I don't think I've personally had any "bad" training experiences. My OW course was excellent, my advanced course (same instructor) was excellent, etc.... in fact, all of the courses I've taken to date have taught me something new. Over the years I've also become pretty well connected and very picky about which instructor I ask to do what. My technical specialties were taken under several different instructors, all friends of mine, who I selected specifically because they were good at those particular specialties.
As an instructor I've seen some really poor instructing happening over several agencies and disciplines. The reason I work how I do now at the shop where I work now had to do with one of those. At a shop where I used to work the management of the shop decided a some point to focus on "quickie" courses. Most shops will do quickie courses if you want them too but that's not the normal mode. This particular shop, however, made a conscious decision to go into "price fighter" mode during the recession and the OW course was cut back to the absolute minimum number of steps and activities required by the letter of the standard.
If you do these really quick courses, then you need to change your focus as an instructor from avoiding problems by focusing a lot on things like buddy contact, communication, buoyancy control, and in-water comfort to solving problems by focusing your attention on emergency procedures, air sharing, CESA and surface skills.
This shop, however did neither of these things. Instructors were put on a strict time line that was so tight that there was no room for focusing on *anything*. Students were literally sitting on the bottom during the entire course and learning nothing. Mask problem? Their attitude was that it would work itself out after they were certified. Nervous? No time to deal with that. Not communicating? It's not in the standards that they need to communicate. Can't swim well enough to get through the CESA? literally grab onto them and drag them the 9 meters and then congratulate them on a job well done.
Theory? LOL.... you must be kidding. If they want to live they'll read the book. Just do the quizzes but since you do all 5 modules and the final exam in 2 hours, just give them the right answers for things that were wrong and tell them to read the book again on their own time.
I'm not exaggerating. They way they were doing it, the instructor had ZERO and I mean ZERO insight as to whether or not a student could even plan a dive. The shop also didn't allow for using touch (or the forerunner of touch) because it was too expensive, even though that would have helped a lot.
They asked me to help run this once and I wasn't aware that they were doing it like this. My focus is always to focus on prevention and I'm very particular about putting my focus on things like communication and buoyancy control. During the 1st pool session I noticed the shop's instructor and mastermind of this system, on the bottom of the pool during the entire lesson.
Meanwhile I started the session (as I always do) with swimming around, some hovering, some signing and getting used to being there. After that I did module 1 and part of module 2 but I parked one skill with one of the students because he was having trouble with his mask. My experience was that if a student is getting stressed out by not getting something (especially a mask skill) that hammering at it isn't the solution. I tried it again at the end of the session and he was still stressed out about it so I parked it and made a note to review it the following week.
This is normal.
The shop's instructor ripped me a new one for that after the session. In his opinion I was "wasting" a lot of time with swimming,which wasn't in the standards, and if the student wasn't getting a skill that I should push him until he got it mostly right at least once and then approve it so they don't lose time in the next session. There was no time for solving problems and by doing so I was hampering the entire course and putting them off schedule.
It escalated into a fight which ended with me telling him that with his insane system that there was absolutely no question in my mind IF he was going to kill someone, but WHEN. I quit after that session and never went back.
That was a very negative experience but what it taught me is that as an instructor it's on ME to set boundaries, to know what I will accept as working conditions and not, and to ensure that I have the room to deliver quality. I now work at a new shop that gives me that room. This shop also runs quickie courses but they wouldn't even think about asking me to run them.
R..
As an instructor I've seen some really poor instructing happening over several agencies and disciplines. The reason I work how I do now at the shop where I work now had to do with one of those. At a shop where I used to work the management of the shop decided a some point to focus on "quickie" courses. Most shops will do quickie courses if you want them too but that's not the normal mode. This particular shop, however, made a conscious decision to go into "price fighter" mode during the recession and the OW course was cut back to the absolute minimum number of steps and activities required by the letter of the standard.
If you do these really quick courses, then you need to change your focus as an instructor from avoiding problems by focusing a lot on things like buddy contact, communication, buoyancy control, and in-water comfort to solving problems by focusing your attention on emergency procedures, air sharing, CESA and surface skills.
This shop, however did neither of these things. Instructors were put on a strict time line that was so tight that there was no room for focusing on *anything*. Students were literally sitting on the bottom during the entire course and learning nothing. Mask problem? Their attitude was that it would work itself out after they were certified. Nervous? No time to deal with that. Not communicating? It's not in the standards that they need to communicate. Can't swim well enough to get through the CESA? literally grab onto them and drag them the 9 meters and then congratulate them on a job well done.
Theory? LOL.... you must be kidding. If they want to live they'll read the book. Just do the quizzes but since you do all 5 modules and the final exam in 2 hours, just give them the right answers for things that were wrong and tell them to read the book again on their own time.
I'm not exaggerating. They way they were doing it, the instructor had ZERO and I mean ZERO insight as to whether or not a student could even plan a dive. The shop also didn't allow for using touch (or the forerunner of touch) because it was too expensive, even though that would have helped a lot.
They asked me to help run this once and I wasn't aware that they were doing it like this. My focus is always to focus on prevention and I'm very particular about putting my focus on things like communication and buoyancy control. During the 1st pool session I noticed the shop's instructor and mastermind of this system, on the bottom of the pool during the entire lesson.
Meanwhile I started the session (as I always do) with swimming around, some hovering, some signing and getting used to being there. After that I did module 1 and part of module 2 but I parked one skill with one of the students because he was having trouble with his mask. My experience was that if a student is getting stressed out by not getting something (especially a mask skill) that hammering at it isn't the solution. I tried it again at the end of the session and he was still stressed out about it so I parked it and made a note to review it the following week.
This is normal.
The shop's instructor ripped me a new one for that after the session. In his opinion I was "wasting" a lot of time with swimming,which wasn't in the standards, and if the student wasn't getting a skill that I should push him until he got it mostly right at least once and then approve it so they don't lose time in the next session. There was no time for solving problems and by doing so I was hampering the entire course and putting them off schedule.
It escalated into a fight which ended with me telling him that with his insane system that there was absolutely no question in my mind IF he was going to kill someone, but WHEN. I quit after that session and never went back.
That was a very negative experience but what it taught me is that as an instructor it's on ME to set boundaries, to know what I will accept as working conditions and not, and to ensure that I have the room to deliver quality. I now work at a new shop that gives me that room. This shop also runs quickie courses but they wouldn't even think about asking me to run them.
R..