Transitioning to Head Instructor

[Buka]

Azulx....I don't know what to tell you. You're certainly in one heck of a fix. I salute you for your effort to keep the place alive so people can train. Can't really ask much more than that right now.

On the bright side - you probably won't find yourself in a more difficult situation years from now. So, see, things get easier!

I hope you keep us posted as to what transpires from here.

 

[Kickboxer101]

Thank you everyone for the advice. Let me give more details on the situation so things make a bit more sense. My club was basically shutdown because everyone quit. We went from 30 members to about 2 within a year. I reached out to many members that just all of sudden stopped showing up to see what happened. Basically they all left because of the way our instructor taught. He wanted to have a no contact TKD club, where belts were given as soon as students attended 16 classes. I had an issue with this but I never quit, but there were students that were getting offended by him just giving out belts. For example he gave a student a green belt after only 4 classes, because he didn't want her to quit. So I was very disappointed in how everything was handled. Also right before we went down to two students he humiliated a student and kicked him out the club because he didn't want to pay the full months dues for 2 classes, because he came at the end of the month. Also students began to tell that he didn't care anymore. he would begin to say thing like "I don't lesson plan, I don't know who's going to come class. " Everyone in our school is 18+ , there were many complaints taht he talked and treated his students as children. Are female students were frustrated because he would cut everything they had to do in half. Not all women want to be told you only 25 sit ups while the men do 50. At least not these days, people were just getting constantly offended and leaving. So I asked around what would it take for everyone to come back and train, and they said for me to be the Head Instructor. I agreed and now I have 5 students, as I am slowly reaching out to all the other students that have left. My istructor is no longer teaching because he no longer has students.



I do consider myself a placeholder . I plan on doing my best until there is a better opportunity for my students.



My students are white through Green belts. So they are all beginners. I'm not trying to change too much, but my students really want change, they don't want anything to do with no contact sparring. My instructor also didn't like forms so we on;y did them once a month, even then he made a speech about how we do them too much. The students want to do more forms. I'm just listening to what they want and I'm going from there.



This was a great read. We are a college club so people rotate in and out frequently. out of 30 students, only 3 made it to a year membership.



I have branched out to jiu-jitsu and have been taking it since June, but I am currently looking for another TKD place to train so I can continue taht practice.



I believe I am qualified to be a placeholder for at least a year until we find a better opportunity. If I find somewhere else to train then I can do more for the club.



This was great advice thank you very much

Well firstly your instructors a dick.

Second and I really hope not to offend you here because you seem like a nice guy who's passionate about what he does. But your club was a McDojo. He was giving out belts for attending lessons. That's not right and I hate to say this but you are part of that he gave you your black belt because you didn't quit. I'm not saying you're not good because you do fight well but let's be honest you were given black far to quick and even though your intentions are good it's okay now you're just training with people you know but what about when you get new beginners. I mean you have posted on here asking about how to do a basic block and what the applications are. Now I know a black belt doesn't know everything but well it's not good when a black doesn't even know the application of a block and this is not your fault it's your instructors. This is living proof of why belts should not just be handed out. I think maybe for now you should just have a group of your friends who train and you rent the space but don't open it to the public because simply you're not ready to run a school by yourself, I know in some styles you can't run your own place until you're a 3rd dan. I don't know if this is the case for taekwondo but I think the best thing for you to do is look around online in your area. You've been to tournaments so go on facebook get in touch with a few local instructors and see if they'd be interested in taking over or if not they may me able to recommend someone else. There's plenty of guys who'll be retired from teaching but might be willing to help you guys out.

Do you really honestly believe you can teach in an effective way. I mean you say you only do forms once a month so basically in class you've done forms 24 times. You probably don't understand how to do the form yourself let alone teach the form. It's not your fault but that's just the way it is. Forms should be practiced at least once a week in class. Forms are very complicated and precise and if you don't know what your doing it'll be impossible to teach

That's the best I can recommend. If you take over it'll just keep going like this. It's a sucky situation which is no ones fault but your instructors.

Best of luck and I do hope I haven't offended you that is no intention of mine at all.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

I appreciate what you are doing, and having gone through something similar with my fencing club in college, I can promise you that it will be incredibly frustrating. The most important thing to do is find a new instructor, and introduce him to the other students. If they like him, request that he be the head instructor, or at the very least teach once a week. If they don't like him, but you are learning, learn from him separately, and teach them what they want, but don't go too advanced. The basics are something you (and they) can always improve on, and hopefully you will be able to polish their basics as well.

