Saturday

The last day of the conference! A great way to start the day is with an Aqua Zumba pool party!

The stars of the format were there--Maria Browning and Tony Witt, along with top trainers from North America and around the world. They wisely had a tag team approach to teaching this high-energy dance on the hot concrete deck. One or two would lead a few minutes and then seamlessly get replaced by someone else. Here they are all together for the grand finale:

It was good to see how far Aqua Zumba has come since its introduction at IAFC 3 years ago. It's definitely "dancier" and maybe this example went almost a little too far in that direction. It worked with this crowd because we were movement professionals, but I wondered at some points how such fancy footwork would go over with the general class population. Anyway, great fun, great music. Click here to see Maria in action elsewhere and here for Tony.

My last workshop was Ai Chi for the Core with Ruth Sova. It was yet another angle on a format that can be so many things to so many people for so many needs. You can use the "heavy" concept with the Ai Chi progression, especially the trunk stabilization portion, to get extra core strength benefits. The "heavy" concept asks the participant to think of a part of the body as so heavy it is impossible to move, yet making the effort anyway. What this does is engage the deeper and lower core muscles before the movement begins and creates a very stable base. It can protect joints during weight shifting and improve control for balance training. The water portion of the workshop was not only a chance to practice and feel the concepts but another chance for a beautiful silent Ai Chi progression led by Jun Konno. Thanks, Ruth! I've learned so much from you!





The last event of the conference was a grand pool finale led by a multitude of the different international presenters that had been there during the week. I decided to wimp out of participating in the water and just watched from the deck.

It was definitely high energy and at some points very high-splash, and a really fun way to say goodbye.

That's it for the conference reporting, but stay tuned for a few followup paragraphs.