Something I’ve been avoiding has come to pass.
I’d like to say that it’s because I don’t have children and that I’m not used to being around them, but I think it’s really that I don’t know how to be an adult. I instantly try to be a buddy. This inherently not productive as a martial arts teacher.
Teacher has to go out of town and finally gave me the “call.” He knows that I’m uncomfortable around the kids, but he wants class to move on consistently and has asked me to help out when he can’t be there. Unfortunately, his father has late stage cancer combined with other health problems.
So I started coming early to help out with the kids so they can, 1. see who I am, and 2. I can see who they are.
The last time I had to work with the kids was over 3 years ago and I pretty much liked keeping that distance. I was so traumatized after the one class I had to “teach” that I would steer any conversation about taking over to anything I could fit in.
So it was with considerable trepidation that I got to class early to man up and do some teaching. The reason I’m doing this? I kind of feel that it’s germane to my next rank. Becoming more comfortable in the teaching/leading role to demonstrate proper assertiveness, etc.
Anywho, the class went well, and the few interactions I had with the kids went fairly well. This time I’m very aware that this is how it went until I showed up in class and the kids ran amok. We shall see.
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In regular class it was all cat stance all the time. Since we’d all been around enough he made us sit in the lowest stance we could. I actually started laughing at one point because he went on with a story to illustrate a point while we stuck our low, static pose. He threw a queried look at me and I said, “I can’t hold this more than a couple of minutes!” We all laughed and moved on.
Teaching moment – Realizing I know how to do the move, but have no idea how to translate it into steps, example #6. After all is said and done, Teacher brings up a critical point to make it all easy and my group looks at me glaringly. How do you explain that all the work you just did allowed them to understand that last point and correctly do the technique?
4 comments:
I really learned so much when I had to help teach TKD. As you note - it's one thing to know how to do it but it's quite another to translate that into something that someone can make sense of!
So do you have any insights for me? I'd like to avoid the potential red face - or is just the way it goes?
good luck with your teaching
Mat, thanks for the support it's going well.
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