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1st Choice Resource for Martial Artists
1. Disguise Repetition
Students can drop out very quickly if there
classes are monotonous, to develop skill
students do need lots of repetition. It’s
your job to make the learning process
exciting and fun through variation. Be
creative have students work with partners,
on pads, in lines, circles and facing the
instructor, keep things moving.
2. Keep Your Students Progressing
The martial arts belts system is one of our
biggest advantages over other activities.
It helps set goals for students and gives
them something new around their waist that
tells them they are progressing as they
succeed at each learning hurdle, which
motivates and builds confidence. Make the
curriculum the main focus of your school,
infact make it your responsibility to help
every single person be ready to take their
next test, if you do this 80% and above of
your student body will be ready to take the
test. We are not talking about reducing
your standards we are talking about
refining your focus; encouraging students
to attend class consistently and practice
at home. Introduce mini monthly
assessments, awarding stripes to belts to
breakdown the testing phase into small
chunks “inch by inch it’s a cinch, yard by
yard it’s hard!”
3. Recognise Your Students Efforts
Students must feel progress; we all thrive
on someone recognising our efforts and
giving us praise, so if your student’s side
kick has improved tell them about it, make
their day! Be honest and sincere and learn
to look for the good in your students.
4. Keep Safety In Mind
Protect your students especially beginners,
consider proper pairing of students, teach
correct use of equipment, preframe control
at all times, and introduce sparring
gradually. Make sure you can see and
maintain control of the full class at all
times. Beware of any past injuries or
medical concerns, and plan your classes
accordingly to be within people’s physical
limitations. Check the floor space is
clear and that people are not training too
close together.
5. Motivational Curriculum
The perfect curriculum should be like a
pyramid upside down, with less material at
the beginning and gradual increases at each
belt level. Using this method will not
reduce the standards of your black belts
and will dramatically increase the numbers
that achieve this standard. Having too
much material at the early stages of a
curriculum just overwhelms students and
tells them this is too difficult for me.
6. Know Your Students
Make the effort to learn and use all our
student’s names every time they come to
class. Make eye contact with all your
students and make appropriate physical
contact such as handshake or high five.
Seek out the quite ones that disappear
without anyone noticing, make an extra
effort to speak to those students. Take
time to develop rapport and show your
students they are important to you, be
careful not to overdue it, be friendly but
not friends. Students don't care how much
you know until they know how much you care!
7. Smiling Sweating & Learning
Try and achieve a balance to your classes
so students can smile and enjoy themselves
without losing discipline, they get a
workout as well as practicing the technical
elements and they learn something in every
class no matter how small. Using SSL will
ensure your classes have a healthy balance
that encompasses all your students’ needs.
8. Paint The Picture
Never assume your students know where they
are going with their training, make every
class encompass the theme of achieving the
goal of Black Belt, this will keep your
students focused. So when something comes
up in their life and something has to give,
it will not be their martial arts training
as they will realise how important it is to
achieve their goals. Help your students to
visualise the mental and physical skills
they will achieve through their black belt
goal.
Article by: Lee Mainprize www.MAinstructor.com
Article date: March 2006.
