Oct
20

People vs Profit

By Lil Bianchi // Blog // No Comments

Money talks and debris walks. That’s the bottom line.

This week I was overpowered by an array of mixed emotions. The contributing factor: money hungry, consumer driven, commercial industries of today. Frustration and outrage for the audacity of ‘professionals’, annoyance for the lack of conduct and passion for the people. That sums up my current ‘state of mind’, my current emotion.

I very nearly lost a potential client this week due to a large corporations conduct tarnishing my profession. It is not the first time I have been confronted by a maltreated and previously injured individual, who unfortunately was a victim of this companies lack of education.

The most important people in my life are the people that I train. For one hour every day they commit to me, they put their hope in my hands and their trust in my methodologies. It is an honor to hold the belief in people and a humbling experience to possess their faith.

Unfortunately most commercial businesses don’t see clients they see dollar bills. They don’t see people, they see profit. Kettlebells are a fast growing industry in our country, and many people are beginning to see and understand the nature of our sport.

To the grey man in the street their is something special about our way of life and our unique ability to carefully defy gravity. For those of us who are ‘trained professionals’ we invest our money and our time, no matter what the cost, to ensure we get the best teaching experience from the best organizations in the world, to ensure the best possible experience for our clients.

Internationally the only organizations that certify trainers are either the IKFF with Steve Cotter, the RKC with Pavel Tsatsouline or the WKC with Valery Federenko or locally, Kettlebells SA with Trent Murgatroyd, Sean Temple or Megan Jaffray (IKFF Africa).

However, local facilities are quickly jumping on the band wagon, offering one day workshops to their ‘trainers’ and promising their members extreme and safe classes in kettlebells. Raking in the big bucks! If your trainer has not been accredited by the IKFF, RKC or WKC – then they are not certified. Period.

Write that down!

Unfortunately members of these clubs are not aware of this, and are being injured and incorrectly trained in the art and technique of kettlebells, on a daily basis by ‘unqualified’ teaching staff. We as ambassadors to our sport take this very seriously, as it is affecting our profession negatively. Many commercial clubs are not willing to financially commit to the expense of these courses, and are unfortunately placing profit before people.

We take care in each one of our clients, and their needs, and have our nation’s best interests at heart. If kettlebell technique is not correctly followed they will cause long term injury to the user. These dissenting connotations surrounding kettlebells brought upon by unqualified trainers are negatively impacting our profession.

Surgery is best done by surgeons.