The Danger of Credential Inflation

[Gerry Seymour]

Fair statement. But last time I checked, Thunder Ranch or Ringmaster don't give black belts. Most people don't consider gun instructors as being on par with a sensei, no matter the parallels.

Neither do most MMA gyms.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I wonder if this is a matter of culture. As some have pointed out, these certifications are pretty common among LEO instructors and such. Perhaps it's simply common for someone to list all of those certifications in that context, so he's just doing what he's used to. It seems odd to those of us in the general "martial arts" community, but maybe it's no different to him than me listing my CPBA and CPMA in reference to my coaching and consulting work.

 

[lklawson]

Greg’s Training Resume

Lists all of his certs.

It's one thing if you are applying for a job/position that they need to know all of those things. Looking through that, it looks more like a marketing thing to impress people who don't know better how LE's get most of their certs (this from almost 20 years of experience in the field).

Look at the "Ground Fighting" and "Edged Weapons" sections.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

 

[lklawson]

To be fair, he is not a martial arts instructor, he teaches predominately gun, knife and first aid.

He teaches Gun and Knife martially. "Self Defense" and LEO application, not "art" or meditative benefits of pistol shooting.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

 

[lklawson]

TE="Dirty Dog, post: 1805306, member: 20725"]Gun and knife use are martial arts...

Fair statement. But last time I checked, Thunder Ranch or Ringmaster don't give black belts. Most people don't consider gun instructors as being on par with a sensei, no matter the parallels.

What do "most people" believe about martial arts in general?

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

 

[lklawson]

Sheesh. Yeah, that is obnoxious. To most people, the specifics on this list are pretty meaningless. I don't know anything about any of those courses, whether they are worthwhile or not. So seeing a list like that doesn't impress me.

He may be a great instructor, but if I knew nothing else about him other than his CV, I would probably also go elsewhere. This list gives me the impression of someone who is just a little bit too much in love with his guns. I don't care to interact with those people. But that's just me.

Again, to be fair, what I know of him comes from reading his articles, the majority of which I agree with.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

 

[Dirty Dog]

Fair statement. But last time I checked, Thunder Ranch or Ringmaster don't give black belts. Most people don't consider gun instructors as being on par with a sensei, no matter the parallels.

Lots of martial arts don't give black belts. Lots of black belts couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag. Neither fact changes the reality.

 

[Flying Crane]

Again, to be fair, what I know of him comes from reading his articles, the majority of which I agree with.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

Sure, and to be fair he isn't here to respond to our critique of his CV, so I'm going to just not add anything more.

 

[jks9199]

It certainly can seem like inflation. A lot of them as noted are probably brief certifications or things like ASP baton and Monadnock baton courses several chemical weapons sprays , and so on. Throw a couple of unarmed hand-to-hand programs in like Gracie combatives comma and Krav Maga worldwide Force protection courses and before long you have a whole host of things. The certifications matter in some cases like teaching in an academy but in others who cares? Seems to me a case of failing to match marketing to the market at hand, just like the guy who sends the same resume out for every job...

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[Buka]

Coincidently, our department head just asked if I was willing to teach handgun retention. I said sure. Used to teach some of the guys (and their kids) when I worked here ten years ago. He then asked if I would bring in certificates stating I have been qualified as an instructor. Used to get re-qualified every two years. But can't remember when the last time I saw one of those certificates was. And we just moved, probably would have seen one while packing boxes.

I mentioned to him that the first thing he should do was get better holsters. Or let the guys get their own holsters. I even offered to pay for them. He said - can't, they're not department issued. But his second-in-charge wears a different holster, which used to be mine (I gave it to one of the guys when I left, who gave it to the second guy when he retired five years ago)

I do have one certificate that qualifies me as a D.T Instructor. I keep it as a joke. When I went to a week long training and re-certification course, the guy in charge didn't actually know how to teach, he was a desk jockey. Because I was the smallest person in the class (of twenty departments) he thought he'd use me to demonstrate. He put me in a terrible wrist lock and said, "you can't get out of this, can you?' I said, "yes, actually, it's not a proper lock, sir." He said how - so I did, lightly slapped him, and put the lock back on. He actually said "do that again". So I did. He then asked If I'd teach the course. So I did, with two of the other guys I knew, one from the State Police and one from the Prison systems. We taught all week, then re-certified everyone, including ourselves, which I don't even think is legal. Certainly wouldn't hold up in court.

Sometimes police departments make no sense what-so-fricken-ever. As for certificates, they're certainly pretty, some are even cool.