 

[JP3]

I've had to do this before, myself. As several folks have said above, try not to change anything to do with actual "class" at all for a while, even if you don't like it. Your people are used to it and they're coming for that type of thing, so leave it the same. After a few months, if you feel led to slightly alter something to do with the way class operates, try a small change first to do a climate check on your people. Perhaps even ask they, the rest of the student body, if they want to see anything changed.

Also, definitely find someone else for you to personally train under so you can continue to grow, both in skill and experience, even if it requires a change in style, if not art. There's lots of way to do, and teach, TKD out there and all seem to have merit, so don't feel bad about reaching out to another organization, style, or association once things level out for you.

 

[Headhunter]

I'm going to sound like a miserable old bastard here but I'm sorry you're no where near ready to run a school. 2 years is nothing absolutely no time at all in martial arts. Even 2 years of pure teaching e.g assisting your instructor with kids classes isn't enough.

Think of it this way. After 2 years at school do you reckon you can be a school teacher? Of course not its the same with martial arts. I'm very sorry you're in this situation and your instructor failed you by giving you your black belt far to early. I don't know about taekwondo belt ranks but with that time you shouldn't even be a brown belt (or the equivalent) hell I've known people who take over 2 years to go from brown to black let alone the whole belt system (took me 15 years but I don't a long time out)

You probably don't want to hear this but if you do this you'll be failing your students just like he failed you and your students will fail their students and the cycle will continue. That's how the belt factory culture goes.

My advice let your school die you and your training buddies meet up in someone's back garden and continue to train on your own or find a new school to train at but if you open your place to the public and have little kids coming in wanting to learn you'll be conning them even if you don't mean to be. Your experience isn't enough. Now I'm sure you're a decent enough practitioner but the best student doesn't always make the best teacher

 

[Flatfish]

This whole response is based on your school being a university club. I hope I got that right, if not, ignore.

Not sure if this is a possibility at all or not. At the college I teach at, we have several Martial Arts clubs. Aikido, Trad TKD (i.e. Chang hon forms), Cuong Nhu, BJJ. All of them are affiliated with a dojo outside of the University. University students receive a discount if they want to supplement their training on campus (free) with training outside of the school (paid). This way, the dojo owner still makes some money but also contributes to the University community (often times senior students seem to teach the classes on campus). Unfortunately I cannot tell you any specifics about these arrangements but if there is another TKD school around you that teaches the Chang Hon forms, maybe they could be approached to see if they are interested.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Well firstly your instructors a dick.

Second and I really hope not to offend you here because you seem like a nice guy who's passionate about what he does. But your club was a McDojo. He was giving out belts for attending lessons. That's not right and I hate to say this but you are part of that he gave you your black belt because you didn't quit. I'm not saying you're not good because you do fight well but let's be honest you were given black far to quick and even though your intentions are good it's okay now you're just training with people you know but what about when you get new beginners. I mean you have posted on here asking about how to do a basic block and what the applications are. Now I know a black belt doesn't know everything but well it's not good when a black doesn't even know the application of a block and this is not your fault it's your instructors. This is living proof of why belts should not just be handed out. I think maybe for now you should just have a group of your friends who train and you rent the space but don't open it to the public because simply you're not ready to run a school by yourself, I know in some styles you can't run your own place until you're a 3rd dan. I don't know if this is the case for taekwondo but I think the best thing for you to do is look around online in your area. You've been to tournaments so go on facebook get in touch with a few local instructors and see if they'd be interested in taking over or if not they may me able to recommend someone else. There's plenty of guys who'll be retired from teaching but might be willing to help you guys out.

Do you really honestly believe you can teach in an effective way. I mean you say you only do forms once a month so basically in class you've done forms 24 times. You probably don't understand how to do the form yourself let alone teach the form. It's not your fault but that's just the way it is. Forms should be practiced at least once a week in class. Forms are very complicated and precise and if you don't know what your doing it'll be impossible to teach

That's the best I can recommend. If you take over it'll just keep going like this. It's a sucky situation which is no ones fault but your instructors.

