Ways to maximize your effectiveness as an instructor.

I am not a certified fitness instructor.  But according to Frankie Faires, I am a fine motor athlete--also called a musician.  That being said, I teach other people how to be a fine motor athlete, and I have dabbled in teaching people the protocols of Gym Movement, to a degree of success, as I mentioned previously. 

I don't know how many of you reading this teach anything, or ever plan on it, as a profession, but there comes a point in our life where we all wish to impart a certain amount of knowledge to another person or group of people.  

I wonder the things she could teach me

One thing you must be able to do as a teacher is convey a single idea in several different ways.  Scenario one:  You are trying to teach someone how to deadlift and not fuck their entire back up.  You have several different ways you can do this.  The first option is to say, "Pick the bar up off the ground."  Some will do it pain free, with this instruction.  The next option would be to say, "Look straight, shoot your ass back, grab the bar, and stand up."  Others will respond to this very well.  A third way to do the same thing would be to say, "Flex your hips, and keep your shins slightly angled, stand about four inches away from the bar, alternate your grip, look straight and stand up."  Still, some people will respond to this very well. 


Some of the factors that determine the effectiveness of your instruction include (but are not limited to) the following: Age, education, and experience with the given task being discussed.  Not to mention the propensity for Aural or Visual stimuli.  

Powerful Visual Stimulus.  This would not work for a blind person. 

While you must be adept and conveying things in a variety of ways, you must also learn to whittle each way down to the minimal effective amount of explanation. I talk about this a lot regarding training, and musicianship, but it applies to everything.  You can spend a good chunk of time instructing someone to do anything, like our example of the deadlift.  There will come a point where you (and the student) will get tired of you talking.  And they will have to experience the sensation for themselves.  Your job is to get them there with minimum fuss, and minimum bullshit.  Learn to use the minimal effective amount of communication.

The minimal effective amount, again, will vary from student to student.  This will also vary based on your education level.  If you don't have a good vocabulary, get one.  Read a dictionary.  Don't say something with four words that can be said with two.  Unless you have to.  These are all things to test. 

The most important thing you should do as a teacher is two fold.  The student must be willing to question everything you say, and you must encourage them to do so.  You must also be able to support what you believe and what you teach.  The other is to let them create something themselves.  Give them the tells to do what they do safely, and let them go until it gets too hard.  And repeat.  This is the same way I lift when I lift.  it is something to test in life.  I do whatever I want (based on my goals) and once it becomes hard, I chill out.  I repeat it.  The same applies for instruction.  

In conclusion, learn a variety of ways to communicate a concept, do it with the minimal effective amount of effort, and encourage the student to question you and run their own test. 

Why the hell not?