Bodypump Organization

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I am new to teaching Bodypump and I am having to figure out how to organize my choreography notes and playlists.  I can already see that keeping the notes and playlists organized might get confusing once I have a ton of releases and start mixing tracks from a bunch of different releases together in a bunch of different ways.

I have been printing out the choreo notes from each release and putting them in a three prong binder.
When I only had one or two releases, I didn't need to write the release numbers on the front of the binders because I could just remember which was which by color, but now that I have three releases and a mix of 89 and 90, I've started labeling them as you can see in the photo above.

I thought it would be a good idea to give my mixes names so that I don't end up using number like "89 and 90," "90 and 89," and "89, 90, 91."  Even calling them by the date I use them "8-18" and "9-20" is going to get confusing to me, especially when it comes time to find a playlist that goes with the mix. 

After adding up the length of the songs to make sure my first mix wasn't going to be too long, I printed out all the tracks from 89 and 90 that I would be using (instead of taking the choreo notes out of my original 89 and 90 binders. I want to keep a binder with each release as it comes). After printing, I put all the tracks in the mix in a binder and I called the mix "I Love Pain" in honor of one of my favorite scenes from Sponge Bob...



I also named the playlist that goes with this mix "I Love Pain" so that I will know which playlist goes with that mix.

Sometime in the future, maybe I will feel comfortable enough to put all my warm ups in a file folder, all my squat tracks, all my chest tracks, etc. and then just pull them out and rearrange them in all sorts of way and quick, make a new playlist before every class... 

But, for now, I still have to review the notes for an hour or two in order to remember every detail of the choreo and counts (even for the release I was tested on) and what equipment and what exercises to demo and to get a grip on what order the tracks are coming, etc.

Every time I get more experience teaching, I am gaining more respect for the experienced Bodypump instructors I have seen in action.  They remember choreo and counts for ever track on every release, of course, but not only that- they also remember which tracks are coming in their mixes and what equipment to use and which exercises to demo before each track for so many different tracks.  That's a lot of information to store in your brain!  

I wonder if it will get easier.  I love every bit of it, but it will be nice if it doesn't take so long to prep for classes. Perhaps the time will come when I barely even need to think about counts, choreo, equipment, and demos after I have been teaching the same tracks for a few years...??

If you teach Bodypump, I'd love to know how long it takes you to prep for classes. And how do you organize your notes and playlists?  Please feel free to comment below!



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