…..Okay nothing really get’s my blood boiling more than when someone does not know what they are doing and yet they go out and teach anyways. This post comes about due to a private lesson I had recently with a new student. After interviewing the student I knew they had some martial arts training and that they were an instructor in another style. Great! I teach a lot of people who at some point want to branch out and learn a great deal more than what their particular style does. Usually these practitioner’s make up some of my best students in the long run and I really enjoy teaching them. Well this new student came in and we started talking some more and training. It became apparent early on that while he had solid striking skills his tool/weapon skills were pretty nonexistent. However, while talking to him he mentioned that he was now a weapons instructor in a certain martial system. I was amazed, no floored when he mentioned this. (his skills were simply not there) He went on to say that he attended a weekend training session and was graded to instructor level after it. I asked how much it cost and he said a $1000! (holy smokes batman) I thought to myself that this was money really not well spent and that he had been ripped off. As we were training he kept mentioning that he was surprised at how hard everything was and that he thought it would be easier based of his previous training. I took this as a point to mention to him that he did not have the fundamental movement skills that are needed and used with most tool/based systems and that is why it was hard. We then talked and he showed me quite a bit of what he had been taught during that weekend in the one system where he got his instructorship under them. The material was so basic and so below skill set levels needed as to be really unusable in my opinion. (it was really, really bad) Now I have seen quite a few weekend martial courses material and this was the worst ever. In other words he was ripped off! Now I am not naming names but this trend of attend a weekend of training and become an instructor is now quickly becoming the norm in the martial/combatives world. It is a method of empire growing and usually the skill sets taught are watered down and not the best. Sure they are better than nothing but what happens is that the practitioner/future instructor has no depth and no correlating skill sets to make the material work. (in general as there is always the exception) What is really going on is that the person or person’s issuing the instructorship are making huge money while creating a following or future revenue stream. In general they water down the Martial Science that they teach and it is watered down even more as the new weekend instructor goes out to teach. Now back to my new student. I do not know if he will continue training or not. That really is up to him but I do know and he now knows that he needs to refine his skills in order to teach weapons/tools. That at least is one very good thing that came out of our meeting.
…..To those that are teaching weekend courses where you pass out an instructorship to someone. Well you should really be ashamed!
See You On the Mats!
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Brian R. VanCise
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I can buy the existence of dedicated instructor classes. After all, I have a couple of professional instructor certifications that were only 40 hour classes. But those are fairly narrow (OK… SFST isn’t narrow — but you go into the instructor class with extensive experience doing ’em, and have to demonstrate proficiency at the start of the class) classes.
I could see teaching an experienced person the INSTRUCTOR side of things in a weekend, like some of the coaching certifications. But not in something that they haven’t ever really worked with. Say a guy’s an experienced user of a knife; yeah, he can take a weekend class, demonstrate competence and be shown how to teach it and get certified.
But that’s a far cry from the idea of taking someone, and in a weekend going from zero to teacher… Those “weekend instructor certification seminars” are ripoffs! And, what’s worse, when that “instructor” goes home, they end up ripping of their own students, even if they have the best of intentions. Because they don’t really know what they’re teaching!
Yes the watering down will continue when a fresh person goes in and becomes an instructor and then goes out and teaches.
One of my biggest issues is that an instructor should and needs to have depth in training. Meaning they need to be able to answer questions and know how to guide a student correctly. People who attend weekend seminars and become an instructor just cannot do that. They just do not have the depth of knowledge.
I usually wear a white belt when I go to a new school for just that reason (or whatever is the indicator for newbie). I try a few classes here and there and when I do use the weapon they use… i try and do it in their method (unless it is so bad that i run from the place screaming).
In any case… the horror will continue… Because the public is uninformed. Until we change that…
Regards,
Walt
Absolutely Walt,
We just have to keep going and make a difference day by day!
I too also always go in with and open mind whether a seminar
or training at someone’s school. The best way is simply
to learn what they are teaching and see if it works for you!
If I train with someone they have my undivided attention and
I try to seep in and experience their training!
Brian
That is really horrible!! I didn’t even know that type of thing went on!
Oh yes Mike it is very important to know who you are training with and that they have the real goods so to speak!