Teaching the class already?! Ah crumbs..

[swiftpete]

Well I was only graded to shodan the other week and my black belt is still shiny and new, practically still got the label on. Just found out my instructor can't make the class tonight which is a once in a blue moon event. Also, due to work commitments etc the other BB's can't make it. So guess who's teaching the class tonight..?!

How am I going to fill 2 hrs? Its my first time teaching everyone properly, been thrown in the deep end a bit but got to just go for it I guess. Wish me luck! Feel a bit nervous now. In fact pretty nervous.
Right, off to class, hopefully it'll go well and I won't end up being KO'd by a white belt or something else humiliating!

 

[Grenadier]

Want some good news?

You don't need any special help.

You already have a good command of the fundamentals (since you have your shodan), and there's no reason why you can't teach the class, assuming that you have a reasonable knowledge of helping others with the material.

There are many things you can do, such as conduct a class on the review of the basic fundamentals, and have the whole class just do a boatload of them. This way, you'll learn how to count the series, project your voice, etc. It will also help you gain an even better understanding of those fundamentals (remember, you have a good command, and not a mastery of such things).

You can take the whole group through a comprehensive kata review session. Start out with the simplest form, and have the whole class do it, and then do the other forms, in order of difficulty, and sitting down various students along the way.

You can do kumite drills.

Most importantly, though, you can take this time to think about what your sensei would do, and try to emulate that plan, but with some of your own seasonings. Your sensei would want you to be yourself to the extent allowable, while still keeping the system as the strongest focus.

As a final word of encouragement: don't be afraid to teach the advanced students. The advanced students are there because they know what is expected of them, and for all practical purposes, anyone who can count to ten and project his voice can "teach" a class of advanced students, and look very good at doing it. The real challenge is teaching white belts, which is more of a measure of one's patience and perserverence. If you think you can teach white belts, then you can certainly teach the more advanced ones (or, more precisely, help them teach themselves).

 

[Kacey]

Grenadier has some very sound advice, so I'm not going to repeat it - but I will add a couple of things.

- break the class into groups (if space allows) and involve the senior students in helping you teach; give them each a rank and tell them what to work on.

- ask students what they

• need help with
• want to work on
• avoid doing except when forced
• to create an exercise that has a specific purpose - which you can chooose, or let them choose

and then use those ideas/exercises to teach class

- depending on the size of the class, either as a whole class or in groups, with a senior in each one, have students critique other students' forms and technique. Now, this has to be set up carefully, but I've found it to be incredibly helpful with my own students - they must give one piece of positive feedback, and one piece of constructive criticism, along with the way to improve the item - for example, your timing is very good; however, your form would look better if you made sure all your stances were consistently the same length. They can't just say "your stances are bad". Using this format, juniors can critique seniors just as well as seniors critique juniors - my juniors often see things the seniors miss, especially when watching forms they don't know - because they focus in on stances, preparatory motions, balance, and other aspects that don't rely on knowing what the other person is doing.

And most of all - have fun! Teaching is a great experience.

 

[MJS]

Easier said than done, but relax! I think its safe to say that everyone was a bit nervous, wondering what to do, etc., when they first started teaching.

Some suggestions:

1) Bag work. Have everyone partner up with a focus mitt and kicking bag. Run through some kicks and punches.

2) Kata practice. Have everyone go off on their own, and work on all of their katas, really breaking them down, so they have a good udnerstanding of the moves.

3) Self Defense. This can be done a number of ways.

4) Sparring drills.

Something that I've done in the past, was to have a lesson plan written out. Devoting a set amount of time to each activity will make those 2 hrs. fly by!

Good luck, don't worry about anything, and let us know how it went!!:ultracool

Mike

 

[terryl965]

Everybody has given you exactly want you need, so relax and have fun.

 

[SFC JeffJ]

Congrats on getting your Shodan!

Teaching is a wonderful experience. Not too long ago I never thought I'd be saying that. It can be a wonderful thing to see a student "get" something for the first time. Also, teaching makes you break down techniques in a way you aren't used to thus giving you an even better understanding of them.

Relax and you'll do fine.

Jeff

 

[Shodan]

Welcome to the black belt club!!

Here's a link to a cool site with lots of drills for both adults and kids on it.....maybe you can use some sometime....cuz you WILL be teaching more now....you know that, right?!!

http://www.4kicks.com/Default.aspx?tabid=1


You'll do fine......don't sweat it!! Oh....but do tell us how it went!!

Tara

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Relax, enjoy and have some fun. Good luck.

 

[searcher]

Write out an outline for your class. I did this when I first started teachning and it helped a ton. After a few classes you will get a better understanding of what it is going to take to fill out that time.

