Perhaps a better question to ask is, "Why should anyone accept me as a teacher?"" Every student can relate stories about High School and College instructors who may be brilliant in terms of their own knowledge, but are positively impotent when it comes to passing that knowledge on to others. In short, they have no business teaching, yet they hold teaching positions. Their students are subjected to the anguish and unjustified expense of trying to learn from them simply because some school gave them a job. This all too prevalent scenario in today's education systems has prompted movements worldwide for certification of teachers. Why should it be any different for Martial Arts teachers?

What if teaching is not in my plans? What if my martial arts training is for other career reasons such as professional employment in a security related position? Why should anyone accept me as a competent martial artist? These questions directly parallel those society has already imposed for other professionals whose work involves the safety of others. Architects, engineers, lawyers, doctors, barbers, beauticians, dental hygienists, chiropractors, personal trainers, etc. must all be certified because the results of their work directly affect the safety of their customers.

Certification serves as a formal standard for assessing professional credentials. Currently, anyone can open a martial arts business with little or no knowledge of martial arts; all that is required is the proper business license. Likewise, anyone can flash a certificate around showing several years of training in a martial arts school that may or may not have any competent instructors on staff. The need for certification has grown out of irresponsible actions of a small percentage of disreputable individuals who have tarnished the image of martial arts. In the past, martial arts instruction took many forms from private, informal instruction among family members to formal, military education with grades, examinations and levels of ranking. Both formats produced excellent results in terms of practitioners, but not necessarily in terms of teachers. Knowing how to do a thing is not the same as knowing how to teach others to do it. The percentage of "doers" in any activity is always much larger than the percentage of those who can actually replicate the same skill in others. The purpose of VTM certification is aimed towards raising the standards of all martial artists and educating the public rather than just educating a few, exceptional individuals.

Certification carries a connotation that denotes knowledge, understanding, and expertise, but it is not a panacea in itself. Certification must be treasured and employed properly. All to often individuals who attain certification use it simply as a right of passage, displaying it as a badge and forgetting the deeper meanings. Some certified professionals are well qualified and have invested a substantial sacrifice to attain that "honor". They serve well under the standards they have learned. Others go through the mechanics and become enslaved by their own ego, using the certification to feed their own "status". Practitioners categorized in this second group are potentially less qualified than others who have received private training, but sought no formal recognition.

Formal standards exist in martial arts training to serve as a way to identify one's progress towards a goal. If one's teacher corrects one's technique, the teacher must have some form of standard in mind to base the correction upon. As the teacher already has a standard in mind for the student, a written curriculum / ranking structure / training progression is only the logical continuation of that standard. Once written down, the standards become more objective and open to review by others. As long as the teacher maintains exclusive right to information, the student will be forced to accept the dictates of the teacher with regards to system progression, body of knowledge, and course work. This allows the teacher to mislead the student for personal gain due to misinformation as well as inter-school politics.

Written standards provide legal coverage for the teacher and student in the case of injury. As a general rule most jurors and judges are largely ignorant of martial arts training. By having a written progression of training to denote the ability of the student and the "reasonableness" of the training undertaken, the teacher has more legal foundation for protection from liability lawsuits.