How To Teach- Teaching Tips For Martial Arts

Welcome back to the channel! This is Instructor Frank at Amalgam Martial Academy. I’m making this video today because I want to give some value to my colleagues who are instructors at their own schools but may not have extensive experience in the field of education. I have a bachelor’s degree in education and at this point just about twenty years of experience in education and childcare. Everyone teaches differently, but I wanted to share some of my thoughts. I hope it helps!

Be concise! This is more true the younger your students are. You may be excited about your body of knowledge. You could probably speak for hours on the depths of your art with your fellow instructors. But I guarantee you the kids in your classes barely have the attention span to look directly in your eyes for five seconds in a row. Figure out the shortest, easiest way to effectively communicate whatever you’re working on. Adult novices are very similar. They’re already taking a big step by taking your class in the first place. If you flood them immediately with decades of your hard-earned knowledge, it may scare them right back out the door. Be concise!

Having said that, be prepared to scale appropriately. Some students and certain circumstances will start to lead quickly into deeper waters. Don’t be afraid to discuss deeper or more complicated concepts when the appropriate opportunity arises. Be ready to adapt quickly!

Be clear! This of course ties into being concise, but it goes beyond curriculum into the daily operation of your classes. Clear goals help students focus on the individual class day and their long term goals. Belt systems are a form of clarity for students. By organizing curriculum into progressive stages, it gives students an idea of what they’ve done and where they’re going.

Clear boundaries and expectations help keep everyone safe and help avoid potential problems during training. Signals like the “tap” or clear safe words like “stop” are clear and easy to understand.

Instructors should develop clear communication skills, both verbal and non-verbal. Nobody learns well when they can’t understand you. Don’t mumble!

And consider your tone with people. Not everyone is prepared for the old school drill instructor style of training. Nor does everyone appreciate a condescending tone, especially not kids! Speak loudly and clearly, with respect and clarity. Be genuine, listen carefully, be understanding, and respond thoughtfully. You’ll avoid a lot of problems!

Be confident! In my experience, I’ve found that students prey on weakness. They require strength to give and earn respect. I’m not saying to be cruel or mean. But if you exhibit self-doubt, your students will think twice about accepting anything you’re trying to teach them. Confidence!

Be an expert. Even the newest, most green new teacher usually knows more than their students. Be confident in your knowledge, and constantly seek to improve yourself. Students will accept an honest “I don’t know”, but will eat you alive if you pretend to know more than you really do. Know your limits!

Be prepared and organized. Know your general plan for class, have whatever equipment you need already prepped, and you’ll avoid dead time. Dead time leads to distraction, which can leave you expending more energy to help everyone refocus. Your students are paying you for an education. When you willingly allow for more distraction, you’re basically stealing time and value from your students. Distractions happen, but don’t make them a habit!

Be aware! You can’t deal with issues that you don’t notice!

Pick your battles. If you’re fortunate, your class is full of students, each with their own issues to work on. If you spend too much time on any one student, you’re not serving the rest of your students well. Pick and choose which issues to address and when. If you’re thoughtful, you can find a way to address the entire class and cover several issues at once.

This principle is for your own well-being too. You have only so much energy and attention in a day. If you don’t budget yourself wisely, you’ll end up burning yourself out on a minor point, and being less valuable to your students for the rest of that class. Remember, martial arts is a long game, so choose your battles wisely!

Be patient! Your students haven’t been training as long as you have. Nor are they nearly as interested and excited in your topic as you are. They can’t be, they just started! Not to mention, depending on how young your students are, you’re literally fighting their biology! Double down on your meditation or something. Just find a way to develop your patience!

Repeat and reinforce. A classic principle used in politics, media, and religion through the ages, for better or worse (often worse). Be ready to say the same things repeatedly! When you say something that helps your students understand and improve, be ready to say it again. It will remind those students of things to improve, and it will potentially help your new students learn and understand things more quickly and easily.

Verbalize learning. Martial arts is heavily physical. However, when you can verbally explain what’s happening, the learning happens more deeply. And it usually helps you as the instructor to understand your material more deeply as well!

Don’t take things too personally. You and your students are all human, presumably. You’ll all make mistakes and have moments when you are not at your best. Be patient and understanding with them, and they’ll be more likely to return the courtesy, and maybe less likely to find another place to train!

Foster independence and personal responsibility. However you structure your martial arts experience, you are there to facilitate each student’s individual martial arts journey. You and the parents can do only so much for them. The best we can do to help students get the most from their time on the mats is to teach them how to be personally responsible for their training. If they look to you for every little thing, if the students can’t do anything without you, then I would argue that you’ve created a cult, not a healthy martial arts school. They need the opportunity to exercise their individual thinking skills at least as much as they get to exercise their bodies in class. They need to be allowed to make mistakes and to learn from them. They need to learn to respectfully question you, and you need to learn to set aside any pride or hubris and respectfully respond.