun and fascinating. Marietta is not unlike a Gymstick herself – versatile, hard-working, tough and a lot of fun!

Early last year, my gym manager told me I should start teaching step classes. I had attended a sum total of two step classes in my entire life and now I was told I would be teaching a class in three weeks. I had absolutely no idea what to do.

Luckily, I attended Marietta’s Step from the Start course. It was exactly what I needed, a solid foundation of the basics of Step. I was given the tools to create a simple, enjoyable and safe class.

Marietta continues to help me with my development through her mentoring. As well as being a brilliant instructor, she is also a gifted teacher and communicator. With her help, my classes are becoming more and more polished and my class numbers are growing! Each mentoring session leaves me inspired and energised. She is also very patient with all my silly questions!

In the year that I have known Marietta, my confidence and passion for Step has increased a thousandfold. I owe this to her. I feel so grateful for her unwavering support and the clear path she has shown me for becoming a better instructor.

You have little idea how much of an inspiration you have been to me. Right before the SCW conference, I was totally feeling beat up by this industry and pretty much ready to quit it. I almost didn’t attend the conference, because I only needed 1 hour to renew my ACE cert and since I was thinking of giving up anyway why bother.

Then I saw that you were going to be there, and I got really excited. I remembered the energy I gained from taking your master class a few years back. I had to go! Thank you for your passionate positive energy. It turned things around for me. Instead of getting bitter and crawling under a rock (which is where I was headed), you helped me to pull my head out of my hindquarters and become powerful as opposed to pitiful.

THANK YOU MARIETTA!!! You have made such a difference in my life. Keep up your good work. You make me excited about the future of Aquatic Exercise.

Wishing you all the best,

Marietta makes things happen! I qualified with my Certificate III in 2004, but was expecting one baby by the time I finished the course, then moved to London and had another. I never taught group fitness, but also never forgot my desire to help keep freestyle classes, which I’ve loved since the early 80s, alive and kicking.

Seven years later, back in Melbourne, in my forties, and with my youngest starting kinder, I tentatively looked up Marietta’s website- she had taken a step workshop in my original course, and I remembered how the elegance and precision of her instruction had made a complex step routine fall into place.

As an English teacher, when I teach about elegance in prose, it’s about having no excess parts… and that is Marietta- beautiful choreography that flows and feels right, and learning curves that make perfect sense. So Marietta, agreeing to be my mentor, has seen off my excess parts- my waving arms, my clumsy cueing and my insane non-stop link pyramiding (the only teaching technique I had learnt for my exam)… not to mention about seven kilos from practising so hard!

At the end of the Cert III course I knew some theory, some moves and how to hear the beat. But I was not a teacher. Marietta’s mentoring has bridged that gap and given me the confidence to take my own classes. Her generosity and passion, as well as her professional expertise, have been a huge inspiration. She is the best possible example of a mentor: a master of her craft who enables her mentees to achieve their best without creating dependency. Her management of the mentoring process is very finely and carefully judged- the whole experience involves an increasing appreciation of her insight and skill. She knows exactly when to push you, and when to back off!

I feel very lucky to have had Marietta as my mentor. She has made a very long held dream come true, and delivered to the fitness industry another very keen instructor, who would still be a participant daydreaming at the back of the class if not for her wonderful mentoring program.

I had just completed my group exercise instructor training when Marietta became my mentor (I had been one of her many fans when I finally took the leap and did my training). At the time I could teach only a few very basic steps, and did not feel ready yet to take on a whole class of my own.

Not to mention managing the microphone!! Thanks to Marietta’s expertise, patience, support, approachability and honesty, and the hours she has invested in me, I have learnt so much since then. Marietta has an amazing talent for being creative and meticulously methodical and she has shared with me techniques that have helped me to feel more confident (and quicker) in creating and breaking down, my own routines. However, the two most important things she’s helped me to appreciate are that, as an instructor, everything you do is an act of communication and it’s all about the participants! I now have my own regular classes and I’m hooked. Thanks Marietta!