Teaching as a kid

[1kickKO]

Exactly, it will help you out with your movements, and help you understand what you have been doing all along more in depth. Just have fun with it.

[krzychicano]

That is a great way to learn and when you get older will help you with opening a school if that is ever your goal.

[greenbelt_girl15]

we've had the same thing happen in our dojo several times when one of our instrucers have been teaching us a kata and a student qustions them on a point that was taught differently by another instructer.The usual way this is handled is sempai says, You may be right,but for now lets do it my way untill we can check the instuction maual.This seems to work well.

 

Hope this helps you

[koryu]

Not to sound repetetive... but... teaching is the best way to learn.

 

Teaching a kata that you have a fairly good understanding of, allows you to break down and study individual movements and allows you to improve yourself. You may not know that you perform a move a certain way, until you see another student copy your move exactly. Only this way, can you identify that problem and correct it in your own kata. It will also help you to understand the applications behind the kata, because as you're teaching and correcting, you are looking at and identifying individual moves within the kata. This is an excellent training tool, and you should feel honored that your Sensei has enough faith in you, to teach a class. Also, students come up with wonderful questions that you may not know the answer to. This just allows you to expand your knowledge by asking the question to your Sensei and you will find yourself gaining more knowledge in that aspect as well. I started teaching when I was 14 and I remember how nerve wrecking that was during my first few classes. Believe me, it just gets easier. As far as respect, your students should already have a certain amount of respect for you, although you must always remember that respect must be earned and then maintained and your integrity, behavior, and habits both within and outside of the school reflect upon you. You must remember that you are a constant role model for your students and always live an ethical and moral life. 15 is a difficult age to think about being a constant role model for others, but doing this now will put you several steps ahead of everyone else throughout your entire life. If you stick with this, you will learn more during your difficult teenage years than most people know in their thirties. I admire you for pursuing teaching, and wish you all the best. One last thing. The more humble you are, the more knowledge you will gain and the better person you will be. You could be a 8th degree black belt, and, if you allow it, I guarantee you could learn something from a white belt. Just something to think about.

[Kempohands]

One last thing. The more humble you are, the more knowledge you will gain and the better person you will be. You could be a 8th degree black belt, and, if you allow it, I guarantee you could learn something from a white belt. Just something to think about.

 

I completely agree with that statement. I have personally learned quite a bit from the students I have taught, especially thinking about how to answer their questions.

[Kieran-Lilith]

Thank you for the advice. I can't say I teach much, but enough to know it's not as easy as Sensei makes it look. And as long as the brown belt doesn't start yelling at me again, I can manage it.

[pineapple]

Your Sensei has a reason for asking you to teach so just do what he tells you to do and do your best. Be open to criticism but don't let it get you down because critism will always be present no matter how long that you train or what rank you acquire.

[parkerlineage]

I am 16 years old, and have been teaching since I recieved my Junior Black Belt at age 13.

Most of my statements will probably have already been stated, but nih.

1.) You are teaching because you are the best option. If your Sensei, Sifu, Master, whatever you call him/her asks you to teach, it is because he believes you are better than any other available student to lead out.

2.) Learn from your mistakes. If a student says, "You're wrong," nod and say, "I'll ask Master ____ when we're done," then carry on. If you seriously have doubts about whether or not you were correct, ask, then humbly tell the people you instructed wrong that you got confused. Teach them the right way, and move on without looking back. However, if a lower rank tells you you're wrong, and you know you're not - and this may only work because of my personality - ask them what color belt they are. Then ask them what color belt you are. Leave it at that, and move on without arguing.

3.) Ignore the age gap. Being thirteen, or in your case, fifteen, years old and teaching an adult class is scary. Some of the people are probably old enough to be your parents - in my case, one of them was. However, remember that martial arts is like the military. Your belt outranks theirs - you are their captain, and they should look up to you and respect you. If you have a problem, flex your authority. Break through the wall and order them to do pushups, or whatever your punishment in your dojo is. If the problem continues, speak to your Master about it - there won't be a problem again.

4.) Ignore that stupid brown belt guy. In fact, talk to your Master about him, too, if the problem continues and your Master is a reasonable guy. My pet peeve in karate is when higher-ranking students abuse their power over lower ranking students. He obviously thinks he has to prove himself - don't let him.

5.) Keep going. For the first year or so, it was incredibly hard for me. After a while, it became easier. As you advance in rank and experience, you will become more confident and start having more fun while you instruct. Just let it flow...be the (insert crazy Japanese name you guys have for your kata)...

Hope that helps;

Parkerlineage

[lilsempai]

I was fourteen when I started teaching - the first kata I taught was to people of the same grade as me (yellow, 8th kyu). I had one child point out that I was the same grade as them. Despite him (he's a general troublemaker) I was respected by the rest of the group because I knew more than they did.

Remember that your Sensei knows what she/he is doing and that if you weren't capable of teaching, you wouldn't be

[JusticeZero]

First: You will be asked to teach. This can be for many reasons, but it will happen. Get used to it.

Second: You might want to go to your instructor after class and ask him how you can improve your teaching skills. Recount what happenned and where you were uncertain and ask what you can do to improve next time. Teaching is a skill too.

Third: If someone wants to do it differently, remember: There may be many ways to do a technique. Some of them are even correct. But they are in class to learn how to move like a specific ideal of technique, not to jazz around with some funky variant they learned from some guy who was doing something different. There are a lot of movements in other lineages of my art that to a novice look like they would snap right in - but in reality, they would force us to break our form and be vulnerable to do an isolated movement that doesn't fit with our strategies, then have to snap ourself back into the movements we are used to. For THEM it works fine. Their movements are all made that way, they build their game out of coming out of things in certain directions and such. "..But Mestre Soandso does that movement THIS way.." - fine, then go train with Mestre Soandso. We're here to learn how to move like the head of -our- lineage, not like Mestre Soandso.