 

[still learning]

Hello, Congratutions on the promotion to Black Belt. Teaching is a normal part of being a Black belt.

The first time is always the hardest. Do what you guys always do in class, you can add what you feel they to work more on.

Enjoy the moment of teaching, since this will be one the few times the other Instuctors are not around.

Tonight..your the "MAN" to lead and follow...enjoy yourself...this new beginning of your training and learning .........Aloha

 

[exile]

You've gotten excellent advice already. One more thing to remember: when you start to teach something is when you really begin to understand it.

I've been teaching university for more than thirty years. I came out of graduate school with a lot of knowledge and skills. But I didn't really begin to understand the structure of my field until I had to teach it---to figure out what was fundamental, what was built on top of those fundamentals and so on. The chance to teach is really the last, best, and longest-lasting phase of your own education---it's great that you have the chance now to get started on that!

And yes, please let us know how it goes.

 

[ArmorOfGod]

Just remember: if you are unsure of something, pretend you know what you are doing. Pretending to know and knowing look exactly the same.
;-)

AoG

 

[zDom]

Teaching is a wonderful experience. ... Also, teaching makes you break down techniques in a way you aren't used to thus giving you an even better understanding of them.

Yep. Teaching others has got to be one of the BEST ways to learn stuff.

Great advice already given.

To add to/emphasize to what has already been posted above, I advise:

a) jot down what you want to do, along with how long you want to do it.

b) keep them busy -- don't give long explanations or short lectures, just tell them what to do and then get busy doing it

You many know this already, but make sure you warm them up properly. Take them through your favorite warmup so everybody has sweat beaded up on their foreheads.

Some stretching should follow.

Generally, I think it is best to then follow with basic techniques, followed by kata/poomsea, one-step sparring, and then free-fighting type sparring.

A guided cool down exercise/stretching can also be a nice way to end class.

These are just suggestions, by the way.

Think about what your favorite drills were coming up through the ranks, which you thought were most productive, most helpful.

And SMILE Have FUN! If you are smiling and having fun (while also working hard), then chances are, so will the students.

Anyway: congrats and good luck!

 

[crushing]

Don't forget to let us know how teaching class went. Thanks.

 

[swiftpete]

Thanks for the ideas and responses, I went to class immediately after posting so didn't get the chance to read any before I had to start but thankfully it went well!
As it happens my mate could make the class, he's also recently been graded so I had someone to demonstrate on properly without worrying about them getting hurt.
I was quite surprised to be honest how easy it was and I enjoyed it too. I started off with basic movements to get everyone warmed up, essentially moving out of the way of attacks and then moved on to techniques utilising the movements I'd shown. Felt a tad nervous at the start but soon had to forget about that as I had to start demoing.
I remembered what my instructor has said before, to show a technique or principle working properly first, then explain it. It seems to make sense to me that if the attacker doesn't know whats about to happen but just comes at you pretty hard and gets taken down/pinned/chinned etc it generally shows that the technique works, so i basically showed it at full speed first with a commited attack, then told them what I'd done and showed it slowly. Then had a few fast ones thrown at me to demo it a bit for them and quite surprised myself by not having any problems. I think I didn't really have time to worry about what was going on as I just had to get on with it.

Then just went round everyone, got them all training and basically helped them out, had them do some of the techs on me so i could feel if they were doing them properly and corrected them etc. Seeing peoples faces light up as they finally grasped how to do something that they've not been able to do before was pretty cool. Its taken me years to really grasp the idea that its movement thats all important and now I can see other people not moving properly, I can understand what my instructor was saying all those times.

There are a couple of lads there that have only started recently and it reminded me of when I'd started and I used to see the instructor do his thing and see someone end up on the floor, usually contorted into an uncomfortable position, in some pain. Well every time I'd take someone down and pin them or similar I could see their faces light up, which was exactly what I used to do when I saw something that I thought was cool happen!

I never realised what a difference the black belt made before, it's entirely for your own head and basically just gives you the confidence that your techniques are going to work. I think sometimes before when I used to stress or think about stuff too much it hindered me, I had confidence in what I was doing the other night and it made everything go loads better. Next lesson I've got the instructor evaluating my teaching so thats something to get nervous about again, but I'm actually quite looking forward to it in a way!

 

[MJS]

Awesome!!:ultracool Glad to hear that everything went well! Sounds like everyone had a fantastic time!

Mike

 

[exile]

See? Pretty soon you'll be wanting to take over the class even when your instructor is there! :wink1:

It's great that it went so well, but not surprising, really---a lot of people have good instructional intuitions inside them that they don't realize they have. Put that together with the technical capability that got you to dan rank and, well, there you go!

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Glad that everything went well for you!

 

[zDom]

Glad to hear it all worked out well

(Kinda figured it would )