Instructors Information

As an instructor you are responsible for running the class. It is your responsibility to ensure that the class runs safely and students take home a positive experience.

As an instructor you have a wide range of options on how to run the class. You can choose to actively lead, or take a more passive role, being guided by the students needs - partly this will of course be determined by the students previous experience.

You should:

Be professional
Be able to offer advice and guidance on all aspects of flying trapeze
Have a good background knowledge of fitness and the body as relating to flying trapeze
Be able to recognise students' strengths and weaknesses
Have a variety of strategies to deal with any issues that arise.

Your responsibilities cover all aspects of health and safety, specifically:

Ensuring health and safety policy is adhered to.
Ensuring your helpers and students are aware of safety at all times
Checking that the rig is safe to use
Ensuring that students use appropriate safety gear, and use it correctly.

You will need

In depth knowledge of the rig, and the safety equipment
Good knowledge of flying trapeze tricks and how to teach them safely
Ability to use lunge lines
Confidence to give instructions clearly and accurately
First aid knowledge - at least relating to common trapeze injuries (All Bars will organise first aid courses and refreshers periodically)
CRB background check certificate (All Bars will arrange and pay for this if you are invited to be an instructor)

There are two grades of instructor, and these are detailed below

Lead instructor

As a lead instructor you should be able to deal with absolutely anything that may happen in a class - from retrieving a dropped safety line, dealing with a child who has bashed his head on a bar, straightening or tightening rigging, replacing worn out lunge lines through to local hooligans attempting to steal from the van

You need to be able to maintain your cool under pressure, communicate effectively to your team and have the knowledge to be confident in the decisions you make and you should be willing and able to assist and instruct others in the skills you already have

Assistant Instructor

As an assistant instructor you should know how to independently teach several beginner level tricks to students - you should be able to pull lines for the smaller and lighter students and be aware of, and be able to deal with the common problems that can occur.