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Certification is Important
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Here's my two cents as a teacher and a student:
– The certification is only as good as the training. If you want to research a teacher's credentials, find out what they had to do for their certification, don't just go on the certification alone. Likewise, if a teacher has no certification, find out what kind of training they've had, if any. You're essentially looking for the same things: safety training, knowledge of anatomy and physiology, possibly CPR training, etc. As other posters have said, this training may come from a non-pole background, like yoga or general fitness. What matters is that they have it.
– It's been said several times in this thread that there are no certifications for aerials instructors. This is and is not true. There are no certifying bodies that I know of, but what do exist are diplomas from circus schools, some of which are very selective and offer extensive training, including teacher training. If you're not sure about your aerial teacher's credentials, look into where they did their training. Some of these schools even offer a three year bachelor's degree, or specific degrees in teaching aerials. Every aerial instructor I currently study under has graduated from at least a one year full-time training program that included information and training on safety, anatomy, and physiology. I would not be trusting my life to these people, if they didn't.
– Speaking as a PhD teaching fellow, I also know that all the training in creation doesn't necessarily make a good teacher. Adequate training, whether certified or not, is pretty much a requirement for a good teacher, but it does not make a good teacher. A good teacher often has that X factor which amounts to a combination of skills like being able to put yourself in your students' shoes, having an overall vision for the class and its goals, being able to listen and respond to students' concerns (and adjust your teaching material accordingly, often on the fly), knowing how to neither talk down to people nor talk over their heads, and on and on. Pole offers extra challenges like being motivating without being annoying, being able to accurately guage someone's fitness level, and so on. These qualities should come across in an interview, but they may not be apparent on paper, or by what certifications a person has.
That's just my opinion.
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When all of this started it was exotic dancers teaching other exotic dancers – that's very different from how it is today. The women I first noticed were KT Coates, Alena Downs and Pantera – by the time I knew who they were they had been showgirls for a very long time. The need for structure wasn't as necessary because dancers were working in small groups. If you weren't strong enough to do something, you weren't strong enough to do it – there wasn't all of this breaking things down and getting detailed.
Today in Pole studios instructors are faced with students of all ages, fitness/health and backgrounds. I think it's very important to know what you're doing! Does that mean a POLE certification? Yes, IF YOU DON'T HAVE MUCH EXPERIENCE TEACHING FITNESS OR DANCING. Can someone with gymnastics or dance qualifications teach pole dancing effectively and safely? YES. IF they understand the apparatus. Can a personal trainer teach great pole? Yes. IF they have the knowledge about HOW to pole dance. Although there are many (fitness professionals before pole dancers) out there who raped great pole instructors for their knowledge and now pass it off as their own.
I've known personal trainers teaching pole before and to be honest – some of them don't know squat about pole dance or how to break down moves, know how to effectively teach students move or even have a clue about what moves students should be learning and when. So, IF a personal trainer with little to no pole training wants to teach pole – should they be able to teach just because she's a personal trainer? NO. Should someone who has pole danced for 10 years in a club be able to teach because she's taught some other exotic dancers a fe w tricks? NO! Why? First of all the PT – just because you can lead a group fitness class or motivated people and guide them to lift weights and exercise does not translate into you know how to pole dance or how to teach complex things that require coordinationg your body to spin, lift and invert. Spinning, lifting and inverting are special skills that take time to develop and must be taught properly in the beginning to save injury. So you really had better KNOW the basics and what to look for when others are performing the things you are giving them to do…the best ans quickest way to learn this? POLE specefic training. Now, our dancer who's been dancing for 10 years in a club…she might be an awesome performer but that doesn't mean she has the patience to deal with slow learners or that she knows the major muscles groups and basic health/fitness knowledge which is important when training OTHER bodies. Much less may she have the scope of moves out there and the proper = safe progression of moves.
Does ANY kind of certification = great trainers? NO. There are a ton of personal trainers, pilates instructors, yoga instructors and what have you teachers out there that suck and most of them have a certification. There are a ton of fitness and dance instructors that are out there are great instructors without certification – but you know what it tells me if you don't have some kind of qualification (and there are MANY to choose from I don't care if you're degree is in fitness, certified PT, dance major, etc. etc. etc.)that maybe you don't know as much as someone else who IS certified in SOMETHING and that I am not sure I want to trust my body to you.
