Weekend courses, untrained teachers and the cost to Pilates
Anyone can call themselves a Pilates teacher. That is not a complaint, it is simply how things stand in the UK and most other countries, and in the United States a federal court decision in 2000 found that "Pilates" is the generic name for a type of exercise rather than a protected trademark. The word belongs to everyone. So does the responsibility for what it comes to mean.
For many people their first class is at a gym, a leisure centre or a village hall. The teacher at the front may have trained for two years across every piece of apparatus, or for two weekends on the mat. From the outside the two can look much the same. For a client with a stiff back or a recent diagnosis, the difference can be considerable.
What the training routes look like
Training varies enormously, and the labels on certificates do not always help. This is a rough guide rather than a ranking of any particular school.
| Route | Typical scope | Typical length | What it prepares you for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekend or short online course | A selection of mat exercises and basic cues | 1 to 4 days | Assisting, or simple mat classes with support |
| UK Level 3 mat Pilates qualification | Mat repertoire, anatomy, class planning, practical assessment | Several months part-time | Teaching mat classes in gyms and leisure centres |
| Comprehensive programme | Mat and all major apparatus, observation, self-practice, supervised teaching, exams | Usually 9 to 18 months, often 450 to 600+ hours | Teaching all levels on mat and apparatus, privates and groups |
Short courses are not worthless. A good one, taught by an experienced educator, can be a sensible first step, and some fine teachers started exactly that way. The trouble starts when the first step is treated as the last.
Why thin training matters
Safety
A well-trained teacher knows which exercises to change and why. Loaded spinal flexion, as in the Roll Up or Rolling Like a Ball, is commonly modified or left out for people with osteoporosis. Pregnancy, recent surgery, hypermobility and old injuries all need adjustments that a weekend rarely has time to cover in any depth. Underprepared teachers also tend to move clients on too quickly, a problem I looked at in how teachers progress clients from basic to advanced.
The method's reputation
When "Pilates" means whatever the timetable says it means, a client who has a poor class usually decides that Pilates is too easy, too dull or not for them. They rarely decide that they had an underprepared teacher. The repertoire, its order and the apparatus Joseph Pilates designed disappear behind a label stuck on a general core class.
Pay and value
Thin training pulls rates down. If a gym can fill a Pilates slot with someone who trained over a weekend, it has little reason to pay more for someone who trained for a year. That squeezes teachers who have spent several thousand pounds on comprehensive training, and it makes teaching harder to sustain as a career for everyone. Anyone weighing up that cost and time can find the routes laid out in our piece on teaching Pilates as a second career.
What clients can ask
Good teachers are glad to answer these, and none of them is rude to ask before you book.
- Where did you train, and did it cover the mat only or the apparatus as well?
- Roughly how many hours did the training involve, including supervised teaching?
- What was the last workshop or course you took?
- Do you have professional insurance and a current first aid certificate?
- Will you ask about my health and any injuries before the first class?
- What would you change for me if I had a back problem, or if I were pregnant?
- Can I watch a class before I sign up?
A teacher who bristles at these is telling you something. One who answers plainly and then asks you a few questions of their own is usually a good sign. If you have a medical condition, check with your GP or physiotherapist as well; a teacher's training does not replace that.
Fair to everyone
It is easy for comprehensively trained teachers to be sniffy about gym Pilates. It does not help. Many short-course teachers are keen, careful and good with people, and some already run a livelier group class than teachers with five times their hours. What they often lack is access: the money, the time and a studio nearby with apparatus and a willing mentor.
There is also a long tradition to draw on here. The classical system survived the deaths of its founders because teachers such as Romana Kryzanowska passed it on in person, through apprenticeship, to people who arrived knowing far less than they left with. Every comprehensively trained teacher was a beginner once.
How experienced teachers can help
Change has to come from several directions at once. These are the ones I think make the most difference.
- Offer observation places. Letting a newer teacher sit in on privates or apparatus classes costs you very little and teaches them a great deal.
- Point people to bridging routes. Some comprehensive schools run modular or bridging programmes for teachers who already teach mat classes.
- Mentor rather than judge. A monthly coffee and a lesson swap do more than any argument in a comments section.
- Talk to gym and leisure-centre managers. Explain what better-trained teachers bring them: fewer complaints, safer classes and members who stay.
- Support a professional association, so there are shared standards and somewhere for teachers to belong.
- Teach well in public. The best case for proper training is a class people talk about on the way home.
None of this will stop weekend courses, and it does not need to. The aim is that more of the teachers who start there keep going.
If you teach from a short course and want a practical next step, book one private lesson on the reformer with a comprehensively trained teacher. Write down every cue they give you that you have not heard before. That list is the start of your next stage of training.
