I’ve considered not publishing this, it might open a can of worms, but it is something that is close to my heart and is bothering me more and more and I do feel it needs to be said. Its about the quality of teaching of Pilates classes (Matwork and Reformer) in The Netherlands and the danger it is posing to the unassuming consumer.
In The Netherlands teaching exercise classes can be done by anyone (and is). There is no governing body or qualification people need to have to be allowed to teach. There is no insurance company who won’t insure a club if the instructors are not qualified like for instance is the case in the UK. This lack of control has been the case since I’ve been involved in the fitness industry since 1981. There have been attempts made to set something up, but it has never worked. The result is that as I said anyone can teach, and with no formal training and it just makes for a very chaotic and unprofessional situation.
Luckily a lot of people have followed training courses with nationally and internationally recognised training organisations and are teaching as it should be taught, but recently many more are teaching with no formal training whatsoever. They have just watched You Tube films and copied those. They haven’t got a clue what Pilates is, or what they are doing. And they are just instructing what they’ve seen. Pilates is an exercise method with many, many layers. You cannot learn these from a video on Youtube.
I feel for the consumer who thinks they’re doing Pilates, but they are actually not. They are also being subject to potential injuries as their instructor probably has no clue about anatomy and what is safe, and what is not.
The new generation of instructor especially are guilty of all this. And club owners frankly don’t care about quality as long as the classes are full. Its just very sad, and very frustrating that all I have stood for, for the past 23 years is being ignored and brushed aside. And its such a shame as the instructor would benefit so much by following formal training. And they would be a teacher, not an instructor. There is a vast difference between the two.
Someone without formal training won’t know what to do with clients with existing injuries or limitations. They won’t understand where the exercise has come from, and where it can go and why it is there at all. Pilates can be compared to an onion that you peel away the layers on the longer you study, and you end up at the core of the matter. Not studying means you just stay at skin level. The flaky skin layer.
Those joining the new flashy Les Mills programme – started due to the enormous popularity of Pilates and wanting to cash in on it – Pilates does not fit the Les Mills scheme of learning a set class in an afternoon, teaching it for 3 months and then learning a new class. You will have no clue as to what Pilates really is.
If you are an instructor and you would like to become a teacher, and profit in the longterm from formal training you are very welcome to join us in our Pilates Company trainings courses and continuing education workshops. As many of Pilates’s first generation clients and others have said, you are never done with learning. Its a process. A wonderful process.
I’m starting a new Matwork training course on Tuesday 8th of October. There will be a new Reformer training course starting in January. Join me. http://www.pilatescompany.nl
I will cover Reformer Pilates in my next Blog.
Debbie Jenner
Pilates Company – Holland
debbiejenner@outlook.com