Why I Don’t Teach XYZ

I have often been asked “why don’t you teach XYZ?” — an acronym that stands for various other acronyms that stand for certification to teach a method or system by a specific organisation.

The fact is, the older I get, the less I need the newest gadget, shiny new toys, and the less cluttered I want my house and my mind to be. The more experience you have (as anything — a movement teacher, coach, consultant) the less you are looking for that next bit of knowledge that might fill a gap.

I think in the past, there was an element of FOMO (another acronym, stands for Fear of Missing Out) if I didn’t get the latest certification or training. When I rode horses, it took the form of going to clinics of whatever famous rider was in town. As a Pilates teacher, with whatever well known teacher was offering workshops.

There might have been an element of Imposter Syndrome, as if collecting certificates for the wall could prove that I was capable of training you.

I’ve become choosy about who I want to spend my time and dollars with — and if I am no longer learning, I move on. But I’m also at the point in my career where I feel that I am now the holder of knowledge, I have enough now that coupled with the experience of working with so many bodies over the years, any further training isn’t necessarily going to add to my arsenal, and it’s too late to change directions (I’ve done that — from Pilates to Restorative Exercise — and it was exhausting). I’ve settled down, grown up, and am now comfortable with what I have to work with, confident that I can help most clients, and secure enough to refer them on if I can’t (or if what I offer is not what they want).

In the “old days” — most teachers felt a responsibility to be part of the lineage and through oral tradition and example generously pass their knowledge to the next generation of teachers. Because teachers typically don’t make a high income (the big money is in certification), the cost of such workshops was always affordable and fair. Apprenticeship is a lost art — nowadays people take a course (and not always from the person who is responsible for the work), get accreditation and start teaching. Some of them are good, most of them are not.

So that explains why I don’t take most trainings out there now — unless I’m personally interested in a specific person’s opinions and experience; if the value of the information is not worth the currency it costs to gain it, or the amount of time is not sufficient to explore a deep understanding of the information, I will pass.

There are other reasons.

Financial. Most courses now are extravagantly priced. Some are $1000 or more for a two day course, and often involve extra costs (airfare, hotel, meals, exchange rate). In some cases, courses that used to be taught complete and under one affordable fee are broken up into several courses that need to be completed in order to gain the full body of work — resulting in a cost of thousands of dollars.

Science or pseudo-science? Many techniques and trainings are based on the buzz words and hashtags that are blowing up on social media. Things like “trauma, vagus nerve, fascia, pain, joint mobility” — all totally real things, so it’s not always easy to discern if what is on offer is evidence based and thoughtfully, ethically presented. Just because the copy might say anatomically correct, functional, based on science, evidence based, does not mean that it is worth your time and money and will make you a better or more informed teacher.

Often after investing so much time and money, it’s hard to accept that you didn’t gain depth or understanding from the experience, and you will add to the voices spreading the gospel of whatever the claims be of the training, determined to believe in the value and validity (and thus inadvertently or deliberately continuing to popularise the work).

What and who is behind the training/method? What are their credentials? Sometimes they are a genius who put together something incredible, but can’t always teach it to others. Sometimes they are marketing geniuses who took what already existed and made a brand out of it. Sometimes there are cool new ways to describe old things. (Sometimes some of us regret we weren’t smart enough to do that first.) I’m aware of trainings that have taken a part of a more comprehensive training to appeal to a subset of needs and market to that group, creating a niche product that is not deep enough to last but that will sell well and fast. That might suit the needs of teachers who need to stand out because they are competing for clients with 20 other teachers at their gym or studio.

When you find a training that sounds interesting, look at who is teaching it, and who they are teaching. Are the majority of students like you — do they teach clients like yours? What support are they willing to give you and for how long? Do they teach to all bodies? Do they welcome everyone? Again, it might be my age but I am no longer interested or willing to train with the young, white, mostly male (and I count some of those types as friends, but I’m just not interested in that culture professionally). As a personal decision, I work with women if possible. Do you have a professional mission statement — and if so, does this training fit it?

Lastly — I know a lot about anatomy, biomechanics, and joint movement, and have a lifetime of exercise experience, most of it as a teacher (and some as an amateur athlete). So many of the trends now don’t offer me anything I don’t already know about movement, but instead bundle it in a convenient easy to market and easy to teach package. Of course there are things I could know more about! And if I think those things would benefit me and/or my clients I won’t hesitate to find the best, most economical, most ethical way to learn it (and often that can be learned from books, textbooks, research studies, or college courses that do not offer fancy acronyms or marketing packages).

By the way, this doesn’t mean some of those systems won’t be good for you. I have a particular clientele, a particular existing skillset and am at a point in my career where I can be choosy about what I add to my “toolbox.” There are many good things about some of these systems and I wouldn’t hesitate to refer a client to a practitioner if that’s what they are looking for. But if they have the time and interest, I could probably serve them just as well or better.