by Thomas Kurz
Well-schooled instructors know thoroughly their sport’s techniques and tactics as well as the methods of teaching physical skills.
Instructors with teaching know-how make their students learn skills quick and easy. Such instructors’ knowledge of teaching methods makes it so. No matter how great is an instructor’s mastery of a sport, if that teaching know-how is lacking, a lot of training time and a lot of sweat are wasted.
Can you tell a well-schooled instructor from an unschooled one? Then watch the video below and point out the single teaching error that keeps a student practice a simple grappling throw with a follow-through into a rib crack for over ten minutes and still not get it–even though his instructor shows him the technique perfectly. (If the fact that wrestling is not your sport distracts you from seeing through the teaching method, make sure you don’t instruct anyone in any sport.)
The video below is a hint for would-be sports instructors who could not correctly point out the teaching error in the above coach’s instruction.
Of course, instructors whose technique is faulty and understanding of it poor not only waste their students’ time but also wreck their muscles and joints too.
So, if you are a schooled instructor, and you see a great technician teach a technique poorly, just observe the technician’s demo, learn what makes the technique work, and then apply the proper teaching method to teach yourself or others.
You will find more information on learning techniques or movement skills in the article “Tips on Teaching and Learning the Movement Skills,” and in the book Science of Sports Training.
His stance is too wide on throwing but is not being corrected immediately. The rest is some great info!!!
Thanks, but wrestling arm throws and judo te-waza are effectively done with stances both much wider and much narrower. So the width of learner’s stance was not an error in the technique taught, therefore not correcting it is not an error in the technique of teaching it.
Hi,
my suggestion is too much information being presented in one go. The instructor loves his own voice. How can anyone remember all of that?
Maybe too much info is given verbally, maybe…. But maybe that is a compensation for the missing bit of the teaching know-how — the error of omitting a crucial step in teaching any athletic skill, be it a wrestling throw, a boxing punch, a TKD kick, an Olympic weightlifting lift? Do you know what step is that?
Thanks for your great content, as always.
I don’t want to criticize the instructor too much as I don’t know all the background info on the student…
Here’s how I would do it — teach in smaller steps, not full throw, and slowly. For example:
1. Step foot and pull with left arm
2. Right arm under and rotate on ball of left foot, right foot joins.
This can be done as shadow uchi-komi, without a partner or manekin.
That’s enough for a start. If he does it well for a number of reps, he can move onto throwing. I would also establish one throwing leg stance, parallel one, and maybe next week try tai-o stance.
Edit: rotate on right foot, of course, if training right sided throw. Left foot joins.
I might have missed it, because I just skipped through the video, and I’m no qualified instructor, but there seems to be a lack of lead-up exercises – the instructor asks the student to perform the main technique straight from the beginning, instead of breaking the technique into smaller, easier to learn steps i.e. entering the throw -> entering the throw and pulling the mannequin off the ground -> full throw.
Master Kurz! While a few things could be improved (some mentioned by previous contributors) perhaps not “beginning with the end in mind” – ie, not explaining to the student the exact final position sought in the (particular) execution this throw is the oversight that would make learning the technique easier. (Showing the nervous system where to go, and then working backwards from there.) Always a pleasure to read from you, and purview your fine material! Osu! 🙂
Finally an answer that shows a grasp of the learning process! Note that the “explaining to the student the exact final position” has to be done while the student is in that final position. The student has to feel being in it, exerting force where it needs to exerted, directing gaze where it is to be directed, etc. Then the student’s neural motor control centers will quickly figure out how to get to that position and to those actions from the initial position.
The sports instructor should follow a progressive, systematic, functional continuum to allow for the specific performance adaptation. Here are the key concepts for proper exercise progression: slow to fast, simple to complex, known to unknown, low force to high force, eyes open to eyes closed, static to dynamic, and correct execution of increased, repetitions, sets, and intensity. Following this continuum would allow the instructor to safely progress and teach their student.
Quality should be emphasized over quantity. If an athletes trains with poor technique they will develop poor motor patterns and poor stabilization. A coach can further determine if his program is functional by asking these questions. Is it progressive, systematic, sport specific, integrated, proprioceptively challenging, based on functional anatomy, and are the practices evidence based.
Those concepts, if understood, show in all details of practice.