Teaching yourself is different than teaching others. I have had a very long journey from a self taught dancer to becoming an instructor. I had never taken a pole class when I taught my own and you know what….that was extremely scary and only because of a long list of circumstances did I end up teaching…but the main thing I did was I sat down with a personal trainer and showed her all of my moves and we picked each others brain until I came up with a syllabus that would be simple and effective…and to be honest – that syllabus SUCKED. The way I taught SUCKED. It took a long time to become a good instructor. By the time I got certified I had been tried by fire and when I read the manuals all I could think was why didn't I do this sooner? Why couldn't I have seen the value in this a year ago? I have no idea just how good I could be NOW, had I spent the money sooner and taken a certification course. Certification was easy for me because by then I had learned so much in my own research and time and hours spent – that time would have been better spent with a book in front of me with all the information. Did I end up being a pretty good teacher before my certification? YES…but it wasn't without a lot of work and research. Did I have anyway to prove to anyone at face value that I was a good teacher? NO. Does having a certification help aleviate my new students fears? Yes. So to me, it was so worth it.
As pole grows so do the standards. I think whether you have been trained by a studio to teach right and proper, a pole dancing certification, other related certifications – I think those types of training and important to ensure proper instruction. I do believe that our standards need to be higher if we want to expand – and this is coming from someone who has learned from youtube, spent time with amazing instructors with NO credentials, spent time with amazing instructors WITH credentials and spent time training lousy instructors WITH credentials.
We're not just teaching someone how to do a trick for their next set anymore. It's more, the moves are bigger now, more dangerous so I think we should take a moment to ponder what we'd like to see this turn into. Even arts like ballet, tap and jazz have programs to train teachers….doing and teaching are 2 different things…
I am one of the few who wishes this was more standard and wishes we could rid of unsafe instructors who want to teach pole dance "because it's the only fitness class you can charge that much for" That is a real quote btw. Don't you hope that's not your instructor?
I'd also like to add that Veena is one of the few, I mean few, PT's I have ever come in contact with who UNDERSTANDS pole dancing, studies it and breaks it down clearly. I also understand the HOURS put into lessons and development on this site to bring the BEST, SAFEST breakdown and progression of moves available. Everyone else, should be asking questions of their instructors.
So does everyone need to be certified? No, maybe not. There exists a small cross section of trainers who do not need pole specific training…how do you know if you are one of them? That's why I continue teacher training and certifying.
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The above is a repost from Nov 2010 from myself on the topic with a few updates. Sorry for the strong opinions.
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I am not cetified, I am a retired nurse that has worked in numereous fileds, including OT, PT, Ortho Neuro, sports medicine/injury…etc. I studied Veena's method extensively, and teach her method of pole because it is as Charley stated, it's safe, concise, thourough, and easy to understand! I explain to my students the points of contact, the muscles involved/worked in a particular move or hold. They don't learn spins in the 1st level. I need to make sure we have done enough stregthening and conditioning for their body to perform safely the moves that could injure the rotator cuff muscle etc. I have had NO INJURIES or FALLS in the 2 years my studio has been open. I don't take allot of stock in certifications as yet, simply because they are not consistant with the basic fundamentals, and people are charging what I believe are outrageous amounts in mant cases for them. I'm not saying you shouldn't get one, what I'm saying is that whether the instructor is certified or not…be an informed consumer….DO YOUR HOMEWORK and ASK QUESTIONS!! In my experience so far with say PT, the ones I found to be knowledgable and proven (at least in my area are NOT certified), were more than qualified to work with clients. There is NO requirement for anyone as yet to my knowledge that they have to be certified to teach anything in the fitness area. Oh, I still subscribe to Veena's lessons for updates and continued education for myself and my staff. She has performed and done workshops at my studio since I opened…I also recieved David C. Owens stamp of approval. Happy poling!!!
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Lilbit – you hit the nail on the head. I think it's less the discussion about certifying as we've all pointed out there are instructors certified in many arts that suck but customer advocacy. I find this to be frustrating. How can we educate people before they start on the right questions to ask? I really wish I knew the answer to this. What I think is the worst deficit of bad instructors in anything is that the customer will never experience how amazing something can be because they quit.
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Charley, I'm not sure what the solution is either…but I always offer ladies to drop in and visit with me, and or observe a class. Most of the time spent is about 40-50 minutes educating them because they don't know WHAT to ask! I have information typed up explaining what we do and the muscles used in the basic level, an will go through it with them to give them a better understanding, and also let them know that something made be modified based on their body type and ease of execution.
I quit my career to do this, I'm not in it to make a bunch of money…I do this fulltime 7 days a week and put in long hours, and have not had a paycheck yet! So it's definately not about the money! LOL I have taught and trained 8 instructors, and only one of them is qualified to teach advanced classes right now. I also will not put an instructor in charge of a class that isn't qualified to teach that level. I think consistency is also key. I wrote all of the cirriculum, so everyone teaches the same moves with the same break down. This helps when I have to have an instructor sub for someone else, there is NO question what they are teaching! I agree, it's sad when I hear someone gave up because of an instructor!
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I don’t know how I missed this thread before. I am planning on getting my pole cert & GFI early next year. The different pro & con pole cert opinions really are eye opening…
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