Last week, our Educator Dexter Tay was given the opportunity to represent Fit Singapore and attended the Function Training Institute (FTI Australia) Master Trainer faculty training in Sydney, Australia and we wanted to share his story and experience with you all.
I was really excited to learn from world class presenters and of course, heading back to Bondi beach after 8 years!
I arrived on Tuesday afternoon and after checking in to my Airbnb apartment, headed out to the beach for the sun, sand and the sea. It was a day well spent, just chilling by the beach, allowing the mind & body to rest and relax. As most of us fitness professionals will know, rest and recovery is important in our training program but yet, so many of us are guilty of not having enough of it (read more here).
The time spent time at the beach allowed me to absorb some Vitamin D; the sound of the waves calmed me down and the environment just allowed me to slow down – a huge contrast to life back home.
In the evening, I headed to the gym for basic calisthenics practice and mobility drills. Then it was dinner and back to the apartment.
Wednesday was similar as I spent my day walking by the beach and observing the fitness community at Bondi. It was such a pleasure seeing people from all walks of life, exercising, perspiring and having a great time out there. The weather was gorgeous and the sunset was breathtaking.
Thursday was the first day of training with the FTI team and I am thankful for the warm welcome by the team. FTI has a very experience faculty with most of the presenters having taught and presented internationally. And so, I knew I was in for a treat….. 😊
One lesson that a great mentor, Filipe Pereira, reminded me when I was co-teaching with him, was that: being a great trainer and a great coach is a different ball game. In addition, being a great coach and being a great educator, again, is a different level which requires a different set of skills. I am very thankful to have had the opportunity to learn from Filipe before he went back to Portugal and was happy to be able to catch up with him again in Sydney!
Thursday went by in a blink of eye with all the information overload (including an awesome session by Owen Bowling, the founder of CrankIt and the creator of its Suspended Fitness Straps) and I was glad I took time to unwind and ‘cleared’ my brain’s ‘hard disk’ space the 1.5 days before. 😉
Friday was another eventful day with Andrew Chadwick (FTI & PTA Global Faculty Member, Master Instructor with Animal Flow) spending half a day with us, honing our skills as presenters. The training challenged us to step out of our comfort zone and allowed us to identify our strengths and weaknesses as educators; it was such a fruitful session! We spent the other half of the day learning and witnessing the evidence of science and research on functional training as FTI brings to the industry evidence-based training. It is a privilege to be associated with fitness educational institutions which focuses not merely on the technical side of training but also adopting an evidence-based approach.
Saturday was the FTI Summit and I was very excited to be hearing from Nick Winkelman (PhD & the Head of Athletic Performance & Science for the Irish Rugby Football Union). I was totally blown away by the information and sharing that he gave on Coaching & Mindset!! It was the best training I have had as an educator in 2017! I couldn’t have enough of him and wished I could pick his brain more.
Dan Henderson, the co-founder of FTI, then took us through and shared his insights on how to run a successful next-generation fitness business. He walks the talk and boy, what valuable sharing it was.
Once the summit ended in the evening, I rushed to the airport and took my flight back home; I was gearing up for an eventful Sunday back in Singapore.
This trip to Sydney was an awesome wrap up to my 2017 journey as a fitness professional and educator and I look forward to 2018 as I work together with FTI & Fit Spore to bring our industry world-class fitness education. I will be spending this week and next, to put together what I have learnt last week; so stay tuned for the exciting development.
Thank you Edgar, Emilie, Joanne, Tarek, Dan and all whom have given me the trust and confidence.
Have a blessed Christmas and here’s to a healthier & happier 2018!
