First Lesson

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

I've taught in schools when we've had new members, taught specific new members from the ground up, and taught classes in general. But I'm in a position where I'm going to teach brand new students with no one who has any experience (to my knowledge). Specifically where absolutely no one has martial experience is a new one for me.

My plan is to spend the first 15 minutes doing warm-up exercises, 5 minutes stretching, 5 minutes going over stances, 15 minutes going over kicks from a fighting stance, 15 minutes going over punches from a horse stance, and last 5 minutes bowing out.

If y'all were in the situation where you had to teach entirely new people, and also want them to continue training with you, what would your first lesson be?

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

what would your first lesson be?

How to defend/counter with a

- punch to the head.
- kick to the chest.
- single and double legs take down.

Those are the 3 most important problems that any new student will need to face.

 

[isshinryuronin]

I would teach them by example how MA movements are natural and unforced, how to be balanced and how to see an opponent's actions as opportunities. Once they experience these concepts, techniques will be better understood.

IMO, stretching and warmups can wait for a few lessons. Techniques such as takedowns and kicking above the waist can wait for a few months. Defending and countering a punch to the head and a simple wrist grab can be taught as illustrations of the concepts in paragraph one.

 

[Same Trick]

I still remember my first karate class 47 years ago we learned how to make a fist

 

[Prince_Alarming]

This is an unusual answer, but I would get them playing a few games. I'd show them a few techniques and blocks, and have them just experiment with different ways of 'tagging' each other with them. I've learned just as much in a few games played during the warmup as in hours of five step sparring.