Loganne Basuel

Responsibilities

I assisted and led group team trainings in mornings & evenings. This both comprised of creating exercise plans and demonstrating exercises to clients. I also helped lead group aquatic Zumba and strength & cardio classes every MWF morning. Every Friday, I created a short 1-hour gymnastics class for their childcare department (Kidzone). I instructed the kids on simple gymnastics skills and helped teach the other helpers how to spot the kids properly. In addition to the physical activities, I helped around with some office work such as collecting weekly attendance for every group class and helped create media content for the Patrick Jackson Speed & Agility Camp back in February/March.

Accomplishments

Gaining the confidence to lead group training sessions and learning how to articulate my words/explanations better when instructing. Prior to starting my internship, I knew I had the knowledge of strength & conditioning through the courses at Iowa State, but applying them to real-life scenarios seemed a bit intimidating. Luckily, I had great instructors and people to help me feel comfortable learning how to have a voice of my own during sessions. I slowly started leading portions of the training program and progressively got to fully leading classes. Throughout this process, everyone was so supportive & patient, and now I can comfortably create exercise programs and properly instruct clients.

Learning experience

One of the biggest lessons I learned was to not be afraid to ask questions and ask for help. Stepping out of a student-athlete phase of my life was a strange adjustment as a lot of our resources were already handed to us. But I've been very blessed with how friendly and helpful the staff and members are here at Trail Point. All the instructors have been giving me great constructive feedback and it's been amazing seeing everyone's different styles of teaching. Aside from the community aspect, I've been able to network and connect with a few different places because the staff comprises of people of all different educational backgrounds across the US. Being far from home, I was worried my networking would only be subject to the midwest, but the staff has been super helpful in getting my name out to people across the US!

What advice would you give?

Don't be afraid to step out or your comfort zone & try new things! As someone who doesn't exactly know what they're doing post-graduation, really try & utilize all the resources around you. Even if you have a slight interest in it, just try it out! Personally, I thought the aquatics classes were intriguing at first, and now I absolutely love them. Being open to learning and trying out new things can help narrow down interests for a future profession.