Best of luck and I do hope I haven't offended you that is no intention of mine at all.

If he leads it as a study group, he can be effective. I can prep a yellow belt in NGA to lead a study group - I'd just have them doing a very limited curriculum, and they'd need an instructor to stop by from time to time to refresh the curriculum and maybe add some new stuff. Give me someone with a couple of years of experience, and I can do much better with that same approach.

It's not optimal, but it can be effective. Better than not training, and if everyone involved is highly committed it can be good.

 

[thanson02]

This was a great read. We are a college club so people rotate in and out frequently. out of 30 students, only 3 made it to a year membership.

.......................
I believe I am qualified to be a placeholder for at least a year until we find a better opportunity. If I find somewhere else to train then I can do more for the club.

.............

This was great advice thank you very much

All right. That pretty much answered my questions. You getting a lot of really good advice on how to handle the situation. I'm going to throw out these additional points:

1. I don't think you ever clarified if you yourself are a college student or not. If you are college student, then you're basically limited by how much time you have until you graduate. Do the best you can with what you have for time.

2. I agree with everybody else, don't do what your last instructor did. To drop from 30 students to 3 is quite impressive. And it sounds like people wanted more application practice than basic material performance practice. Give them the application that they want. They will be better off for it anyways.

3. Are you the only black belt in the club? If you are then pick some of the upper ranks students to help you out with officer positions. I'm sure the university that your at has specific requirements that you need to fill in.

4. Since it is a college club and you need to make sure you take care of your own training, absolutely find another Taekwondo School to train at. I also agree with having the instructors at the Taekwondo school come in for Seminars. The club that I ran had seminars once a semester. The University was more than willing to help pay for it with allocated funds, assuming your treasure has put in the proper request when the university requires it.

5. No matter how long you're going to be there, look for your replacement. Eventually you are going to move on and you want to make sure that the club is handed on to somebody who is qualified and is passionate about being an instructor. You can coordinate with whatever local school that you're working with in order to help make the best choice.

6. My last point is probably going to rub some people the wrong way but don't let people tell you that you're not qualified to be the instructor just because you have 2 years of experience. Above all things, especially if you're getting support from an outside Academy, your students need somebody who is motivated to help improve their skill sets and is willing to treat them the right way while doing it. The last thing that an instructor needs are people telling them that they're not good enough especially if they've been thrown into the situation. If you choose to close the club down because it seems like the best option then by all means do that, but make the decision on your terms.

Eventually your students will graduate and move on. You want to make sure that you give them quality skill sets that they can take to whatever Dojang they end up training at once they're done with college, but above all things you want to make sure that these guys have a great experience. If you can get yourself in a spot where these people after they leave will end up looking back and make it clear that their involvement in your club is one of the fondest memories they had while they were in college, then you know you did your job.

Again, whatever you decide to do, good luck and make sure you have a ton of fun while doing it. [emoji16]



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[Azulx]

Something else you might do is look for guest instructors. If you have any friends/acquaintances in the area who are qualified, you could have one of them come in to teach a specific concept that would be useful to your students. They need not even be in the same art/style to do this, so long as you are prepared to help the students translate that concept to what they do.

I have reached out to several instructors 2 I have so far a jiujitsu instructor with 16 years experience and a boxing/kung fu instructor with at least 5 years experience. They have been my guest instructors for a couple of classes so far. So I like this advice.

I think quite the same. Be honest and clear about your background to new students, so they know what to expect (will tolerate some 'inaccuracies', for example) and will trust you. But find a school for yourself in parallel. Find friends (senior instructors...) in the TKD niche... Joining an organisation?

I am saying that because perhaps I would prefer (to continue with) you, even having short experience, than stop training or driving more somewhere else or changing style... So keep going. It is a good start for you. And if you retain enough students (and they will be asking for more/better each day), that's all right. It means they are happy, too.

PS: I know a national head instructor of a well-known discipline that started with as much experience as you. Is teaching is questionable (by me), but he has a lot o students. You can be a Head instructor, too. Just be honest, don't award yourself 3dan and 20 years experience , but work for that.

Absolutely, I will always be honest about my knowledge and experience with my students, and they know that. Big issue with my previous instructor was that he self-promoted himself, also he couldn't say I don't know. So instead he would make up an answer and the students could tell this and didn't like it.

