Lesson Planning

[Azulx]

How important is lesson planning to a successful martial arts program? Is it necessary?

 

[JP3]

If by "lesson planning," you have a curriculum from which you teach over time on a rank basis, I'd say yes. If by such plan you mean, like they have in school, a day-by-day lesson plan series laid out, I'd opine that such might be helpful, but is not necessary.

And... the reason I say it's not necessary as I've never used one. There you have it, straight from the old horse's gummed mouth.

I walk into my class, and see who has all showed up that day at the bow-in, start the standard daily back-falls/slaps, then rolls, then the basic movement/footwork practice and go into off-balance grip and release drill kata, and by that time I've got the "lesson plan" for that day for each person in my head, eveloped on the fly based on my observations of the students in recent history. Mine is a fluid thing, but it runs down familiar channels so that the higher rank students can grab it and use it for themselves if I'm not around, as they'll have to do so down the road if/when they start their own school.

 

[Kenposcholar]

I know many great instructors that do fine without them and some that absolutely need them. Personally, I enjoy having a class plan to base my class on and adjust it as the class goes on. If I have a particular drill to execute and the students find themselves needing work on something more fundamental, then I adjust as needed. The same thing goes for private, one-on-one lessons as well.
An example would be a word template in which I explain to myself (potentially an assistant if I am unable to teach) what we will be doing at particular times in separate categories of warm-ups, cardio, techniques, drilling, spontaneous, etc. For private lessons I will usually print off a copy to give to the student that includes what we did with notes on the techniques.

I also have a long-term plan that cycles information for the students so that I don't forget to cover old material. If you have any questions, let me know.

Cheers,
Beckwitt

 

[marques]

How important is lesson planning to a successful martial arts program? Is it necessary?

Of course it is. Everything requires a plan. Even if it often doesn't work.

Where I am training, all the exercises of each class have a logical, gradual sequence. It clearly improves the success of a class. In my self-defence system we had an annual plan, so all clubs in the organisation were doing largely the same thing. Without a plan we tend to forget important things or to avoid what we don't like or don't master...

How to train without a plan?!*

In small groups I like to be flexible and improvise 'a plan' from a training situation. Or 'to plan' from a participant's question. Anyway, I have always a few things in mind, just in case. A few things we need to improve, or a sequence from the last training...

*I understand experimented instructors don't need to follow literally a written plan, but they need at least to know the why of each training session (and not do what comes to memory first).

 

[Gerry Seymour]

How important is lesson planning to a successful martial arts program? Is it necessary?

Here's my view. (That seems stupid now that I've typed it. Who else's view would I be giving??)

You need a curriculum. This has a basic set of what you plan to cover over time. At some points (beginning of a new rank) it may be more specific, but mostly it reminds you what you will cover for folks at each rank.

You probably need a supplemental curriculum. This is stuff you'll cover over time, that's not rank-based. For me, this means spending an entire class or week on a give group of attacks, to give students time to explore how their various techniques show up.

When you are starting, it's probably best to have an actual lesson plan for each class. This gives you a concrete way to plan out the class, gives you a time to specifically look back at your curriculum and pick what you should be focusing on, based on who you expect will be in class. Mind you, you'll throw that out a reasonable portion of the time. You'll get a different mix of people than you expected, someone will ask a really meaty question, or something will come up in class that really bears digging into. But you want to have that plan, anyway. As your experience grows, the plan is less necessary.

I go back and forth on using them, though I created one for every single class my first few years teaching. Now, I'll go a while with an actual specific plan (sometimes just in my head or jotted on a post-it note). Then I'll go for a while where I just walk in and see what we need to work on. I usually have several topics I want to dig into, so if nothing comes up in class, I pull up something from my internal wish list. My students are learning to try to keep me away from that list, so they have started bringing more questions and requests. (Hint: that's part of the purpose of the list. I want them more actively involved in the training.)

 

[thanson02]

How important is lesson planning to a successful martial arts program? Is it necessary?

I think it depends on different factors.

If you have an instructor team, then I say yes, you need one to keep everyone on the same page. If it is just you, then you can fly by the seat of you pants more.

If you have a lot of students then I would also say yes to help keep focused on what they need to learn. If you don't have a lot of students, then you can just go by where the students are at.

So I guess I am saying is whether it is Instructors or students, if you have a lot of people you need to keep on the same page, tools like lesson plans will make it easier on you to do so. Just make sure to keep it flexible so you can adapt it to whatever situations you run into while running classes.

Sent from my XT1096 using Tapatalk

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

To develop a certain MA skill, you will need a plan that

How to:

1. develop it?
2. counter it?
3. test it?
4. enhance it?
5. polish it?

