Matwork Bridging Course

We ran our first ‘Matwork Conversion Course’ more than 20 years ago and it quickly became a cornerstone of our education offer. It is now known as the ‘Matwork Bridging Course‘.

Major changes  are underway in our profession at the moment, changes that will give Pilates teachers access to professional recognition as well as providing greater clarity to the public, studio owners, and club owners on a teacher’s qualifications. Scopes of Practice are being developed by The Society for the Pilates Method (SPM) in association with EMD, the UK National Governing Body for Group Activity. Our ‘Bridging Course’ outcomes have been adapted to reflect this.

The course was created specifically for qualified Pilates teachers who would like to update their matwork knowledge, expand their repertoire,  and gain a Body Control Pilates Matwork Certificate.

The course will now also provide a ‘fast track route’ for teachers to gain accreditation against the new SPM matwork standard (see below) and to joining EMD as a professional member – a first step to the professional recognition that should flow from the government-led ‘Uniting the Movement’ initiative.

By successfully completing the course you become a registered Body Control Pilates teacher and part of our unique community of 1,400 teachers in over 50 countries.

In addition to your Body Control Pilates certificate, you will also receive complimentary first-year membership of the Body Control Pilates Association and gain accreditation against the new Society for the Pilates Method (SPM) matwork standard – subject to the certification that you already hold, you may need to take one or two additional assessments. We can discuss this with you when you apply for the course. Once you are SPM-accredited, your details can then appear on the SPM Register of Pilates Teachers.

Level 3 Pilates? It is increasingly the case that teachers only need this if they plan to teach in a health and fitness club – and, even then, this is only the case with a diminishing number of clubs. We can happily offer this as an add-on option for you if want. There will be some separate written assessments and an additional fee of £125. (Awarding Body: Active IQ).

The Body Control Pilates Matwork Bridging Course has been structured to recognise and build on the skills and knowledge that you already have as a practising Pilates teacher, and will place particular emphasis on developing and enhancing your teaching skills.

It is based on our world-renowned Matwork Certification Course and will focus on the specific content and exercises that make the Body Control Pilates approach so distinctive – the range of exercises; the ability to adapt these exercises to the needs of the individual; the breaking down of the classical exercises; the unique teaching approach. You receive the same course notes and Exercise Manual as our full matwork students.

 

Course outcomes

Upon gaining Certification, you will receive:

• your Body Control Pilates certification
• complimentary first year’s membership of the Body Control Pilates Association, which has some 1,400 members and is widely seen as unique in the Pilates world.
• certification by PD:Approval, our awarding organisation, confirming your accreditation against the Society for the Pilates Method (SPM) matwork standard. Note: Additional assessments may be needed to gain this.
• complimentary first-year registration on the SPM Register of Pilates Teachers once the above is achieved.

As mentioned, should you plan to teach in health and fitness clubs, some may ask you for a ‘Level 3 Pilates’ certification. You may already have this but, if not, we can help you with this. This involves taking a different Anatomy exam and submitting some worksheets. We can offer you this for a small additional fee and you will be certificated by Active IQ, our Awarding Organisation for Level 3 Pilates.

As a certified Body Control Pilates teacher, you will become  part of an active and supportive community and you will gain access, at discounted rates, to the full programme of more than 50 professional development courses offered by the Body Control Pilates Academy. You will also have priority access to the numerous workshops and master classes that we offer around the UK, as well as being able to attend our annual ‘Development Weekend’ conference – the full weekend is exclusive to Body Control Pilates teachers and features leading experts from across the world and an unrivalled programme of over 60 workshops, classes and lectures.

You will also gain exclusive, discounted, access to many courses including Pilates for Performance, Pilates for Runners, Pilates and Hypermobility – and our renowned Back4Good® Low Back Pain programme. The latter enables you to become a certified Back4Good® Practitioner and offer ‘Healthy Back’ classes and 1:1s. Whilst very few teachers choose to go on to do so, you can choose to top-up this qualification to the Level 4 Low Back Pain standard, thereby enabling you to potentially receive funded referrals from the public health sector and to work as part of the care team in your region.

When are courses being held?

We run courses on a regular basis, with upcoming dates scheduled as below.  The tuition days for all courses are running online via live Zoom sessions with our tutors (typically four hours a day).

After completion of the tuition modules, you are required to come to our London Centre for at least one ‘Contact Day’, with this focusing on the Body Control Pilates approach to group teaching and on specific exercises.

We do encourage to come in to our Centre for more in-person workshops, and you will have access to a number of online workshops to help you progress and will be actively supported by our Education Team.