At a minimum...

You need to find someone else to train under yourself; you simply lack knowledge. You also need someone who can teach you how to run a school. (Can your original instructor stay on in an emeritus position, guiding you and perhaps continuing to train a few senior students?)

If you can find someone to train under, and who can give you the necessary guidance in running your school, you've got a chance. But it's an uphill battle; you're basically an apprentice, maybe journeyman yourself, but you're trying to take on a master level job. You'll be running to stay a few steps ahead of your students for a long time...

ETA:
I've seen the OP's reply. His original instructor is pretty clearly not available...

You're in a tough situation. There are legal & liability concerns (do you have insurance?), especially if you increase the contact thereby increasing the risk of injury. There are practical details about running a club, and you really need some guidance on them. And you don't really know how to teach, either...

I like the idea of treating it as a training group rather than a "true" school, at least for a while. That'll allow you to reduce some of the pressure of being "head instructor" since you'll become "training leader", kind of first among equals instead.

Meanwhile, find yourself another teacher, who will teach you how to teach and how to run a club. Because you really just plain need to learn more.

I understand, I was in charge of doing all the ordering and recruiting for the school. I also helped keep the club financially stable. That is my only experience with running it.

I have seen some of your videos before and you guys were doing contact sparring. What happened to make him change his mind?

Anyway if he left and was this way then that is the best thing to happen because there is no way you can teach a martial art with zero contact. Is this guy still going to making money from this place? Does this mean you have to pay the rent of the building and all utilities now?

Did you basically inheritate a business or is it more like a space that is rented out for a few hours?

The level of contact in the videos was what was frustrating the students, it was virtually none. We call it no contact. He will no longer make money of the place and we don't pay rent or utilities. I am basically just taking over as the instructor and 5 students who want to continue training.

Well firstly your instructors a dick.

Second and I really hope not to offend you here because you seem like a nice guy who's passionate about what he does. But your club was a McDojo. He was giving out belts for attending lessons. That's not right and I hate to say this but you are part of that he gave you your black belt because you didn't quit. I'm not saying you're not good because you do fight well but let's be honest you were given black far to quick and even though your intentions are good it's okay now you're just training with people you know but what about when you get new beginners. I mean you have posted on here asking about how to do a basic block and what the applications are. Now I know a black belt doesn't know everything but well it's not good when a black doesn't even know the application of a block and this is not your fault it's your instructors. This is living proof of why belts should not just be handed out. I think maybe for now you should just have a group of your friends who train and you rent the space but don't open it to the public because simply you're not ready to run a school by yourself, I know in some styles you can't run your own place until you're a 3rd dan. I don't know if this is the case for taekwondo but I think the best thing for you to do is look around online in your area. You've been to tournaments so go on facebook get in touch with a few local instructors and see if they'd be interested in taking over or if not they may me able to recommend someone else. There's plenty of guys who'll be retired from teaching but might be willing to help you guys out.

Do you really honestly believe you can teach in an effective way. I mean you say you only do forms once a month so basically in class you've done forms 24 times. You probably don't understand how to do the form yourself let alone teach the form. It's not your fault but that's just the way it is. Forms should be practiced at least once a week in class. Forms are very complicated and precise and if you don't know what your doing it'll be impossible to teach

That's the best I can recommend. If you take over it'll just keep going like this. It's a sucky situation which is no ones fault but your instructors.

Best of luck and I do hope I haven't offended you that is no intention of mine at all.

Believe me , I was uncomfortable receiving my first dan so soon. But I did and that's that. I think there is a misconception with what I was doing here. I was looking for additional applications for the basic blocks to widen my perspective on what could be done with them. Not how to actually do the block. I think I can teach effectively. While I was training I would train for 5 hours a week. And I know this isn't a lot, but that was formal training that doesn't include all the time I would practice on my own. Plus my mindset if that of a white belt I will always be a student and I will be constantly be making efforts to learn new things. I think I can give the students decent instruction.

 

[JowGaWolf]

I was looking for additional applications for the basic blocks to widen my perspective on what could be done with them.

This is the best mindset to have as a teacher. The understanding that there is always more to what is shown or learned in class. Some people only learn what is taught and never seek knowledge beyond that. The fact that you try to gain a deeper understanding of things like that will be valuable to you in the years to come.