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.

 

[skribs]

My suggestion: focus more on making the class fun and engaging than worrying about what technical checkboxes you hit on Day 1. The most important piece of a student's learning is student retention. They'll learn a lot more if they stick with it for a long period of time, and most folks are going to do that if they're having fun.

 

[HighKick]

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?

What is the age range? What are the typical learning/retention issues for that age range? Build around this OR buck it and create your retention system. Either way it is about retention and short term recall.
Remember, MA's is Still all about repetition, repetition, repetition. If you are dealing with younger ages, you have to get the repetition in even when they may not know they are doing it to keep them engaged.
If it will always be a younger sect, I would change the 15-minute warm-up into something standing and constructive to learning the curriculum (at a moderate level to get warm) and move the 5-minute stretch to the end of class when the body is good and warmed up.

I believe variety is very important. If you keep every class as static as you list it could get stale rather quickly. I do not know your style and understand there are some things you cannot violate but oftentimes things can be combined to make a more efficient and comprehensive workout. Since you are working with truly green students and climate, your format should be very good to get off the ground, then when you have a core group with experience you can change things up.
Two specific questions: why 15-minutes in horse stance on one drill and 5-minutes to bow out?

 

[Flying Crane]

I think trying to assign a set number of minutes to each type of technique is too rigid and too scheduled. Beginners need to start understanding their foundation before they can understand how to deliver a quality technique. Learn to walk before trying to run. Don’t try to stick to a schedule.

When I teach complete beginners I begin with the stance work and understanding what it means to root, and how rooting is then used to drive technique. That process takes as long as it takes. Tibetan crane approaches this in a somewhat unique way, which I shared some videos with you a while back (@Monkey Turned Wolf ) so I start students with working through those exercises. If that is all we cover in the first lesson, so be it.

I hope that I am able to introduce a couple of punches that illustrate how they function on our foundation. That usually is possible, but I don’t force it if a student isn’t ready for it on day one. This is all done over an hour to an hour and a half. I might not introduce kicks until weeks or months later. First they need to develop a sound foundation.

To be honest, I start an experienced martial artist in the same way. Our approach in Tibetan crane is unique enough that there just isn’t any way around it. I’ve got a student who trained Choy Lay Fut when he was younger, and he picked up our method rather quickly. But we still needed to cover that ground before we could go farther.

Physical skills develop gradually and different people will progress at different rates. The mental side of this is likewise variable. Different people will grasp the concepts at their own rate, and their ability to develop the physical skills depends heavily on their understanding of it.

I understand you are working on opening a business, and I guess you are designing a teaching program? My advice is that you need a lot of patience to teach effectively and you cannot be invested in a schedule that you expect a student to meet. I would say leave the class structure pretty loose for the time being. As you see how your students progress, you can develop more focus for future class sessions

 

[hoshin1600]

5 minutes of this 10 minutes of that misses the underlying support structure. I first have to create a frame work for a class. In the past I have done, bow in, a 20 min warm up and stretch, 15 min of basics/ kihon then the rest of the class actual karate, bow out. The frame work is made up of the things that you do every single class. A repetitive frame work helps new students build confidence within a comfort zone that they can be familiar with and helps them integrate into a group if there is one.
That being said prior to putting a new student into a full class I have sometimes set up a new student package with 2 private lessons prior to the first group class. The aim is to get new students more comfortable. The feeling of being new can be intimidating and embarrassing. Private lessons would be the time to introduce terms and phrases if you use a foreign language, school rules and habits to be followed and being familiarity to the class frame work. This approach helps with a seamless interaction into a group and makes it easier for the instructor.
From the instructor or dojo owner perspective the number one goal is to build a good working relationship with the student. I have seen many schools that the class size was substantial and with the exception of a few favorite students the rest of the class is treated like a number. The teacher wouldn't even notice if the student quit or left halfway through a class.
I build a good working relationship with the students for retention and it just makes me enjoy classes more when I know everyone.
Building that relationship starts before the first class. There should be introductions and interviews before hand. If the student is a minor that relationship building needs to include the parents. Parents need to understand and commit to the expectations. I also like to interview the students to find out thier personal reasons and goals for taking classes. Once I know their goals I can taylor the lessons or at least point out areas of connection between the lesson and how it applies to their goals.
It should be noted the major reason students leave is because their needs are not being met. That could be fighting ability, competence in a skill, personal enjoyment, personal connections, ego or so many other things.

