Instructor Mentoring

Instructor Mentoring

Why a mentoring program

I am a HUGE advocate of a instructor mentoring program in each training organization and under each instructor. Why, well we already see a glut of instructors in the martial arts who are undereducated in specific areas, have little talent for teaching and develop sub-par students. Not everyone is meant to teach and the mentoring programs would help assist us in finding new instructors who are talented, groomed to teach and are able to properly pass on traditional Karate to the students of the organization.

I have read and overheard young ( and not so young brown belts) Chomping at the bit to teach Karate. Its not as easy as getting a Black belt and suddenly you are geared up to teach Karate. First off the Shodan level means you have a good grasp of the basics of Karate….its a great time to START looking at teaching. I don’t mean teaching kids to kick and punch in the corner when class starts, I mean taking on teaching under a experienced instructor.

The other thing to consider why to put in a mentoring program and get your potential instructors on board before they jump to teaching in a regular class is that Karate training (the kicky and punchy stuff) is only about 30% of what you need to be a good instructor. To “channel” Yogi Berra, Teaching is 30% Karate and 90% ability to pass on information…add another 20% of basic understanding of physiology and mechanics and another 50% of a variety of life skills, teaching skills, and other knowledge that all rolls up into one big mess of ability, skills and knowledge that you only get from being mentored, personal experience and hard work! A mentoring program seems like the only logical way to wrap that all up into one!

Who should teach

That’s the million dollar question isn’t it! Let me first off start by saying I started teaching at my high school when I was a Purple belt. Granted I got special permission and promised only to teach up to Orange belt students and had a black belt monitor my classes for the first two months. The main thing was I learned a long time ago…teaching is not as easy as it looks….and it takes a lot of hard work to get to the point that you can simply walk into a dojo and start teaching!

Because of my experience as a Purple belt starting teaching, I now think that only Brown belts at 2^nd to 1^st Kyu should be teaching beginners if at all possible and only Shodans and up should be STARTING to teach classes. Now having said that, there are always exceptions in both directions. I have met and trained under some Shodans that were exceptional instructors and went on to be great teachers…and I have worked out and trained under some Godans that need to go back and relearn the “soft skills” that come with teaching.

I have seen people who were great Karate competitors, had skills in DOING Karate, but were frustrated as instructors because they were HORRIBLE teachers. I have seen people who did Karate for more than 40 years, who could not lead a class and teach their way out of a wet paper bag. They had super high expectations, but limited skills as instructors. It’s the same thing in schools’ you have teachers who are naturally smart people, super smart and have a tone of initials after their name to prove it…but put them in front of a class to teach…Not a hope in hell they will actually pass on anything of value and not get frustrated and frustrate students to no end. Rank does not always equate teaching skills.

I have also run into people who were natural teachers. Some were not at the appropriate level to be teaching, but a smart Mentor will realize that they are naturally gifted and have the right teaching mindset and natural soft skills that will allow them to be great leaders and teachers at one time. Those people should be put into a mentoring program at some time and the skills should be fostered!

Not all black belts will be teachers

Not all people who are at the “right level” to take on teaching will be good teachers. Egotists, people who cannot see the bigger picture and those that don’t have the soft skills will not make great teachers. It’s not just about jumping in and getting experience. Some people lack the natural teaching skills and mindset and even if they “Get it” they cant make others “get it”. It is something that good instructors struggle with, but succeed at that makes them worthy of teaching.

I have met some that just don’t “get it” on their own, how are they supposed to make others understand and “get it”. Some people will train to and reach brown belt and even black belt and not be instructors, And that is fine! It’s even expected, it’s expected that some people, no matter what they expect and want won’t make it as teachers in Karate and other martial arts. The mentoring program will not only help people become better , it will help them realize what it takes to be a good instructor…a lot of internal searching and exploring of Karate and the person themselves. Its about giving up ego and realizing that when you become an instructor, its about the students not you!

Some black belts will not be instructors, in fact If I had to guess….probably 95% of black belts should not be instructors and have no want or need to be instructors. Of the last 5% only a small amount will evolve into true Karate Sensei’s…the rest will just be knock offs and regurg-teachers. The key is to find a true instructor (sensei) and mentor with them. Those that want to teach or even help teach need to keep in mind…its not about them, its about the art!

Natural talent vs nurtured skills

I know of a few “Naturally talented” people that are not in our mentoring program and I hate that! I also know of several people who want to teach who are not in our program and don’t have what it takes to be an instructor! First off being a Karate teacher or “Sensei” is about A LOT more than just calling yourself that and teaching kicky punchy things! Its about stay power, interest in others learning, love of the art, commitment to the art, trying to pass on information to others to help them and wanting to continue learning long after you start teaching!
Natural talent is a hard thing to gauge on most people, you cannot throw all your brown belts in front of a class and say “Teach”, you have to observe them teaching smaller groups and this is why its good to have them teach a few new people here and there to get a good idea of their natural teaching ability and inclination. The ability to get info across smoothly, being relaxed and basically teaching a beginner is like training wheels on a bike.

Natural talent or aptitude for teaching is almost impossible to teach someone. If they don’t have it, generally it is not going to show up. However nurtured skills can help out a bit. Nurtured skills are the skills you foster in people by teaching them how to teach. Someone can be taught how to write out or plan a class, they can be taught the dynamics of a specific technique and give a teaching plan on how to communicate that to a student. However if they do not have natural ability in teaching and the care that they would need, its often not enough to make an effective teacher, and any success they have will be marginal as instructors.

