Becoming an instructor

[Akaratechick]

Passion-definitely, An unmotivated teacher will have you rolling your eyes and looking at your watch more than anything. If you are excited about teaching, your students will show you how excited they are. Skill is important too, age maybe not so important. Before I achieved Black Belt I went to a class where a 17yr old taught most of the time. I'm 42 and I had no problem taking lessons from him, guess it just depends on the person.

[Ottman]

Great points in this thread, but what about leadership ability? communication ability? organization ability? I mean are we talking just an instructor who teaches at a school, or an instructor that owns and runs the school as well? These would be 2 completely different styles IMO. (and then is the instructor creating his/her own curriculum, etc. etc.)

I would argue that good leadership is the most important skill you'd need to teach. This includes things like passion, and communication, and organization.

You have to do more than just show the technique well, as I'm sure we all know, you have to get your students to think and then to know that they can do the technique just as good as you can (with practice) and to understand why the technique is performed in the way it is. You also have to command the attention of a group of different people, and keep the class moving, not spending too much time on individual students. You also have to manage any assistant instructors and make sure that they are teaching the techniques as they should be and to the right students at the right times. Lot of time management, people management, and organizational skills here that may have nothing to do with MA.

So age (to me) really has little to do with it, although there are certain ages, like teenagers, who might not have the experience to be full instructors, but I could see a twenty something with 10 + years of training, and a few years of assistant instructing, and instructing under his belt doing a good job running his own school, if s/he's a good leader, and a good organizer.

As others have commented, skill never ensures that someone is a good teacher. You don't have to be good to teach someone else how to be good, as long as you know the basic fundamentals and can communicate them effectively.

[bushido_man96]

Those are all great points, Ottman. Great post!!

[Shotokan-kez]

This is a good one, i did chose skill but i think both are a major factor. I'm not sure what the requirements are for us to be able to run our own dojo, but one thing i know for sure is that i wouldn't want to be taught by an 18 year old kid that just got his BB. Sometimes this happens in our dojo, teaching the beginners ect but that is completely different to owning and running your own club and teaching the class every single night. I agree with a point Brian made before about having the 'ability' to teach. My sensei is 60 years old and in training for his 6th dan and i have nothing but total respect for him he is awesome. But once i was in a club that was being taught by a 20 year old 2nd dan and the atmosphere was totally different.

I'm not saying the younger guy wasn't a good sesnei i'm saying that he was more laid back and it often felt like a social gathering.

[DWx]

One thing I've always found with older teachers, is that they are more likely to have a sort of total discipline in their class while younger teachers tend to go for the relaxed atmosphere that Kez described... Not sure which I prefer to be honest. Would depend on what kinda mood I was in and what I wanted to be taught.

[DWx]

You make some good points Ottoman, I would definately say that if someone cannot hold my attention and be able to organise/structure a class then they are a poor teacher.

[bushido_man96]

One thing I've always found with older teachers, is that they are more likely to have a sort of total discipline in their class while younger teachers tend to go for the relaxed atmosphere that Kez described... Not sure which I prefer to be honest. Would depend on what kinda mood I was in and what I wanted to be taught.

I think that a little blend of both would be the best. It is good to have the discipline, and also good to know that the instructor is someone you could approach and be friendly with for something. Say, like, watching a football game, or something.

[KarateEd]

I chose "other" because I think an instructor first needs to be good at teaching, because, like others have said, skill alone doesn't mean that one can instruct others and being older doesn't mean that one is mature. Furthermore, I think that teaching is aided if one has strong leadership skills.

Ed

[Shotokan-kez]

I agree Brian! Thats the thing with my sensei he may be 60 and very strict, he has also trained under some awesome masters, he is good to approach and gives off some sound advice, he can also have a giggle too at us girls when we are trying to put these lock techniques on we sometimes have to do. I like that but sometimes he can be scary too, which i also like (in a strange way) because i know i'm going to get a good work-out done and there will be no messing around from the kids.

[wildfire]

It takes a special kind of person to be a good teacher at anything. Martial Arts, or english Literature. Both of these teachers have similar qualities. And in both I'd say experince is very important. An English teacher that doesn't write makes little sense to me, as does a Martial Arts instructor without real world experince. I know. That is frightening to say. It almost sounds like I'm saying if you want to be an instructor go pick a few fights. But not quite. Having had to use your skills does help you help others cope with the aftermath though.

But on the other side of that is a saying I heard, that a martial arts instructor doesn't train students. A student trains himself. A martial arts instructor corrects mistakes and presents new knowledge.

But if I had to pick only one most important factor I'd say Ethics is the most important thing. You must be a profoundly moral person to teach martial arts. You are role model not just a walking martial dictionary. If your students are dishonorable it reflects directly on the teacher. You must lead by example.

Lots of people are good at martial arts but not all are set out to be teachers. In some places and schools, instructor qualification is the ultimate goal. This should not be. Instructor qualification should be a bonus pursuit of those with the ethics and teaching skills capable of the position. it's very rewarding to open your own school, and very challanging, and most of all, it is a huge responsibility. Your responsible for every student who bows in, inside and outside your facility. No insurance waiver form will ever truely change that. There are not enough good role models out there, I mean for adults just as well as young people. Thats right, adults need role models too. For the matter, role models need role models. Its important that our sensei's and Shifu's are good role models, even more important than how many boards they can break or how many opponets they can ward off at once.