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Certification is Important
Although certification is not required in most states, would you want to be taught pole by a person who has had no formal training? When looking for a new studio to pole, hoop, or do any fitness, check for certifications! Make sure you see the certificate. I have recently had a number of students from other studios taught incorrect form and dangerous techniques. Not only can you hurt yourself, you can also hurt your instructor. Be safe and pole on!
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52 Replies
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I agree but I disagree too. Not all certifications are created equal. When I first started pole, my instructor has no formal training and while she did teach me a lot, it was a miracle no one in the class got injured. I have read the manual of a certain certification and I was kind of appaled that there was basically no mention of body mechanics. It was just how to spot others and how to perform all the moves, in a step by step fashion.
I really like Veena's lessons because she breaks down the muscle groups being used in each move/hold. I think far too many polers jump into things without really understanding how their body works. Our bodies are amazingly resilient but real damage can be done. I know some studios require their instructors to be certified personal trainers and I really like that idea.
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Ummmm….I've also seen people with certifications with absolutely no idea of how to keep their students safe. I don't think certification is the be-all-end-all indication of a good instructor. I also believe that there are people out there teaching that know what they are doing that never got certified. Judge an instructor based on their technique, not on the piece(s) of paper they may have.
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There are only a few certifications in pole that hold any beans in my book. And as for your question, I would not think twice about being taught by non-certified people. I have different qualities that I look for (and I ask a TON of questions). As far as I know Pantera does not have any certifications and I would kill to train with her regularly. Many of the "original" pole people had no certification. And I did not know that hoop and aerial had any certs available.
And as RikkiL stated, I know people who have some questionable certifications or even decent certifications that should not be teaching. Money cannot buy a genuine concern for harming people.
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I don't think any of the instructors at my studio are certified (I could be wrong) and it's a mixed bag. There are some (and they're my favorite to take classes from) who will pay close attention to form and aren't afraid to give out corrections and stop people who aren't ready to do certain things. They always have modifications on hand to make it safe for everyone. Then there are others who will let anyone throw themselves into anything regardless. I got injured in one of her classes, though I should have listened to my body better too.
I think that the instructors who are alert and cautious with their students could do as good or better at teaching than someone that has a certificate. A piece of paper does not make you a better teacher. Some will always be better than others. I just take classes from the ones who take care of me and I avoid the instructors that I don't enjoy. Do I care that my instructors aren't certified? Not one bit.
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I never said it was the end all be all, I said it was important. I know how to swim but I’d never claim to be a life guard. I can do math, but I couldn’t teach high school students algebra.
The point was to inform students that anyone can teach pole, but not everyone does it right or safely. Chances are if the instructors are certified that they hold a serious desire and drive for pole and its education.
I never said if they don’t they’re not good. But why take a chance? -
For me it is much more important that some one has been at this a while (preferably over 5 years) and has been in fitness in some aspect during their lives, whether dance, gymnnastics, sports, etc. What cracks me up are these certification programs that have no requirements for basic CPR/first aid or group fitness nor even pole experience but will take your money and give you a certification. And this is true for MANY fitness certifications. I know there are a bunch out there that you come in for a 3 hour workshop and you walk out with a certification. I know people who have done a weekend workshop in yoga and are now teaching. So to me it is not just being certified, it is have a certification that is worth the paper that it is printed on. I only know of a small handful that are offered in the states.
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I was injured very early in my pole journey at a studio with untrained teachers and it has affected and held me back to this day. I strained a rhomboid in my shoulder from inverting too early and I still continue to suffer from occasional muscle spasms, a year and a half later.
Many of us use the logic that it's the dancer's responsibility to research an instructor's qualifications, experience, teaching style, etc. before taking their classes. Honestly, when I took my first pole dancing class, I didn't take it seriously. I was so excited watching my instructors be awesome and when it was presented that I, too, could be flipping upside down and doing awesome tricks, I never even realized I'd just committed to a serious and dangerous sport. The instructors didn't make much emphasis on this factor either.
Within a handful of classes, I was already injured and it wasn’t until after that I finally did some research and found that pole studios don’t require certification. Obviously, the research was a little late. Some experienced polers may be reading this and judging me for not doing the research sooner. In hindsight, I realize it was pretty stupid I hadn’t. Yet, so many girls start classes just as new and oblivious to the world of pole fitness as I was, including the risks.
Certification doesn’t guarantee a great pole instructor, but it does give them ideas of how to provide safer and more well-rounded classes. You can be an amazing, talented, top of the list dancer and still never know everything there is. As a future teacher, my education will never stop because there's always something new to learn and a new way to present it to students. I would hope pole instructors would want as much education and experience under their belts as made available to them to provide the best and safest classes they possibly can.
