American Circus Educators Magazine Spring 2018 (Issue 1, Volume 12) | Page 6

V i e w :
Point of
We care because truth matters.
Expertise matters. Not getting
your body broken while
pursuing circus matters. It
really does.
WHY DO WE CARE?
Training circus comes with a number of inherent risks.
The first is, of course—The Biggie—catastrophic injury:
falls, breaks, sprains, dislocations, and worse. More
commonly, though, it’s the smaller injuries often caused
by poor technique or risky behavior that keep students
out of the air. Add to that the crushing difficulty of
changing bad habits—circus and otherwise—once they’ve
taken hold, and it’s not hard to see why having the
guidance of a qualified circus coach is essential.
This week I was naughty. I eavesdropped on an amateur
teaching session (a.k.a. the blind leading the blind). For
the past few months, I’ve been paying copious amounts
of money for experts to teach me the correct way to
heave myself into a proper handstand, so my ears always
perk up when I hear advice being tossed around. I
heard such gems as, “sink more into your shoulders so
it will be easier to balance” and “arch your back a little
or bend your arms to correct your balance.” To top it
all off, this was all being done on squishy mats. Now,
none of this is likely to result in a catastrophic accident,
but what is likely is a hand injury, shoulder issues, and
increased time spent learning the skill because this
advice contradicts current best practices for learning
handstands. A qualified coach would have taught on a
firm floor and cued to push the floor away (shoulders to
the ears) and close the ribs as opposed to arching the
back. That’s a big difference, friends! That difference is
expertise.
DIFFERING LEVELS OF AWESOME
Teachers across all disciplines tend to come in different
flavors:
Master Teacher: This is the coach in any field people
save their money to fly to see: The Handstand Whisperer,
6
LAURA WITWER
The Trapeze Guru, The Juggling Sage. They are
innovators in their field, and are widely considered the
pinnacle of expertise.
Expert in their Field: This professional is at the top of
the class. They know their stuff but are also constantly
working to up their game with new skills, techniques,
and best practices in their chosen field. Teaching is a
passion, not a side job.
Good Instructor: This coach is fine. They offer solid
instruction, appropriate safety parameters, and good
movement vocabulary. They’re not going to kill you, but
they’re probably also not getting you to the Olympics.
Newbie: This is the brand new teacher. They may have
completed a teacher training, or they may just be
jumping into the fray. They have not had much hands-on
time with students.
Amateur/Hobbyist Teacher: There is a certain amount
of professional training and experience required to
legitimately put out your shingle as a teacher in any
field; circus is no exception. The amateur or hobbyist is
exactly that. They may be largely self-taught, not actively
seeking to improve their skills, and/or just be looking to
occasionally supplement their income. “Casual” best
sums up their approach to teaching.
Going to Kill You: This coach falls short of any and all
meaningful standards of good teaching. They ignore best
practices in safety, technique, and communication. They
often see themselves as rogue, renegade gurus who are
“bucking the system.” They don’t know (and don’t care)
what they don’t know, and are actively resistant to new
information.
TEACHER TRAININGS
Most education industries have meaningful standards
of training and qualification, why shouldn’t we? Back in
Ye Days of Olde when I began teaching (18 years ago!),
there was no such thing as a teacher training; heck,
if you wanted to learn circus, you had to pack up and
move unless you lived in Montreal, San Francisco, etc.
Teaching circus was like the Wild West—we figured things
out on the fly, cobbled together bits and pieces from
all over, and employed way more trial and error than
7