I first heard this line “fake it till you make it” shortly after moving back to the US after decades living abroad. I brushed it off with a smile and didn’t think much more about it. Recently, it resurfaced again in conversations on nutrition.
Coming from a background as a professional dancer it’s not only worrisome but extremely disheartening. Why? First of all, in the performing arts it is really hard to fake it. Put simply you can either do the choreography or not. You spend hours and a lifetime trying to perfect your art: your body’s movement capabilities.
One might not achieve all the possibilities imagined but you strive to continually improve your craft. You never stop taking class or training underneath a teacher who you believe can continue to guide you to yet a higher level of performance.
This is exactly what I’m missing today, the desire and willingness to spend years honing and crafting your skills. Not just building a web presence or having followers, not just taking a workshop and learning new tricks. But actually, spending hours with yourself in the studio and continuing to train your body and mind in your area of expertise.
Certainly, no field is currently immune from the disease of ‘fake it’ at the moment. Think Food, Politics and even Pilates. We are inundated with pseudo food-like products that companies want you to believe are healthy but are actually “ultra-processed fake items” designed to look or feel like the real thing.
Politics……..oh where to begin on that one. That’s for another post or rather a mini-series.
And Pilates, well sadly it is also bears the brunt of imitation and illusion tactics. Over the many years (20 plus) I’ve been teaching it has definitely exploded. My old school take is that we suffer from a host of issues. I’ll name three and offer potential ideas for change.
For you non-Pilates buffs I honestly don’t think this applies only to our field or to the food industry. It is every aspect of our lives where coaching, teaching and education play an integral part of developing good skills and habits.
Problem 1-Low entrance requirements on certification programs.
It is incredibly easy to get certified in many movement programs currently. Go online, sign up, pay the fee and voila you are certified to be a this or that instructor. Scary. Take Pilates as an example, historically, say a decade ago there was an assessment of your current level of ability coupled with having to meet an extensive previous period of study, usually multiple years, of individual lessons with a qualified instructor.
For example, look at this program here, I don’t even see a requirement. Now I don’t know this program personally but for $175 dollars you get a certificate. Franchise systems like Club Pilates encourage speed, here’s a quote from their website; “Finish in as fast as six months, or take your time as you learn.”
Going in at zero means you are still learning the exercises while you are learning to teach them. That is a recipe for lack of knowledge and why you see simple questions in online forums of students seeking answers to something they should have learned in a program. But when you are thrown in the den too early it is near impossible to comprehend the material presented.
Granted many of us in the field would say these are not “comprehensive certification programs” but if those words are used in your advertising materials how is someone to know the difference? Back to the theme….fake it till you make it.
Problem 2-Progressing teachers too early on in their careers
Teaching is a field of the long-distance marathon not a sprint. Particularly when you are working with the human body, meaning there is no black and white. There is so much grey that only time-tested eyes of seeing hundreds of bodies and thousands of “issues” gives you the ability to be humble and acknowledge you “don’t have all the answers.” But you do have educated hands and eyes to see what the body could prosper with and ultimately lead them forward with experience.
I think what this early progression does is build a mindset that “I made it” and don’t need to improve my skill set. It hampers modesty and inflates audacity. Now I’m really showing my age, anyone remember the book, Zen in the Art of Archery?
It’s a lovely tale of a philosophy professor who takes up archery. However, he must (under the master) learn many individual skills long before ever getting to shoot the arrow. It’s a long, slow process of patience, precision and endless practice. After a long arduous process, the professor finally is allowed to shoot the arrow, a learning path of unexpected fulfillment.
Problem 3-Too little practice and skill development on basic movement fundamentals
Being the daughter of a basketball coach, practicing drills and movement patterns is something ingrained in my DNA. I’m paraphrasing our Dad here, but he said, “games are won in practice not in the arena.” I wholeheartedly believe that. Getting back to fitness and Pilates I see very little time spent on breaking down an exercise and practicing pieces of it and then putting it all together. Then doing this over and over with all the various apparatus and exercises.
This is important not only for your own skill development but to understand why your clients struggle with certain exercises. Unless you know the movement inside and outside you are only offering a theoretical assumption not one based on a solid movement foundation.
Ideas for Change
- Advocate for stricter certification entrance qualifications
- Promote teaching advancements for teachers and teacher trainers that contain length of time teaching, teaching skills and self-practice performance
- Integrate ongoing skill development and test it
- Build continuing education programs that reinforce fundamentals
- Dare to speak out and ask challenging questions about program specifics
- Become a member of the “old school club”
“Bad food is made without pride, by cooks who have no pride, and no love. Bad food is made by chefs who are indifferent, or who are trying to be everything to everybody, who are trying to please everyone… Bad food is fake food… food that shows fear and lack of confidence in people’s ability to discern or to make decisions about their lives.”
Anthony Bourdain