By far a natural ability and character is needed over any learned skills to become a success as a Karate instructor.

What you should know

Obviously you need to know basics, Kata and Kumite to be a good teacher in Karate. You also need to understand the basic grading curriculum that comes with teaching students…no point teaching double kicks, inside round house kick, Hook kicks and sweeps to a white belt! They have a natural progression that this is way to “down the road” for. Also, no point in teaching 27 points of a front stance to the same student…it will make them crazy and confused and they wont enjoy Karate enough to get that deep of understanding….keep it simple!

A instructor needs to understand individual learning; what and how someone learns the best. Not everyone can hear an answer and “get it” , some need to see it and others need to do it to understand. A instructor should also understand how to communicate in a respectful manor! I have seen instructors bark out orders through a whole class and not get through to people at all!

As a student I can say that what impresses me the most about instructors is often not just a deep understanding of Karate. It’s the add ons, the little extras and life experiences that they bring to the table. An instructor should look into exercise physiology, sports Psychology, learning more about soft skills in teaching, and a variety of others topics. I don’t think a Ph.D in sports psychology is needed by all instructors, but the effort to read up on it, take it in school and bring it to the Dojo is appreciable in the teaching they can now do.

A mentoring program will pass on as much information, show future instructors directions they should look at and get them to the point that they understand that teaching Karate is more about never stopping the search for new things to learn, the insatiable appetite for learning Karate and bringing other “outside” elements to your teaching.

Its also about learning that while you are teaching a curriculum and trying to pass on information, you should be forming your own style of teaching and learning to express your own Karate.

A good mentoring program will……

A good mentoring program will be less about getting people “READING” and more about them observing and working into teaching. Its about getting experience instructors, preferably a few, together and having juniors who want to teach being mentored and observed, coached and given feed back for a few years.

A good mentoring program will expand knowledge of Karate and the individual through training, interaction and observations. Paper work is kept to a minimum and used to encourage people to think, and not as a simple academic activity to justify the programs existence.

A good program will help people see if they are meant to teach Karate and help those that are not to realize that they are good students, great practitioners, but perhaps teaching is not their thing…as much as taking those with natural talents and a need for experience and giving them something to work with. It will teach those that should be teachers how to teach Karate and also help them realize that teachers…are supposed to be veracious learners as well!

Wrong people in the mentoring program

A good mentoring program will weed out the egotists, the people with a lack of soft skills and those that are in it for themselves. There is not money in Karate really, not for good instructors that want to run a program that will help students out. There is a honest living and hard work ahead and those looking for a pass to get a teaching certificate are in for a rude awakening. Teaching is often hard work that takes a dedication and passion that some miss out on when they look at the “Cool” teaching gig and think that its easy!

Also, those that want to dominate others and hold rank above the students head need not apply. Its more of a personal interaction time that will support new instructors and teach them through hard training, brutally honest conversations and a push in the right direction often aimed at the trainee’s butt! I can not count the number of times my instructor “knocked me down a peg”. And the lessons were hard love with me looking up from the floor wondering why I wanted to teach in the first place if it meant getting “corrected” this way. But the lessons stuck! The method was sound and I became very close with my instructor, thinking of him as a father figure and source for my Karate interest.

The wrong type of people are those that won’t see the big picture, won’t understand that the hard work is not for themselves but their students. The wrong kind of instructor will only take pride in their students if they are Kata Champions, or fighters that are feared and decorated. They need to take pride in those students, but also in the student that is less physically gifted who sticks it out and enters the tournament simply because they love Karate, or shows up at the dojo day in and day out simply to share the work outs with their instructors and fellow students.

Those that are in it for some kind of “Level” and “prestige” are those that need to NOT be in the programs, they won’t make good instructors no matter how much they know about Karate…they simply will fail as Sensei’s!

Continuing education

The one thing I can say about any good mentoring program is the insistence that anyone on the program work on continuing their education after they are out of the program. Not just going to other Karate camps and pushing to be better at teaching Mae Geri’s and Gyaku zukis…but focusing on learning other skills that they can bring to the table when teaching.

Its important to state that when I first started teaching I felt like a fish out of water, then when I began teaching with a black belt at a club we Co-taught at ( I was a brown belt) I deferred to him, but felt like I knew as much and was as good as the Shodan at teaching, he was as green as I was at instructing. It was through repeated teaching, being mentored by my instructor and looking at teaching from a different angle that I finally began to feel comfortable and bring in things I learned in University and other sources.

The main thing is to get the students comfortable transitioning to being instructors and letting them know that the search for knowledge does not end…ever!

A final thought on the use of Mentoring Programs

Any instructor who teaches has “a mentor”. Someone that has taught him/her about Karate and has brought them to the level they are at…we are not all born black belts after all. However, a good instructor focuses on learning to be an instructor and programs like the JKA of Manitoba have set up will benefit future instructors by giving them guidance and helping the prospective instructors learn how hard it actually is to teach successfully. I mean anyone can “teach” Karate, but only a few will do it well enough to be called a Sensei.

Mentoring programs and learning from those that care about Karate and students more than their own egos are the only ways that a prospective instructor will grow and become a success in Karate teaching. Its important to realize that they are a first step only. Its not like you “Graduate” and are perfect, far from it…a mentoring program should highlight flaws and weak points and let us know what we need to work on, allow us to learn from those that are further along than we are and also to let us realize that they are human and will be working on their own weak points as well.

A mentoring program is not for everyone, but it should be the path that one takes when they want to teach, help teach or even give advice to others in class on how to improve technically or otherwise.

J