 

[Mujician]

Not being a martial arts instructor, but knowing a thing or two about teaching, I would say that there needs to be a structure, rather than a plan, for instance: 20 minutes warming up, 30 minutes basic techniques, 10 minutes sparring and so on. I guess as others have said, you need to first see who turns up. There wouldn't be any point planning a lesson totally based on kata/forms if you only have beginners turn up.

 

[Dirty Dog]

I think everybody who teaches does so with a plan. How detailed that plan is, however, will vary wildly from one instructor to another.

Personally, I'm not one with a detailed plan. It depends on who is in class, to a large extent.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

When I was teaching the BJJ fundamentals classes at my gym I had a curriculum which I tried to rotate through in a fairly consistent progression because it was a batch of material which wasn't too excessive and I wanted to make sure that all the white belts had it as a foundation before they moved on to other stuff.

Now that I'm teaching the advanced classes it's harder to do this because there is so much material in BJJ and I never know who will show up for a given class and there are 7 other BJJ instructors at the gym, each of whom is teaching their own material. Generally I see who shows up for a given class and teach something depending on my mood and what seems appropriate for the students who are there. I do have some canned lesson plans which I generally teach the same way every time I cover that topic, but other times I make something up on the spot that I think might be helpful for the students in attendance that day.

 

[WaterGal]

As others have said, you need a curriculum. A general class structure is good, too - possibly multiple structures, if you have specific classes devoted to different topics (a forms class vs a sparring class, for example). Beyond that, it depends. If you're just getting started as an instructor, having a lesson plan each class is really helpful. As you get more experienced, you'll get better at improvising.

Also, and this is an area that we're just starting to get into at our place..... if your school has multiple part-time instructors, and they're all working on their own to teach what the students need, sometimes certain techniques will get lost in the shuffle or students have uneven skill development. A school-wide lesson plan, even a very general one, can help coordinate everyone's effort and make sure that students practice everything they need to learn throughout the week.

 

[Andrew Green]

How important is lesson planning to a successful martial arts program? Is it necessary?

Depends on the size of the program.

A smaller group where one instructor is always there, it depends entirely on that instructor. As the program grows and more instructors get involved it becomes a lot more important.

At the end of the day you should make decisions based on where you want to be, not where you are. If you want a program where it goes on the same regardless of whether or not you are personally there, you should get lesson planning going. If you want to just teach your group and stay small, do whatever works for you.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Depends on the size of the program.

A smaller group where one instructor is always there, it depends entirely on that instructor. As the program grows and more instructors get involved it becomes a lot more important.

At the end of the day you should make decisions based on where you want to be, not where you are. If you want a program where it goes on the same regardless of whether or not you are personally there, you should get lesson planning going. If you want to just teach your group and stay small, do whatever works for you.

When I taught at my instructor's dojo, we had three active instructors (four for a period, IIRC). We did not share lesson plans. We each taught our own classes, and students had a "primary instructor" whose classes they attended regularly for the progression. They attended other instructors' classes to make up missed classes, get more variety, or just because they had time. I used lesson plans for myself, but I don't actually know if the others did. I know we all dug out our notebooks from time to time and looked through the material to see what part of the non-core curriculum was in need of some attention (the core curriculum follows a student's rank progression).

 

[Balrog]

How important is lesson planning to a successful martial arts program? Is it necessary?

I think they are very useful. We have a generic lesson plan in the school, broken down by class and week. So, for example, I might be teaching the beginner class, week two. The planner says that we start out practicing basics for 10 minutes. Now, it's up to me to choose what drills I want to do. Today, they might do line drills up and down the floor. Tomorrow, it might be impact work on the bag, etc.

 

[JowGaWolf]

We did not share lesson plans. We each taught our own classes, and students had a "primary instructor" whose classes they attended regularly for the progression. They attended other instructors' classes to make up missed classes, get more variety, or just because they had time.

I like this type of training when there are multiple instructors and Sifu's a the same school. Every teacher and instructor has a different perspective on the martial art arts and each have different strengths. I like being able to experience Jow Ga from these various perspectives. It provides valuable insights.

 

[Midnight-shadow]

For new instructors (or teachers in any field) I would always recommend having a written plan of some kind, even if it's as simple as "15 mins warm-up, 15 mins drills, 15 mins forms, 15 mins conditioning". However, once you have been teaching for a few years you have the experience to be able to do your lessons on the fly and make it up as you go along, based on what the class is like. A lot of it comes down to time management, in knowing how long each activity takes and making the lesson flow without running over time or finishing the session with 5 minutes to spare, while also making the lesson appropriate for your students.