stuartm
02-21-2002, 02:41 AM
Dear All,
I was wondering how many of the Sifu's on this forum felt during the first lesson of their clubs.
While i have trained people privately and as an assistant instructor, it was my first night teaching in my own right last week and it was a bizarre experience.
What were your experiences. Here are some of mine:
1. Patience - I 'd forgotten how diificult it is for beginners to comprehend the basics of WC. Despite it being a straightforward system, the teacher still needs to understand how alien it his to his new students. Yee Gee Kim Yeung Ma - is mind boggling to newbies. Quite funny to see how long they can sit in the stance !
2. Comprehension of time - Am i going too slow or too fast ??
3. Motivation - I suppose this rlates to the above. I know that students need to concentrate on basics, but at the same time you are conscious that you need to keep people interested. Ultimate they have come there to learn self-defence, and students soon get fed up with stepping, punching, turning and then more stepping !!
4. Anti-climax - As a teacher you are deperate to get people interested and progressing as quickly as possible. Once you experience all of the above, you realise its going to be a long haul. As such, at the end of the lesson I felt a bit flat and that the lesson had gone really badly - however i realise in hindsight that you need to be patient in developing your own school.
5. Student discipline - I think i was quite lucky in this respect. I had 9 students on my first night, all male , all beginners. However, one or two had done martial arts before and so there confidence was higher and they were naturally more aggressive. The majority there were still lacking in confidence and so it was essential that those with experience 'took it easy' on those less experienced.
Im sure as time goes on things will get easier, and no doubt many of you here have had similar experiences.
I would be most grateful if you were willing to share them !
Thanks all, Stuart
I was wondering how many of the Sifu's on this forum felt during the first lesson of their clubs.
While i have trained people privately and as an assistant instructor, it was my first night teaching in my own right last week and it was a bizarre experience.
What were your experiences. Here are some of mine:
1. Patience - I 'd forgotten how diificult it is for beginners to comprehend the basics of WC. Despite it being a straightforward system, the teacher still needs to understand how alien it his to his new students. Yee Gee Kim Yeung Ma - is mind boggling to newbies. Quite funny to see how long they can sit in the stance !
2. Comprehension of time - Am i going too slow or too fast ??
3. Motivation - I suppose this rlates to the above. I know that students need to concentrate on basics, but at the same time you are conscious that you need to keep people interested. Ultimate they have come there to learn self-defence, and students soon get fed up with stepping, punching, turning and then more stepping !!
4. Anti-climax - As a teacher you are deperate to get people interested and progressing as quickly as possible. Once you experience all of the above, you realise its going to be a long haul. As such, at the end of the lesson I felt a bit flat and that the lesson had gone really badly - however i realise in hindsight that you need to be patient in developing your own school.
5. Student discipline - I think i was quite lucky in this respect. I had 9 students on my first night, all male , all beginners. However, one or two had done martial arts before and so there confidence was higher and they were naturally more aggressive. The majority there were still lacking in confidence and so it was essential that those with experience 'took it easy' on those less experienced.
Im sure as time goes on things will get easier, and no doubt many of you here have had similar experiences.
I would be most grateful if you were willing to share them !
Thanks all, Stuart