We have a aerobic kickboxing class and have had it for many years. We’ve been certified by a great former kickboxer and trained in many classes and seminars with many good instructors. We are black belt instructors and understand what we are teaching. I’ve done karate for over 3 decades and kickboxed and competed on many levels. I’ve taught many students that went on to do there own thing. Most would come in for a few classes and then go take a certification class and then go work for a competitor.
I shake my head when fitness schools hire some pretty face to teach kickboxing and she has absolutely no experience in martial arts.
I promise you what they teach won’t work and may even injure you. It takes years to get a black belt but it takes a Saturday to get certified in Aerobic Kickboxing. To what depth do you think they understand what they are doing?
I’ve witnessed the same thing in our schools. People teaching our school guards that have little or no martial arts experience. Some have no experience in law enforcement either. What they do have is a certificate from a weekend course that says they are an instructor.
Recently the schools started a program that teaches kids to attack and disarm an attacker with a weapons. One of my students took this and I asked if they taught how to disarm and he said no. He said they taught us to throw stuff at them and then jump on them.
I talked to an official about some of my concerns. I personally think that the school shouldn’t teach any thing to students till the have the school police trained at a high level. I don’t think that the teachers should be taught up to a high level before the students. I asked about teaching some things to the teachers and school police and I was told that he’d have to go through the teachers union and he’d have to pay them and the school police to have them trained.
But we are teaching kids to confront a dangerous person. That should be the last resort. It’s not the kids responsibility to protect the school, but the other way around. Again what is the depth of their knowledge.
If they want them taught something, how about getting someone that is more than a weekend master.
