Something that we are asked fairly regularly is whether we do pilates for pregnancy and whether we have a pregnancy certification. Naturally you want to make sure that your teacher knows what they are doing, but specialization in itself may not actually be what you are looking for.
Comprehensive, Classical Teacher-Training Means You Can Teach Everyone
The classical pilates system which the teachers at Kinetic Pilates studied with Romana’s Pilates does not break the knowledge of pilates down, as though you could be competent to teach mat exercises and people with foot problems, but not able to teach any of the equipment or people with shoulder problems. A classical teacher-training means you are comprehensively trained in the full pilates way of exercising and able to teach pretty much anyone who walks through the door.
This traditional “apprenticeship” style of learning takes much longer than the contemporary “modular” style with its certification in mat or pregnancy, injury or reformer. The traditional way is to learn the nuts and bolts of how to teach pilates across the different tools (mat, reformer, chairs etc) and adapt it to everyone.
Don’t Confuse Specialization With Depth
The hard work in learning to teach pilates is (1) to “read” (be able to analyze by sight) the body of the person you are teaching. This means the teacher can see what the student needs. (2) To understand the exercises in enough depth, and to have seen them on enough different bodies, to be able to adapt them to the person you are working with. This means that the teacher can give the student what they need.
Of course there are general “rules” we learn about, for example, foot positioning for people with knock knees, but these are always of secondary importance and are to be ignored if they don’t produce results for an individual. What matters is the trained eye and the skillful application of the principles to your body.
This takes a lot of time, effort and dedication, and cannot be learnt in a weekend workshop. It takes years of dedicated practice and many thousands of hours of training and teaching. Many people don’t have the commitment, patience or freedom to do it.
Are You Certified to Teach One Legged People?
When faced with a traditional training which can cost many thousands of pounds, take a full year out of your life and even mean moving country to study with the best person, it is tempting to conclude that hyper-specialization is a marketing gimmick, enabling the teacher trainers to keep adding new modules that you “need” to have and teachers to boast of more and more niche markets that they can service.
Training comprehensively in the first place means that, though there will always be skills to improve, there are not gaps to fill.
Comprehensive, Classical Teacher-Training Means You Can Teach Everyone
The classical pilates system which the teachers at Kinetic Pilates studied with Romana’s Pilates does not break the knowledge of pilates down, as though you could be competent to teach mat exercises and people with foot problems, but not able to teach any of the equipment or people with shoulder problems. A classical teacher-training means you are comprehensively trained in the full pilates way of exercising and able to teach pretty much anyone who walks through the door.
This traditional “apprenticeship” style of learning takes much longer than the contemporary “modular” style with its certification in mat or pregnancy, injury or reformer. The traditional way is to learn the nuts and bolts of how to teach pilates across the different tools (mat, reformer, chairs etc) and adapt it to everyone.
Don’t Confuse Specialization With Depth
The hard work in learning to teach pilates is (1) to “read” (be able to analyze by sight) the body of the person you are teaching. This means the teacher can see what the student needs. (2) To understand the exercises in enough depth, and to have seen them on enough different bodies, to be able to adapt them to the person you are working with. This means that the teacher can give the student what they need.
Of course there are general “rules” we learn about, for example, foot positioning for people with knock knees, but these are always of secondary importance and are to be ignored if they don’t produce results for an individual. What matters is the trained eye and the skillful application of the principles to your body.
This takes a lot of time, effort and dedication, and cannot be learnt in a weekend workshop. It takes years of dedicated practice and many thousands of hours of training and teaching. Many people don’t have the commitment, patience or freedom to do it.
Are You Certified to Teach One Legged People?
When faced with a traditional training which can cost many thousands of pounds, take a full year out of your life and even mean moving country to study with the best person, it is tempting to conclude that hyper-specialization is a marketing gimmick, enabling the teacher trainers to keep adding new modules that you “need” to have and teachers to boast of more and more niche markets that they can service.
Training comprehensively in the first place means that, though there will always be skills to improve, there are not gaps to fill.
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