Have you ever really wanted to take a kickboxing or yoga course to get in shape? Ever tried to find a personal trainer or gym that offers aquarobics or that specialized weight training that your friend talked about years ago?
Sometimes it’s not hard to find someone like that these days. They are a dime a dozen because of specialized one-day or weekend certification programs designed to make money for the “certifiers.” These short courses are basically like diploma mills in the academic world and their “graduates” basically know enough to get them in trouble.
Are the instructors who offer these courses bad? Not necessarily depending on how much other experience they have accumulated. I know a physical therapist who specialized in hydrotherapy and she needed a dumbed-down weekend certification just so that she could get pool time to teach some extraordinary classes. She was world class but she had the same certification as a aquarobics teacher who only taught it to make a couple extra bucks and really didn’t know what she was doing.
On the other hand, some of these instructors are selling snake oil. I knew an aerobics instructor who collected certifications like baseball cards. She was out of shape but very charismatic and people liked her. In my opinion, she had no idea what she was doing. She took a one-day yoga certification course and ended up hurting people because of her lack of experience and knowledge. That made all yoga teachers, legit or not, and fitness professionals, legit or not, look really bad in the public’s eyes.
I really see this with aerobic kickboxing classes. Non-martial artists or low-level martial artists get a cookie-cutter certification and end up hurting a lot of people. It really chaps my butt when I hear of these things happening all the time. This seems to be a natural consequence of our “need it now” society. Rarely do people go after quality anymore. People who disagree with me on this are usually still eating at McDonalds.
Quality instructors, in any area, take some time to find and give a consumer so much more value. Broad and deep experience is key to getting the best training and instruction from someone. Protect yourself and don’t fall for charisma or the sales pitch. When you meet someone who is truly knowledgeable and high quality, you’ll know. Go with your gut.
Sometimes it’s not hard to find someone like that these days. They are a dime a dozen because of specialized one-day or weekend certification programs designed to make money for the “certifiers.” These short courses are basically like diploma mills in the academic world and their “graduates” basically know enough to get them in trouble.
Are the instructors who offer these courses bad? Not necessarily depending on how much other experience they have accumulated. I know a physical therapist who specialized in hydrotherapy and she needed a dumbed-down weekend certification just so that she could get pool time to teach some extraordinary classes. She was world class but she had the same certification as a aquarobics teacher who only taught it to make a couple extra bucks and really didn’t know what she was doing.
On the other hand, some of these instructors are selling snake oil. I knew an aerobics instructor who collected certifications like baseball cards. She was out of shape but very charismatic and people liked her. In my opinion, she had no idea what she was doing. She took a one-day yoga certification course and ended up hurting people because of her lack of experience and knowledge. That made all yoga teachers, legit or not, and fitness professionals, legit or not, look really bad in the public’s eyes.
I really see this with aerobic kickboxing classes. Non-martial artists or low-level martial artists get a cookie-cutter certification and end up hurting a lot of people. It really chaps my butt when I hear of these things happening all the time. This seems to be a natural consequence of our “need it now” society. Rarely do people go after quality anymore. People who disagree with me on this are usually still eating at McDonalds.
Quality instructors, in any area, take some time to find and give a consumer so much more value. Broad and deep experience is key to getting the best training and instruction from someone. Protect yourself and don’t fall for charisma or the sales pitch. When you meet someone who is truly knowledgeable and high quality, you’ll know. Go with your gut.
3 comments:
Sometimes there are no good ways to get instruction other than these weekend courses.
And...you can lie to yourself that there was nowhere to eat but McDonald's. A weekend course, unless it's teaching a very small piece of a larger puzzle, is usually not good.
I took a weightlifting class a couple years ago and the instructor had no idea how to change anything from how she was taught during her certification. And, yes, it was a one-day certification. She probably got a little manual and a certificate.
A friend of mine is a college strength coach and he laughs at all the certification flyers he gets in the mail. He says they are a complete waste of time and most are very dangerous because they don't really teach the students anything before they work with others.
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