Martial Arts World News Magazine - Volume 22 | Issue 2

MASTER THE BASICS
Looking for ‘Teachable Moments’
By Master Tina Bane
While their academic schools may be students’ biggest source of education, that
doesn’t mean your martial arts school is all about kicking and punching.
Your school is an essential source of education of all types:
physical, academic, social, etc. You may not realize it, but every
day there are “teachable” moments just waiting to be shared with
your students.
A “teachable moment” is an opportunity during an activity or
event where you can teach by example or use the activity as an
illustrative example to help your students learn and grow. There’s
an infinite number of teaching opportunities that occur every day.
Think how impressed your students’ parents would be if their
children came home saying, “You know what I learned in martial
arts class today?”
Having this kind of impact on students will pay
dividends when it comes time for parents and students
to renew their memberships, and will have
a positive impact on your retention. Here are four
foundational strategies for taking advantage of
teaching moments and improving the quality of
your school’s instruction:
Discipline
When children become unruly,
discipline becomes necessary. It
may seem like discipline is all
about maintaining order and
control, but it provides
you with some great
teachable moments
as well. When two
students are arguing,
disciplining them gives
you an opportunity to
teach social skills and why
it’s important to listen to other
people’s points of view and not
get into arguments. The social skills
necessary to operate in society can
be difficult for kids to grasp, but are very important aspects of their
development nonetheless.
Teaching Outside of the Field
You may not think there’s much room for exploring things like
math or English in your class, but there are also many teachable
moments for these areas. Every drill is accompanied with counting,
and this can be turned into a math exercise by having students
count by twos or having them multiply and divide their drills. Students
can also learn vocabulary words that you teach them during
class games and activities.
Stop and Demonstrate
Repetition in the martial arts is essential to students perfecting
their form and their practice. However, just because students have
performed a movement over and over, doesn’t mean they’ve mastered
the technique. When you can see that a student is performing
a drill or activity incorrectly, stop the class and demonstrate the
correct way for them. This is often the most effective ways to teach
children as they get
to model your
movements.
Field Trips
Plan trips
outside of the school
so that you’re visiting
a diverse range of
events and locations.
The local science
center, art museum,
and zoo all provide
great places for
students to learn and
develop their core
knowledge.
MASTER TINA BANE is a 6th degree master instructor and owner of a Top Ten martial arts school
with successful after school and summer camp programs.
90 MARTIAL ARTS WORLD NEWS VOLUME 22 | ISSUE 2
Photograph by SerhiiBobyk