 

[windwalker099]

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?

Depends...

I usually start by asking: “What do you want to learn ?”

That helps separate those who are mainly interested in fighting from those who genuinely want to learn a method.

Some basics carry over between both — for the most part, they don’t.
Mindset and approach are different.


In training my first style, White Crane,

we had a guy walk in and ask Mike what he taught.

Mike gave him a brief history of the style. The young man asked,
"Do you teach meditation?"

Mike smiled and said,
"No. We only teach fighting here. If you want to learn meditation, go to a temple or a church."

He left.
Everyone there had a good laugh once he was gone.
The first lesson in our gym at the time was pretty rough...meant to weed people out not keep people in...

Made a mistake once
​

Master Park Chi Moon, Roger Haygood, Camp Casey Korea

In Korea, my Mantis teacher Mr Park asked me:
"What do you want to learn? I can teach you to fight, or I can teach you to be a teacher."

Already knowing how to fight from my White Crane training, I chose teacher. In hindsight, for me, a mistake.

I asked him the difference, he said:
"A fighter only has to know a few things. A teacher has to know many things."

Both paths equally hard — leading to very different outcomes.

As mentioned for commercial gyms, it really depends on the type of gym, focus and intent...
good luck

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

"A fighter only has to know a few things. A teacher has to know many things."

This is very true.

You can

- write a book with 80 techniques.
- make a video with 40 techniques.
- teach a workshop with 20 techniques.
- give public demo with 10 techniques.
- fight in the street with 5 techniques.

 

[Buka]

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?

I like to peak their interest first, talk to them in a somewhat upbeat way, ask them questions without giving them immediate answers. “What’s your strengths, what are you weaknesses? What physical activities have you done? Which one’s did you enjoy?
What do you know about Martial Arts? What do you know about the mechanics of the body?”

I might ask these questions while we move around warming up, might ask them while they’re sitting down. It depends on how many there are and what I know about them. It’s different teaching three than it is teaching fifteen, especially with beginners.

You have to read the room. Always.

I like to wow them with simple things they probably
never thought of. Like quickly going over the basics of stances. Front stance, side stance, a stance in between - but in NO great detail whatsoever.

Then ask them, “But what if you’re in a social setting or shopping or whatever, you can’t just pop into a Karate stance if you get bad vibes from someone. (I would then pop into a “hey, I’m a karate man stance” for humorous relief. )

Then I’d ask them “so how would you stand if someone nearby was making you uncomfortable, or making someone else uncomfortable, or causing a scene or whatever, how would you position yourself in relation to your surroundings, position your self to run away or to fight or try not to be noticed?”

I do this because I want them thinking of those things when they go home, rather than thinking about a stance they just touched on that they didn’t feel completely comfortable with. Yet.

 

[MadMartigan]

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?

Congratulations on getting ready to open your school. As someone who fairly recently (Jan 2020) did the same thing (starting with a couple students with no previous knowledge and no senior students for them to emulate), I remember the challenges. It is so much easier once you have some senior students that the new ones can follow. They also help normalize the environment (when to bow, any foreign terminology, etc).

I'm not sure what art you will be teaching, so I don't know what tone you plan to create in your classes. I assume there must be a fairly elaborate bowing ceremony for the bow out to take 5 minutes. Based on that, I might assume that you plan have a very serious atmosphere (rather than one aimed at kids or casual students).

If that is the case, then I mostly agree with your planned class format. When l took up Wing Chun, the 1st class was over an hour of standing in a square stance and repeating the same basic movements to learn forward energy and posture. It was a class structured deliberately to weed out those who were casual, lacked patience, or couldn't stand some pain. It was great training that I learned much from... but not marketable to more than a dedicated few. Not the type of class that draws a large crowd... and keeps even fewer long term.

I will join in what a couple others have mentioned:
- Unless you meant 'light, movement based stretches to help warm the muscles up', I would suggest moving the stretching component to the end... especially if it is hard static or contract/relax stretching. Throwing kicks and other fast/hard movements after hard stretching increases the risk of injury. Stretching to increase flexibility is always best done after the muscles are hot.

If the goal is to reach a broader clientele, perhaps shorten the 15 minutes of punching in horse stance and look for 1 'Wow!' move/technique to introduce in the first class (like a standing arm lock or basic throw). Something that builds excitement that they may want to tell their friends about and feel like they learned something cool.