Course Information Pack

Please click here to view the latest Course Information Pack.

Who should apply?

Any teacher who wants to be compliant with, and fully prepared for, all of the opportunities that will arise from the launch of Scopes of Practice and professional recognition in the coming year or two.

This course is geared to Pilates teachers who, at a minimum, already hold a Level 3 Pilates qualification or who have received certification from a specialist Pilates training provider. You should ideally have at least six months’ teaching experience before starting the course.

We are very happy to accept applicants who trained outside the UK, especially considering that the five tuition modules now take place online. If you are not sure whether your training qualifies you for this course, please email Sarah Bargeron or give us a call on 020 7636 8900.

We aim to make joining this course, and accessing the many professional benefits that it offers, as straightforward as possible for all Pilates teachers holding a recognised level of training. Please get in touch with us – we’d love to hear from you!

How is the course structured?

There are five elements to the Body Control Pilates Matwork Bridging Course:

• Five tuition days (see below for broad content) – these can currently only be taken in our ‘extended’ format of one Friday to Sunday block, typically two weeks’ break and then a two-day block. This allows more time to view our online support videos between modules.
• A post-tuition assessment with one of your course tutors – this will assess your knowledge of the key Body Control Pilates exercises and enable us to agree an individual route plan towards your ‘sign-off’ assessment. This can take place online or face to face.
• Completion of a Self-Study Paper, in which you have to submit written answers to a small number of open-ended questions covering Pilates fundamentals
• A ‘Sign-Off Assessment’ to be taken when a senior course tutor believes you are ready, and after submission of a series of lesson plans. In this assessment, you will be asked to teach part of a lesson plan to a small group of fellow matwork students.
• Completion of additional Pilates content for accreditation against the SPM standard. This may include a multiple choice anatomy examination. You must receive a pass mark in this element to receive your SPM/PD:Approval certificate. If you already hold a Level 3 Pilates certification, this is recognised as fulfilling the requirements for this. Please let us know if you also require the Level 3 Pilates accreditation separately – we’ll be happy to give more details.

Content covered during the five tuition modules includes:

• An introduction to Body Control Pilates
• The Pelvis & The Spine
• Breathing & Relaxation
• A review of Core Stability
• The Upper Limb
• The Lower Limb
• Precision of Movement
• Teaching Skills and Client Progression
• The Certification Process

More than 100 matwork exercises are covered or referenced during the course – all are fully detailed in the Exercise Manual that is posted out to students along with our full matwork teacher training notes, detailing the Body Control Pilates teaching approach.

Each four-hour online tuition day will be split between theory and practical. You will be given access to our specially-recorded ‘online theory videos’ to help you prepare for the tuition days.

How much does the course cost?

Course fees are £1,275 if you take advantage of our ‘Advance Payment’ option, whereby payment is made in full a minimum of six weeks before the first tuition day.

Total course fees otherwise are £1,495. This includes all elements of the course.

To secure your place on a course, a Registration Fee of £250 is payable once we have confirmed an offer to you. This is then deducted from the fees above.

As mentioned above, course fees include your first year’s ‘Standard Membership’ of the Body Control Pilates Association as well as one year’s listing on the SPM Register of Teachers. Full Terms and Conditions are contained in the Information Pack.

There is an additional payment of £125 if you would like to gain a Level 3 Pilates certificate.

How long will it take to complete the course?

This is an open-ended course with applicants receiving their certification as soon as they have successfully met all course criteria. Our goal is to help you qualify as quickly as possible after the tuition days, but when this happens depends upon you mastering the key elements of the Body Control Pilates approach and upon passing the sign-off assessment.

Where do courses take place?

Course tuition modules are currently taking place online via live Zoom modules. Face to face Contact Days and supervised teaching workshops take place at the Body Control Pilates Centre in London, a stone’s throw from the British Museum in Bloomsbury.

How do I apply?

Please click here to view the Course Information Pack. You are very welcome then to contact us with any further questions – just get in touch with Sarah Bargeron on 020 7636 8900 or drop her an email.

If you would like to download an Enrolment Form, please click here.

When returning your Enrolment Form, we ask that you please include a copy of your existing Pilates certificates.

Special notice for studio owners

We are able to offer discounted fees where studio owners wish to put a number of staff through our Bridging Course. Please contact Sarah Bargeron on 020 7636 8900 for more details.

 

All quotes are from teachers who have attended the Body Control Pilates Matwork Conversion Course – now ‘Bridging Course’.