There are many reasons why I teach a martial art, but here are my top three!  If you are a martial artist, there’s no better way to learn yourself than to slow down and explain what you know to someone else.  If you are not involved in the martial arts, this shows why I love to teach and why teaching is such a gift and a responsibility.

1.  Helping Others

I always wanted to help other people achieve, live better, and learn more about themselves.  When I started teaching a martial art, it was my chance to help others.  If you are a black belt, you will have the chance, too.

After I earned my first degree black belt, my husband and I reached  out to the community to fill a need for students who could not afford to pay for classes.  We stumbled upon a community center in the midst of a troubled neighborhood, where crime and social breakdown were inherent. It was a place where martial arts could really make a difference.

It gave kids the confidence to strive for something better, and a way to help protect themselves. It offered them a safe place and a makeshift family who cared about them.  In fact, when a teenage brother and sister lost their caregiver grandfather, we considered adopting them just before one of their own family members finally stepped forward.  You could say our impact on them was as strong as their impact on us.

We taught there for seven years, longer than most of the employees stayed on staff.  People would come and go, but we remained steadfast in our mission until we began to start our own family.  We got better as teachers.  During those years, we honed our skills and our talents.  We learned how to relate to students and meet their needs.  We understood their dilemmas and felt their heartaches and worries.  And, we taught with passion because of it.  It gave  us the basis for our current program and explains why our  relationships with our students and their families hold more value to us than any money we could ever make from teaching.

In 1995, the local newspaper took my picture teaching the children because the reporter thought it was newsworthy.  They saw me as someone who wanted to teach just to help others. So, right under a big headline about murder, a large picture of me graced the page.

These children lived a difficult life, but in many ways they were just the same as the kids we teach today. When a child comes to class for the first time, he is either very excited or very scared.  Either way, it is important to calm him down and help him learn to control his excitement or fear and mold it into something useful.  Over time, he changes.  It’s gradual.  One day he no longer bounces up and down while waiting in line.  He controls his desire to distract other students, and he begins to listen.  Wow!  He’s a martial art student, and a good one at that.  Teaching him has made a difference, and that is the biggest reward ever.

Adults are different.  They come to class with age-old baggage and preconceived notions about what they expect to learn and what they think they can do.  Some are anxious to earn a belt, others are just happy to not fall over when they execute a kick.  Either way, teaching adults is exciting because they are willing to try, and try hard.  All their energy and all their desire to learn comes crashing out even if they are quiet, shy, or introverted.

Children and adults both overcome personal obstacles, shake the hand of challenge, and learn more about themselves.

That’s the beauty of helping others learn a martial art.

2.  Reinforcement of  Skills

One way to keep engaged as an instructor is to participate in class.  I generally stretch out each class which helps me retain flexibility.  I don’t walk around shouting out commands. I do the commands.  I demonstrate how stretching helps with kicks and techniques. When I am warmed up, I feel as good as the students and I am ready to work out, too.  Sit ups.  Push ups.  I struggle right along everyone else, but I get stronger.  At my age, I have to work twice as hard as the younger people and I do.

I do not have an endless hours of personal time to train.  I work full-time, have family commitments, and teach five martial art classes a week.  Luckily, teaching gives me the opportunity to continually reinforce my own skill set.  I must remember forms because I have to teach them.  I must ask myself, “Where do I yell in the form?  When do I need to use my breath?  Where am I tense? When should I be fluid?” A form or pattern is similar to a behavior.  Students will follow your  lead and  style of performance.  You can’t slack and you can’t let them down.

On Friday nights, during the teen and adult classes, I participate as a student after the stretch.  I don’t always know the lesson myself, since my husband prepares it, so it often contains elements that are even new to me.  For an aerobic get-ready, I jump right in with everyone else, drop and crawl under someones legs and jump back up for a one-two-three punch on the other side to the targets they are holding.  I scrape up my elbows and keep on going.  I forget all about it until later when the scabs on my elbows appear.  Amazingly, I never feel a thing during class, and that reinforces my claim that the martial arts mindset takes over when it should.  I think of nothing else but what I am doing and that is a relief from stress and other personal burdens.

If you teach, but you don’t actively participate, then you are missing some of the key elements of teaching.  You have to remember what it is like to learn something new or to try something for the first time, to understand your students.  It’s great to show all the awesome skills at which you are proficient, but showing others that you understand the vulnerabilities involved in learning something brand new is a great lesson it itself.

3.  Way of Life.

Once you have years of teaching under your belt, a martial art becomes much more than a class you teach or a bunch of moves you make.  Instead, it becomes a way of life.  You can be a martial artist and achieve some of this, too, but when you teach, it is a different experience.  It becomes so ingrained in your mind and your soul that you can’t possibly separate teaching from learning or learning from teaching.

For me, it’s all a part of my daily life, my family, my way of thinking. I can’t recall an instance when I did not consider life through the eyes of a martial artist or a martial arts instructor.  Patience becomes important, and understanding.

To take it further, being an instructor translates into being a good role model. You  create a presence in the community.  I hope to teach much more to the students than how to do a quick punch, or a sky-high round kick.  It’s about helping others see life more positively through their own personal accomplishments and experiences.  They will rise to the challenge. You should be the answer to the negative and to show the options. That is how I have learned to live a martial arts way of life, and why it is important.

The misleading reason

You may notice that my reasons for teaching a martial art do not include a category for compensation or money-making.  It is nice to get paid for a passion.  It is great to earn some extra money.  Having some spare change in my pocket always helps.  I won’t turn it away…. The truth is, teaching a martial art is my reward.  And, because I love it and believe in it, I have my heart in the right place.  That is where good teaching starts, and where it must always remain.

The instruction you receive from someone who lives and breathes a martial art is the best instruction there is and it’s worth more than you will ever realize.

Learn, teach, take a martial art.  You won’t regret it.

Andrea

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The Martial Arts Woman book is now available. Purchase through my e-commerce store: http://themartialartswoman.storenvy.com. or on Amazon:  https://goo.gl/5gMzT6

This book shares the stories and insights of more than twenty-five women in the martial arts, and how they apply martial arts to their lives.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Andrea F. Harkins is a writer, motivator, life coach, martial artist, and public speaker. She was inducted into the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame in July, 2017. Her book, The Martial Arts Woman, is now available at themartialartswoman.storenvy.com. 

COMING SOON! My new book, Martial Art Inspirations for Everyone! 

 

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