Newbie teaching a class

Right, so I did post this originally on my Mau Rakau blog, but since I need advice I've decided to post a separate thread.

So I don't know if this has happened to anyone else one in their training but I have a bit of a situation where my tutor is unable to come all the time to Mau Rakau because he works a high stress job. So sometimes I'm left to run the class (but thankfully not by myself). Although I'm only a beginner, my other classmates seem to appreciate my style of teaching and they appear to be learning. I don't like coming up with stuff on the spot, and I don't like running something with me being as inexperienced as I am in the style. So tonight I focused on basic sparring principles that I have learnt from Boxing and Muay Thai over the years such as footwork, distance control and looking for openings. I feel a bit bad because I'm not exactly the best fighter and yet I'm teaching fighting. I'm simply going with concepts that I have learnt from youtube videos (like the dog brothers), practiced at home and from experience. In other words, winging it.

We had a good spar though at the end with our Rakau. I don't know if I'm doing the right thing or not, our club isn't asking for payments from practitioners at the moment so I don't as bad but I still feel bad for not being as experienced as I wish I was.

 

When you say you're a beginner, what exactly do you mean?

 

A bit under a year. But I have about 7 years on and off prior in Boxing, Muay Thai and ITF Taekwon-do. I've just started training in Boxing and Muay Thai again after a 2 year layoff due to a major injury. So I'm a tad rusty.

 

Yep, I do know how you feel, I have been in a similar situation. Instructors were unable to come to class, so I or/and other students were asked if we could teach the children (beginners) in their stead. I've no experience teaching and I'm quite new to MA, but we did the best we could, just as you say. Since September, we will probably be given the beginner children class to teach, one of the reason being the instructors having less time and if we do that, they will have more time to teach us. We will be tasked with teaching what's in the syllabus for the first few belts and basically be their personal instructors. At least we're going to see if it works or not.

As you say, although I see a lot of benefits in it, find it quite exciting and it makes me happy our instructors have enough trust in our abilities to propose this, I'm quite nervous if I can actually teach, teach well and make the students interested. Our instructors will probably give us some course and will show us some of their classes and help us in other ways, which will be great, but still... On the other hand, from the few classes we tried, I think we realised some things and came with a rough plan on how to teach, but I'm still kind of afraid, not being as advanced as I'd like to be...

 

The best thing you can do is to be honest with yourself and your classmates about your experience level and don't try to teach anything you don't have direct experience with.

 

That's pretty much what I did tonight.

 

I'd be worried about insurance issues. Does your club's policy require a certified instructor to be present during all training sessions? If it does, and someone gets hurt whilst you are in charge of the class, you might suddenly find yourself being sued.

 

That's a good point. I hadn't thought of that. I will ask my tutor next time I see him.

 

Yeah, definitely check out the liability issues.

The best thing to do is be prepared. Have a lesson in your back pocket (literally if needs be) to go. Be ready to modify it depending on the skill level of the people present, and the overall vibe of the class. I like to break things up into half hour chunks further subdivided if needed. When I teach my class, it looks something like this: first half hour is warmup (a run, maybe agility ladders, stretching). Then a half hour of grappling (break falls and a technique or principle, two if it's super simple). Then a half hour of weapons work (usually two techniques/principles, or a technique and a drill, etc) and then a half hour of sparring. This keeps things moving and people don't get bored as easily. You have to read the class and see what the mood is. Usually the more people, the better the vibe as everyone is working hard and having fun.

Having seasoned newbies show a few things isn't so bad, but it shouldn't be a regular thing IMO. It does gives confidence to the person teaching, and it encourages the newbies because they see someone who is only a belt out of the gate being given responsibility. When I did Arnis, I would be asked as a yellow belt to show white belts the odd kata. It was pretty fun.