I really do wish that Registered Training Organisations’s would spend more time on educating personal trainers on business start ups instead of throwing them out into the industry with limited resources. It’s the club owners who have to deal with this and I’m sick of listening to uneducated responses to questions in job interviews. Now keep in mind I’m talking about my experiences so if your one of the lucky ones that doesn’t have this problem then I strongly suggest you get on the speaker circuit and tell us why! Have you ever sat in front of a prospective PT in your club and asked them pretty straight forward questions like how do you see yourself getting clients and the response is the club is going to get them for me, or I’ll do some flyers and get them out there. Well first let me tell you this UM clubs in general DO NOT get massive walk ins every day just for personal training – I wish and second of all I don’t want to look at another flyer there is enough of this generic rubbish in the weekend newspaper, but you know what it’s not the PT’s fault that he/she has answered me or any other club owner that way. You’ve been sold the holy grail of success by your local registered training organisation, you’re going to be awesome and make millions of dollars and be the next star of the biggest loser and get your teeth whitened in the process. Sorry but for the vast majority of you the RTO has failed you by not providing you with the most important tools of success – no it’s not the latest primal movement course its pretty simple ‘KNOW YOUR MARKET AND SELL’ and its pretty hypercritical of them not to teach you this because quite frankly thats how they got your MONEY…They knew who their demographic was, made it look promising and pretty and then signed you up. So why can’t they teach you these skills in the course? You would be a star attraction to any club with these skills. Oh and what about group fitness instructors why aren’t we encouraging RTO’s to train more people up in exercise to music? What you think its daggy, really? Where do you think your biggest audience is ???? Hello its in the group fitness room where else will you get the opportunity to sell yourself to 30-50 people in 45 minutes – the gym floor? I doubt it, you can’t tell me a personal trainer will walk the gym floor for 45 minutes and talk to 45 people nor a gym person for that matter.I think the cleaner would thou. Whats daggy about group fitness – nothing at all it’s the largest social community globally that come together with one common factor “positive health” isn’t that why you entered the industry to improve the community’s health? If not please exit.
I also think its time to start a better system whereby the general public can log in to a generic site to see if their personal trainer is actually qualified. To many supposed trainers are starting PT courses and not meeting all requirements to complete their education but are still opening up backyard,shed,mobile business’s. Perhaps all R.T.O’s should surrender lists of students enrolled with a simple “pass/fail/non completed” at the beginning and the end. And for goodness sake get rid of online courses..practical please and at least 12 months of it.
Please don’t tell me this can’t be done because it can. If we can have databases for car registration,health registration then surely with todays technology we can create this, actually if Les Mills in each country can have a data base of all their GFI surely we can do this with PT’s.
R.T.O’s need to go do work experience themselves in clubs to get it – I find it ironic that the majority of RTO’s in the fitness industry are owned or run by people who have never run a health club – Yes you were smart as an RTO you saw a demand in the market place, went off wrote a course meet government guidelines then sold the course to students with stars in their eyes. Could you please teach you students the same basic foundations!
And as for the group fitness component RTO’s if you can’t teach your students exercise to movement then align yourself with an organisation that can because you guys are not doing the industry any favours at all – what you’re doing is skipping a whole generation of prospective GFI and drying up an industry that will be forced to succumb to alternatives. Think I’m wrong? How many clubs were prepared for ZUMBA? How much money did clubs miss out on? Even Les Mills wasn’t ready for the power of Zumba and Crossfit.
You know the corner might be big, the corner might be small, but around it there’s another group fitness craze about to land and if RTO’s and clubs aren’t educating in group fitness………. Well, guys your just going to get a whole new breed of unqualified so called group fitness instructors out there who just run off do a one day course to teach the new craze down the street in the local community hall-Not going to happen. Wasn’t it called Zumba……Crossfit!
However in order to create change you need to go back to the basics and create a fresh foundation. You can’t walk into a situation and start change at middle ground. If we as in industry want to change the issues above then we need to create and give birth to another option or push for it. We need tighter control on personal trainer qualifications being recognised and they need better business skills. Group fitness is a business and we need to recognise this and teach it and not look down at it.
It’s great to have opinions but we as an industry need to make the change. Be a doer and not a keyboard warrior.
Mel.