Certified

 That's certiFIED, not certiFIABLE.  I just received my "AFPA Cardio Kickboxing Instructor" certification in the mail today, so I'm pretty pumped.  This is my second AFPA certification, along with "Certified Childrens Fitness Specialist".  Almost looks like I might know what I'm doing when I'm "encouraging" my kickboxing class to do a few more pushups or working with preschoolers on their throwing and kicking techniques. 

A couple of years ago, when I realized that I would enjoy working in the fitness industry, I looked into which certifications actually meant something.  There are dozens of fitness certifications out there, and from what I've researched, there are maybe half a dozen or so that are actually worth anything.  That brought me to the NSCA, which offers a Certified Personal Trainer cert (for those looking to get into a personal training gig), and a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (for those who want to design exercise programs for athletes).  I liked the way the CSCS cert sounded, and thought that it could be useful for designing martial arts training programs.  I got my study materials and went to work studying.  The test takes several hours and is closed book.  Needless to say, without a degree in exercise or fitness or anatomy, the material has been pretty difficult.  And without any real "need" to get this cert, my studying tapered off and I eventually just put it on the shelf after about 9 months.

When I started to teach kickboxing, I looked around to see if there was a KB cert that actually meant something, and my search lead me to the American Fitness Professionals and Associates (AFPA).  They did indeed have a cardio kickboxing cert, and from what I could tell, it is a pretty respected certification.  In addition, the AFPA has a whole bunch of other certs available, including the Certified Childrens Fitness Specialist (which I thought would be great for the Tiny Tigers class I was helping teach).  I got the study materials for the two AFPA certs, which have a 6 month deadline, but are open book tests.  The CCFS cert was over 100 short answer questions and a couple of essays.  I received that cert in October of last year.

The KB cert included a true/false test, and I also had to send in a video of me teaching a class according to the guidelines of the AFPA cardio kickboxing program.  I finished the test pretty quickly, but in typical style, procrastinated on the video for several months.  Eventually, the perfect opportunity arose for me to shoot the video, so I jumped on it.  I had help from 4 of my incredible students (Erika, Amber, Carey and Kathy) to be my "class", and had another friend (Ashley, who is pursuing this same cert as well) actually run the camera as I "taught".  After a couple of hours, things went off without a hitch, and I was able to compile almost an hour of footage to send in to be evaluated.  The materials said to expect 4 weeks before I hear if I pass or failed, and for 4 weeks, I went to the mailbox every day like a high school senior waiting to see if he got into the college of his choice.  And today, almost 4 weeks to the day, my envelope arrived, and I passed. 

I'm lucky to have friends who were willing to help me out with things like this, as I could not have completed this certification without their help.  A heartfelt THANK YOU to all of them, and I'll see you in class again soon!