Creating an Instructor Base
By Justin Warbeck
Contributors: Jeremy Steflik, John Morahn, Richard Marsden
When your club is new or small you can probably get by with a single instructor running the club. However, as the population of your club increases it is a good idea to increase the number of instructors your club has on hand. Even if you are used to running things by yourself you will find that there can be a number of reasons to recruit your students into instructor roles. We will discuss these benefits as well as looking at how to train potential instructors and what it means to be an instructor.
Why have additional instructors other than yourself?
As your club grows you will find that having another instructor has a number of benefits. Having the additional help will allow you to multitask. If you don’t have dedicated beginner’s courses, having another instructor give new students an introduction allows you to keep going with the planned material for the session. Having an extra pair of eyes will allow you to continue leading class drills while instructors help other students who may be struggling or just need additional help. With additional instructors you’ll also have different perspectives for both teaching and learning material. Having instructors with varied interests will allow your club to expand into other weapon systems and styles that you may not have time or interest to cover. Extra instructors also allow your club to hold additional lessons in time slots that are otherwise inconvenient for you. In addition, a trusted instructor can help you keep track of and transport club equipment or lock up a venue after the lesson. In addition to all of this, your student’s will benefit from the instructor role by increasing their ability to teach, grow their confidence, and allow them to better contribute to the HEMA community.
What to look for in an Instructor?
When looking for a potential instructor there are four important characteristics that you should look for.
Humility: An instructor should be open to fair criticism and correction from both their student’s and peers. You will want someone who will be able to grow and evolve along with the club. Being able to have mistakes or corrections pointed out and digested is an important aspect of growing as both a student and an instructor.
Knowledge of Sources: An instructor should not just know how to perform and teach their system, but the ‘why’ behind it. There may be techniques that students find to be strange and pointless, an instructor must be ready to explain why such a technique exists and the history behind it. Being able to know and understand the sources will allow instructors to better teach their art.
Communication: An instructor should be capable of talking with their students and able to clearly and effectively explain their art and techniques.
Consistency: You want your instructors to be dependable people. Someone that you can trust not just to teach but to be there when you need them to be and take care of gear and equipment if necessary.
There are other aspects, such as physical fitness, sparring capabilities, and resources that can help make an instructor better, but these should be seen as a bonus rather than important qualities. Of course it would be great to find all of these qualities in our students naturally, but more than likely you will need to help instill and develop these attributes into your students.
How to Create Instructors
Your first instinct might be to select a student who would make a promising instructor and begin giving them extra training and information to facilitate their advancement. Sometimes a student will be quite helpful and naturally sink into an instructor position over a period of time. This is perhaps the easiest option but not the only one. One option is to treat all of your students as potential instructors. By doing so you can find those who are passionate for the art as well as teaching it. To do this make sure that your student’s have all the basics they need to succeed in their art. Some things you can do to help this include:
Ensuring that Students Have Access to Sources: Whether it be books or free online sources, having access to them will encourage them to be curious and delve deeper into HEMA.
Referencing the Sources as You Teach: As you teach your discipline make sure to reference where the material is coming from and what it says about what you are practicing. You don’t need to go into deep detail about source material, but knowing specifically where the material they are learning comes from will build confidence in your potential instructors.
Encourage Students to Teach: Whether it is simply leading warm ups or presenting a new weapon system they are passionate about, having students take turns leading the class can help build confidence in an instructional position as well as increase their communication skills.
Lead by Example: When interacting with students as well as the general public, be aware that your students are watching you. Be clear and concise and show confidence in your instruction. Your students will take note of this and will try to emulate it.
The methods mentioned above will help all your students equally move towards an instructor role, but there will be times you want to take a more involved role in cultivating a potential instructor. You should keep in mind however that not all of your students will want to have instructor positions. Some will be perfectly content in a student role and may be uncomfortable with being groomed for a higher position in the club. Be sure that your student wants to be in an instructor position before you take these steps:
Meet with Potential Instructors Outside of Class: Having one on one meetings whether in person or online can help you facilitate the growth of an Instructor. You can meet in person to go over and discuss technique, interpretations, or even just spar. You can also meet digitally through a number of means to have discussions without the physical involvement. If they are looking to study a specific weapon, you can help them research the best sources for learning that weapon or system. Either way, spending time with your Instructors will help to facilitate their growth.
Share Lesson Plans with your Potential Instructor: Some students can develop their own lesson plans through repeated attendance of your classes, but a visual representation will also be helpful in allowing them to develop their own lessons and how to structure a class lesson. This can be especially helpful if you have a student who is studying a different weapon system.
Give Potential Instructors Opportunities at being at the Front of the Class: You can help build confidence for teaching a group and public speaking in a number of ways. The simplest can be having your potential instructor be your partner when demonstrating techniques. From there, have them lead the class in warm up drills and let them demonstrate techniques for the class. Eventually you can have them take over more in depth portions of the class, such as going over and explaining more complicated techniques and drills or marshaling/refereeing sparring matches.
Understanding the Role of an Instructor
Different clubs have different jobs and duties for their instructors. Beyond teaching, one club may have instructors holding a number of responsibilities like caring for the facility, the club gear, and other administrative roles. Another club may have dedicated people for those tasks and not require new instructors to take them on. As your club develops and grows, the specific roles and responsibilities that your instructors have may change but your students should be aware of what it means to be an instructor in your club. Try to avoid blindsiding a new instructor with responsibilities they are not comfortable with or prepared to take such as staying late to lock the doors or being responsible for transporting training equipment.
Conclusion
We’ve already gone over the immediate and personal benefits for having instructors, but you are also helping the HEMA community grow. By giving your students the opportunity to instruct and teach, you set up the opportunity for them to one day go out and start their own HEMA club. This cycle will further spread and improve the knowledge and quality of HEMA.