 

[kyukpado]

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?

Specifically where absolutely no one has martial experience is a new one for me.

How to fall.

For brand-new students working in an art that has throws and large motor skill movement, especially if you happen to focus on self-defense, it's necessary. Lots of people have no plan at all for hitting the ground and stiffen up, hurting themselves. Going over, and actually practicing, falling techniques will get people more familiar to the sensation of being thrown and honestly benefit them in the long run regardless of their future in martial arts. People trip all the time.

As for class content, I think everyone above this post has pretty much covered everything. So long as the students warm up and stretch well, I agree with loosening up the minute-by-minute plans.

 

[ap Oweyn]

Congratulations! That's brilliant.

An hour is going to fly by. When I was teaching, I emphasised stretching on your own before class, so we had that time for practice. But I was teaching students who were coming from a taekwondo class, so they knew their stretching routine. With genuine new recruits, that may not be feasible.

I'd be tempted to keep a narrow focus at first. In both my FMA and (brief) fencing experience, much of our time on the front end was devoted to FOOTWORK. A system lives and dies on its footwork in my view. (Substitute "positioning" if you're thinking about grappling and perhaps add "stance" for different systems than mine.) Where to be and how to get there.

I know you're coming, at least partially, from an FMA background. The footwork is genius in those systems. And the presence of a weapon really drives home the importance of controlling angles, distance, timing, etc.

The key is to make learning the footwork fun when someone enters the school envisioning themselves spinning sticks around and so on. My first teachers in eskrima had the training sword they'd swing at us for footwork, things swinging from the ceiling for us to evade, and all sorts. Don't necessarily need all that infrastructure. But perhaps think about interesting ways to train and internalise the footwork.

If I'm remembering correctly, I taught a class where I tucked bandanas in the back of the belts for a bunch of students, and the goal was to snatch your opponent's bandana while keeping yours. So you had to use your footwork to get to your opponent's side and reach the bandana, while also zoning out of your opponent's reach and keeping yours.

I've also done footwork training by getting a padded stick and a boxing glove and (with control of course) gone after students with the stick, able to tap them with the boxing glove lest they forget there's a second weapon in play. Requires a lot of footwork to evade the one without walking straight into the other.

Footwork is crucial. Conveying it in a way that's engaging and helps people onboard the concepts involved, that's where your teaching chops will come in.

Just a thought. Now go enjoy yourself!


Stuart

 

[skribs]

I'm going to disagree with @hoshin1600 . If you spend too much time on any one thing, you start to hit a point where there's diminishing returns in how much most students are going to get out of the drill, but are going to lose focus, get bored, and feel there's not much to the class. In both my TKD and BJJ experience, it tends to work best if there's a quick flow to the class so folks don't feel stuck. This is more true in beginner classes and kids classes (and especially beginner kids classes).

My former TKD Master, his interval was 5-7 minutes on any one thing. Don't spend too long on it that folks start to get frustrated. If kids start losing focus, move on to the next thing. We can always return to something later in class, in a later class, or even in a later belt. White belts aren't going to learn 30 details of a perfect stance in one day. It was usually a good idea to move the direction of the drills as well. For example, drilling punches on spot in formation facing the front of the room. Then drilling kicks in lines where we're traveling from one side to the other. Enough of a change that even though we're on the same mat, it carries a different energy and revitalizes the class.

BJJ is the same way. Usually there's a 5-minute callisthenic warmup of jogging, shuffling, skipping, pushups, situps, etc. Then a 5-minute technical warmup with mobility drills such as shrimps, breakfalls, butt scoots. Then we may spend 5 minutes drilling a take-down. Then 5 minutes each on 3 different techniques that share a common theme (such as different submissions from closed guard). Then a positional game (pass guard if you're on top, sweep if you're on bottom), then positional roll (start in the position and go to submission) and then live roll (start from the feet, go to submission). Usually there's 2-3 rounds of live rolling at the end, but those are dynamic enough that they don't really drag the class.

There will be a few students that would prefer a slower, more detailed approach. Those students are going to be in the minority. If you want this to be a business, especially one that caters to kids and is built off the backs of white belts, you're probably going to want to make sure the class flows quick instead of getting bogged down in the details.