Teaching Seminars

[BrandonH45]

I’m looking to start teaching seminars and would love some advice from those of you who have experience organizing or hosting guest instructors.
When you bring an instructor in for a seminar at your school or look at attending a seminar, what are you looking for?

• Credentials?
• Real-world application?
• Teaching style or energy?
• Specialty topics?
• Fit with your student base?
• New skills for you and your students to apply?
• Access to an organization and future revenue?
• Other not listed?

I want to make sure I’m offering the most value possible, so I’d really appreciate your insights.

What matters most to you when either choosing a guest instructor to come to your gym, or for you as a student to attend a seminar with that guest instructor? Drop your thoughts in the comments—thanks in advance!

 

[Tony Dismukes]

I've attended probably around 60-100 seminars over the years and helped teach a couple. At this point when I attend a seminar I'm looking for experiences or information that

1. I can retain and make use of in my ongoing training and
2. That I probably wouldn't have gotten in my regular classes

At this point I'm less interested in new techniques and more interested in tips to make the techniques I know work more reliably and efficiently.

As a side benefit, I enjoy when seminars are attended by people from multiple schools, so I get a chance to meet new people and have training partners who aren't part of my usual group.

 

[isshinryuronin]

At this point I'm less interested in new techniques and more interested in tips to make the techniques I know work more reliably and efficiently.

IMO this is the bigger and more interesting challenge, leading to deeper discoveries.

 

[skribs]

I have had the pleasure of attending several seminars at my BJJ gym, including one Muay Thai seminar. Those seminars were specifically focused on sporting techniques and applications within the art/sport that the instructor is covering. These were all folks that my Professor personally knows and brought in, who have outstanding credentials to back up the cost of the class.

I think it's less important what type of topic you cover (i.e. sporting technique vs real-world application), but more important that you brand the seminar correctly and have a coherent theme throughout the seminar.

For example, if you are teaching real-world application, then you should have something that connects the different scenarios you're covering together. Maybe it's the same approach to different attacks, or it's a sequence of if-then responses for a specific scenario. What it shouldn't be is a bunch of random attack and responses that have nothing to do with each other except that they exist in the same seminar.

The same would go if you're focusing on the sport or formal techniques of a specific martial art. The good BJJ seminars I've been in have had a theme, for example several techniques from a specific position, or an attack sequence from start to finish. I've gotten less out of BJJ seminars that are just a bunch of random techniques from random positions with no connective tissue.

 

[drop bear]

I like the stuff I would do. But done better.

But that is also very specific to me.