While Tae-Bo may be the most familiar with the public, people in the know, hard-core group exercisers, have known that "martial arts and boxing moves done to music" programs have been around for years. There have always been these types of programs available in the nine years that I have been attending the World Fitness Idea Conventions. However, at that time, step aerobics was the king. Part of Tae-Bo's success is being at the right place at the right time just when people were being turned off by the increasing complexity of step and high-low impact choreography.
Last month at the Idea Convention in Las Vegas, Lisa Gaylord, Reebok Master Trainer, a former National Kickboxing and Karate Champion with four black belts and creator of programs like Kibo and Kata Dance, told me that she is grateful to Blanks' video for "opening the door" for martial artists like herself to become more acceptable to the fitness public. Before the Tae-Bo video, there were already people like Gaylord who had crossed over from the martial arts field to the fitness field bringing with them a new concept - using martial arts and boxing to get fit, not to fight.
Tae-Bo copyright warning.
People looking for Tae-Bo classes aren't going to find them. And if they do find exact replicas, the instructors and gyms that are using the Tae-Bo name are in for big trouble. You see, Tae-Bo is a registered trademark and there are currently no certified authorized instructors except those who teach at Blanks' fitness center at Sherman Oaks, California. Blanks and the investors behind him are making a bundle on their video and are known to be very aggressive about protecting their rights. How aggressive, you might ask? Just go and check out the Tae-Bo website (www.taebo.com) and click on the FAQ's. You'll find your answer right there. "TAE-BO is a copyrighted and patent pending fitness system. The videotape exercise series is copyrighted and is intended for private use only. Using the name "TAE-BO", the Tae-Bo Video Library, or any sequence of moves from the tapes without express prior written consent is a violation of Federal Law and actionable in a court of law. If you know of someone in your area offering TAE-BO classes, be assured that they are most likely doing so illegally and without our knowledge or permission... and please let us know about it."
There is a form provided to report the name and address of the offender and what the offender is doing to misuse the Tae-Bo name. According to the fitness world grapevine, his lawyers are dead serious about taking legal action no matter where in the world you live. So, if there are any Tae-Bo copycat instructors out there -- cool it! And if you are a gym playing the Tae-Bo tape so your clients can do it on your premises, you better think twice since that is considered "commercial use".
How to find a class.
Is doing the Tae-Bo video at home the only way to do this new hybrid fitness form? No, there are other videos (check out www.collagevideo.com or www.videofitness.com) that you can choose from if you are a homebody. If you are the type who likes working out in a group, call gyms and ask if they teach "fitness kickboxing" which is the generic name for this type of program. You might find a gym that has fitness instructors trained locally or abroad in kickboxing workshops. Call martial arts or boxing studios and you may find martial artists or boxers who have modified their traditional training programs for fitness clients. Since fitness kickboxing is a marriage between self-defense moves and aerobics, the best instructor would be either a group exercise instructor with a background in martial arts and boxing or a martial artist/boxer with a background in aerobics. The group exercise instructor has the advantage of "musicality" or knowing how to move to the beat of the music but the disadvantage of not really knowing how to execute the moves (unless they were once martial arts students themselves). The moves might look easy compared to the complicated choreography of most step or high-low impact aerobics classes but that simplicity is deceptive. It takes martial artists and boxers years to perfect their moves; it isn't a skill one can learn overnight. On the other hand, the martial artist/boxer may know the tools of their craft but unless they know how to move in time with the music, their class lacks a certain "oomph". The martial artist/boxer may also be used to working with people with a high fitness level and may not know how to modify their moves for coach potatoes that walk into their class.
Types of classes
There are all kinds of class formats available. Each format is different according to the self-defense system borrowed from. For example, programs based on karate are different from programs based strictly on Western boxing. Some instructors mix Taekwondo moves with Western boxing while others have a 'chop suey' (no derision intended) sort of program mixing everything up including tai chi and yoga. Keeping that in mind, I have categorized the different fitness kickboxing programs this way.