I 110% agree with Megan12, if anything personal trainer certification is the best bet for instructors. It teaches about the body’s mechanics, needs, and abilities, which will ultimately keep a dancer's body healthy and safe.
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Well put Ari, thank you. That was the point I was getting at.
Also how are we going to break stigmas and get recognition for our sport if you are not held to some kind of standard? -
I am certified in pole and I choose to be certified because me as a person find it is important. When I go to a gym I want to see that all the personal trainers are certified, before I will hire one. I will frist find out if the person is certified in what they do and then I will get reviews about the person. When I went to XPert I had already beeing poling for 2 years and teaching for a year. I learned so much in XPert to make me a better teacher. In my training I learned how to spot a person safely, different types of poles, what muslce groups are used, how to deal with someone gets hurt, different ways to teach a move, and so much more. It really helped me grow as a instructor and a poler. I really recommend XPert to everyone because I found it such a postivite experince, I loved how it xpert you had to take a practicle and a written exam and BTW not everyone passed the course. I respect everyones opinion on if they think it is important or not to be certified and I ask you all respect mine as well.
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I did not state that being certified is bad in any way. I was merely stating that it is not a requirement for me to attend a studio. If any of you are taking this as an argument of your point then you are not reading my words properly. A question was asked, I answered. That is the beauty of this forum, we can state different opinions and not all of them have to be the same.
I started at S Factor and after visiting a studio again 3 years after I started I was kind of shocked. Veena herself does not have a pole certification (unless that has changed) but has a background in personal training and obviously body mechanics. This is where experience holds more merit.
Unfortunately there are many studios out there that should not be. Unfortunately there are a lot of instructors out there that really should not be teaching. Unfortunately people will flock to any studio that opens because they have no other options.
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the best polers don t have pole certification, to me it s just a scam because pole is a new sport and people create classes and reasons to make more money, and to have a "control" over the sport
if someone pays for a certification it means (to me) that they aren't that good, aleathea, felix jenyne don t have certifications….
again, to each their own opinions. Ive seen many people with certifications who are …. well let's say can't even put up a routine and execute their tricks gracefully ect!
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Chem I don't see this as an agurment at all, My frist instructor wasn't cert and she was amazing at what she did but she did hold a ACE fitness cert though.
Oliva- I hope you do your reserch better next time because Felix does hold a cert and also puts on her own training program. But I do understand what you are saying though. Here is a link to Felix program
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I think its fine certified or not certified as long as you know how to teach safley and correctly. And know how to spot.
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I agree with both so i cant really say anything… I went to the x pert x pole certification course and i was suprised how little i knew how to spot and well explain lol. So it did help alot.
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For me it depends: If it's one of the originals as Chem said then no – provided I hear of positive feedback from people who have had lessons from them. There are some pole stars I've heard of who charge high prices for workshops but are not good at teaching as they are at poling.
Someone newer to poling would most likely benefit from some kind of standard training as they don't have the years of experience and haven't learned the hard way like the O.G's of pole about what injuries will come out of bad positioning. Also, if someone says they are certified I would want to know through what establishment and follow up by doing some research to see what that establishment's certification entails.
At this point since I feel like pole is still transitioning, word of mouth carries more weight with me over cert/ pole-celeb/ non-cert
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Here is a list of PFA approved certification programs. PFA has been striving to standardize the pole industry in many many ways. They are who worked with MaryEllyn to set up the first comprehensive pole insurance for both studios and instructors.
http://www.polefitnessassociation.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=75&Itemid=90
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a fitness certification is fine, but personally this whole "certification program" doen't matter to me
didnt knew about felix got a certification, i knew she created her own certification program tho.
but most of the pole stars don t
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I have been taught by non-certified people that are all about proper form and safety, but its because they put it in the fore front. So far I haven't had any injuries. Which is great, but they also don't overlly push us if we are scared to do it. It is important to have certification because peole are more trusting and frankly I would like to have one if I was teaching, but there are plenty of non-certified instructors that do it right.
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I believe Alethea Austin is certified too. She does the Xpert Xpole Certification Course. As for Jenyne she has an instructor's certification, but she does so many other things, that I'm not sure which certifications she has.
you can look at certification in two ways an extra piece of paper so you can charge more, or Someone who paid their own money to learn how to do things the right way and will hopefully teach it the right way. Now there are Doctor's all over the world with certification that have been sued for mal-practice, it happens, but if something should happen to you (God Forbid) while you are learning its easier to hold a certified person responsible legally then a non-certified person because (I'm coming from a legal point of view) Someone is going to wonder why would you do that knowing that that person was not certified rather than , That person is certified and new that you can't do this that or the other. Does that make since. Really its a roll of a dice either way, but I know I want to be certified if I'm teaching someone and if you get the right certification then it can prove how "GOOD" you really are, not just a cracker jack certificate, I mean a CERTIFICATE.
