Barbara WintroubI’ve been a member of PMA since it began. I am a certified teacher and a certified teaching facility.
This is the way it has been for 16 years.
PMA was formed to certify Pilates instructors thereby giving you the best teachers out there. They went after those who said they were a certifying Pilates teacher training facility and they went after those who said they would certify you by taking any course work they were promoting.
I was there when the Pilates name in your studio logo got you sued. There was a fight between East and West Pilates presentations. It was a different time.
Today, we have Pilates fusion classes, Pilates TRX classes and a huge ability to do a modified Pilates rehabilitation workout. We are viable and important.
My question is… has the PMA become not viable and important?
In my area there is a shortage of Pilates teachers so just about everyone gets hired. And they get hired without a PMA cert. And they get hired not with a 450+ hour school but a 18-30 hour training session sometime from a non certified teacher who paid the PMA to become a sponsor but they themselves are not certified by anyone.
I’ve talked to the PMA a couple of times but I am told they cannot police everyone and do anything to protect students from situations like this.
I was actually harassed by someone and called for the PMA ethics person but I was told to call the police, the PMA couldn’t help me. This is not brain surgery.
If a studio buys a $7000 teacher training course and poof now they are a training facility, even though the trainer isn’t certified but they purchase a sponsorship with PMA nobody seems to care. If no one cares then why should I care if I belong to PMA the right way?
I’m 70, been teaching Pilates 20 years, been in fitness for 50 years, have maybe 30 certifications and I work on a limited basis (sort of retired).
Why pay money to belong to an organization in my area when no one cares if I’m PMA or not.
I guess I just answered my own question.