Friday I did not have many expectations for any workouts as normally I do weight training at 7 AM and had called in canceling that appointment due to the weather the night before. But much to my surprise I was able to fit that work in at 10:30 in the morning and then another surprise with a student coming in to work out a little later in the day. So we worked on some core exercises, forms and sparring. I was very happy with how quickly the lessons were picked up by this student and I got a chance to practice them too.
Today I was forced to think about why students sometimes choose to discontinue their training, both in a personal experience and in teaching our Excellence in Leadership course. It is important for all of us to remember that at Balanced Life Skills our 5-8 year olds and beginning solid belts, white – orange, our main focus is on building confidence and giving the students the courage to push themselves outside their normal box, without pushing them away from the experience of gaining Black Belt Excellence. When we do that we set the foundation to go to even greater places.
There are a few things though that we can do to help maintain our students enthusiasm for their training. Besides encouraging regular attendance, practice at home, and parents watching and being involved, as instructors the more contact we can have and recognition of the students progress the better they feel about their training. Sometimes it is hard for them to see the progress they are making without our pointing it out to them. I am encouraging all the new assistant instructors to remember what it was like to be younger and give each of the students a high five and pat on the back for great effort.