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Experience and certifications are great and all, but recently I went to a studio that had both, and it was the worst studio I ever visited. A lack of understanding human beings is what gets me—if someone is not ready for a move, don't push them. If your intermediate class states, "we WILL be learning how to do _____" Don't come into the middle of the class expecting everyone to do ________. The studio I went to was absolutely shitty in this respect. The owner taught the class and asked someone who had never done shouldermounts from anything but the floor to do them standing up. Then the owner did not spot that student. Guess what happened to that student? She fell and nearly broke her ass. You can have a certificate and be a "pro" (the owner has had world wide competition first places under her belt) and still 100% suck at teaching AND saftey. I would much rather have someone uncertified tell me not to do X and why then have some "professional" expect me to kick out moves that they've never even taught me.
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CapFeb,
That is Sucky! I'm so lucky that I have never had that experience. My instructors always teach from the ground and if your too scared they tell you DON'T DO IT! When you feel you are they will spot you.
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When Felix and Alethea and Karol and (you name it) first got on the scene none of them had certifications. They do now but not when they first started going out teaching. I had this conversation; 5 years ago when pole started taking off there were no certifications. Most of the knowledge of moves came out of clubs or circus. It was not a matter of if the move was safe or not, it was a matter of it looking cool. Look at how many people have busted their shouulders doing twisted grips, which did not exist before Sarah Cretul. Look how many people have busted ribs because of the Allegra. Hell, even Felix is currently out of commission due to a shoulder injury that she needs surgery on.
The most any of us can do is just research, research, research. Thankfully Veena is still a very active site; many of the others have died.
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To paraphrase/quote aerial dancer Rebekah Leach: certifications are meant to show that you have obtained a particular knowledge and document from a 3rd party source that you've put in time & effort to be good at what you do. HOWEVER, technically speaking there is no such thing as certification in aerial dance of any sort!
What is valued in the industry is EXPERIENCE. What makes a qualified, well-trained instructor is much more than waht can be learned in 2 days or 2 weeks. It is just not possible to get everything you need in that time.
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I think this is similar to other industries as well. I ran into this problem when planning my wedding. It used to be, if you hired a photographer or a DJ, you got someone who did it as their only job. They went to school for it, might even have a degree in it, had state of the art equipment, belonged to professional organizations, and generally came with references. There also weren't that many choices, unless you lived in a big city.
These days, anyone can buy an inexpensive DSLR or basic DJ equipment and speakers. Then he/she can call themselves a photographer/DJ, put an ad on Craigslist, and start getting bookings. To the average consumer, it's hard to tell the difference between someone who is skilled and qualified, and someone who is just out to make a buck. Many times, you get what you pay for. But not always. The consumer has to be vigilant about who they interview and hire.
There are plenty of amazing instructors out there who have never gotten certified in anything. There are other people who are lifelong fitness professionals who maintain their certifications and take book learning very seriously.There are also people who bought a pole, watched a few videos on Youtube or took some beginner classes, and decided they were ready to teach. Some of them may have gotten "certifications" that are meaningless. The certifications are not absolutely necessary to qualify someone to teach pole, but they can help a consumer make sense of who is or isn't a qualified teacher.
For what it's worth, I would like to hear that an instructor has some type of background in fitness, but it doesn't have to be pole specific. I have taken classes with pole teachers who are also:
Certified personal trainers
Gymnasts
BFAs in dance
Yoga teachersAll of them brought interesting ideas to the table. A lack of a pole diploma hanging on the wall was not a big deal to me.
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Oh yeah when things like this first get going no body has certifications its when it gets to a popular point that all of a sudden people say, "You know maybe we should get some". I once saw a picture of Felix in Vertical Magazine where she fell right off the pole and did some major damage to her self, so yeah accidents will happen there is no denying that I just think that the discussion is on whether or not certification is important to you or not. If not then cool go about your business, if so then same thing. Sometimes for me it depens on what it is. Like I have said before not all of my instructors are certified, but they are extra careful and do not push(nor will I be pushed), so its not a big ordeal, but if I'm going to surgery or need a lawyer, best believe I want certifications. Its all of our personal choices. Hell I have a cousin that shot himself in the foot with his own gun, but he is certified (BIG TIME CERTIFIED). Accidents happens.
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