Introduction

Some thoughts on what works well when teaching classes of mixed ability and whether it’s a good idea to allow ‘Pay As You Go’ (PAYG) students, rather than requiring a longer term commitment.

I discuss practical aspects of teaching that are all ‘legal, decent and honest’, but some might think of as the ’seedier’ commercial side of running any health, fitness or martial arts club and being at odds with offering the ‘higher goal’ of helping students live healthier more fulfilled lives.

These are especially important if teaching is how you make your living, rather than a hobby.

I then describe what content or curriculum makes up a good class and lastly cover my ‘ideal student’.

Class Structures

There are some challenges when teaching, especially when you are on your own and teaching small classes with mixed ability. How do you keep all abilities, entertained, challenged and interested?

In business terms, it’s axiomatic that attracting new customers is more expensive (time, effort, ££££) than keeping existing ones. So it is essential to work on customer retention.

I have taught in sports centres where the class structure can be a particular challenge. Students are on a membership scheme and typically pay a fixed monthly cost to do Pilates, Yoga, use the fitness suites, have a sauna, use the pool etc. As it does not cost them anything extra, they might drop in and try out Taiji for one or two weeks and then never be seen again. This constant turnover is going to have some effect on the core of regulars that do show up, if it is not managed effectively.

One way to manage the problem, with sufficient numbers of students is to split classes, and have beginner, intermediate and advanced groups, with students moving from one to the other (assuming the new time slot works for them).

Or, if your class has been running for some time, or your club / school is large, you may have an assistant instructor or be able to use an advanced student to help. This is what I was used to when I trained in Karate and Taekwondo many years ago. Each class was split into beginners and advanced / intermediate, with students typically lined up, ordered in seniority, white belts to black belts, to bow at the beginning and end of classes.

Typically we would have done our warm up as a group, and then we’d split the class. If I am fortunate enough to have an experienced student in a class, I like to rotate them and myself between the divided class. The students all get some time with me, and some time with the experienced student. It should be good for the class, and the experienced student as they start to learn the skill of knowledge transfer (it’s not as easy as you think!).

Another approach I see is to only enrol students at the beginning of a ‘school year’ or at least at the beginning of a term. The goal is then to bring that cohort of supposed beginners through together.

Whilst I work in schools that take this approach, I have yet to see it work in practice, as students have different abilities and different levels of experience with Taiji when they start with a new teacher, and everyone learns at a different pace.

Getting paid

Another golden rule from the business world - never get in the way of a customer who wants to give you money! If a customer wants to buy, allow them to buy anywhere, anytime and anyplace.

In the same way, refunds should be quick and easy to issue without leaving students feeling pressured to stay. You want their last impression of you to be that you were fair and easy to work with and that they would recommend you to all their friends, it’s just that your Taiji was not for them.

We talked earlier about paying for a whole term (usually 10-12 classes). It is supposed to reduce the administrative overhead for taking payments, and that may be the case if you are still stuck in the dark ages taking payments by cash, cheque or bank transfer (fewer transactions to ‘process’).

The concern with taking online or card and contactless payments seems to be with processing fees. There is a cost to everything (nothing in life is free), including chasing non- and late payers and taking cheques to the bank. I’d always prefer to pay for that ‘busy work’ to go way and also to enforce a ‘pay before you play’ rule. Without any data to support it, I am convinced that paying card processing fees is cheaper than the admin work to manage other forms of payment, and the cost of missing payments that you are owed.

I am all for ‘easy in, easy out’ approach. Students should not be put in a position where they hesitate to buy because they have to pay £100s for a term of classes. I want them to feel comfortable to try one, two or three classes and then figure if I and / or the material, are what they are looking for. I am more than prepared to admit that I am not everybody’s cup of tea!

As such I am a big fan of ‘pay as you go’ approaches, where students can book and pay for a single lesson, a block of lessons, or even a whole term of lessons right from their phone.

There are membership and student management systems out there dedicated to supporting the martial arts and they all integrate with reputable payment processors such as Stripe and GoCardless. They typically include apps that make booking and paying for classes convenient and secure. My preferred such system is https://www.martialytics.com.

Lesson Plan

Lesson structure is such a difficult thing to manage and will depend on the ability, health, experience etc of the students in a given class, on a given day. It’s almost impossible to have locked down lesson plan as you just don’t know what ‘shape’ your attendees will be in on a given day. Adaptability and flexibility is key.

My classes have always been 60 minutes long, so there is not a lot of time to play with. In that hour, I would probably do Qigong for 10-15 minutes and then stretching and/or mobility for 10-15 minutes (could be drilling repeated moves from forms), but ideally not more than 20 minutes combined.

I don’t teach dedicated Qigong classes but rather see it as a beneficial precursor to Taiji. As such, it should not swallow the whole lesson.

I’d say that most of my students only attend class once a week, so the Taiji is the main course.

Personally, I want to teach the forms. I want students to have something they can ‘take with them’, something they could keep and do forever on their own.

As such, I would normally spend 20-30 minutes working on forms.

If we have time, and to introduce some variety we might do something different in the internal syllabus - e.g. sticks, Xingyi, Bagua.

When I am confident with that side of the Kung Fu syllabus, I’d even consider introducing occasional Yi Lu Chang Chuan (from Long Fist Kung Fu) or some Siu Nim Tau (from Wing Chun Kung Fu).

If I am not running late, I like to close with 2-3 minutes of qigong or a minute of static breathing.

My ideal student

I am prepared to get pushback and hate-mail on this!

Firstly - I love teaching!

So I am happy to teach anybody that is open minded and wants to taste what the Traditional Chinese Martial Arts have to offer. Whether their principal focus is health, or their interests lie more towards the grace and power of a well executed Taiji form.

I am often reminded of the aphorism - see one, do one, teach one - as it is only when I try to teach, do I often begin to really understand. Also in the back of mind is the Conscious / Competence model - it’s no good being truly amazing at performing a set or form, if you can’t communicate it effectively to your students, showing them in clear reproducible steps with well defined terms and language.

Possibly, one of the easiest categories of students to teach are athletes from other sports. They are already very aware of their bodies, of balance, of generating power and speed.

I am also really interested to see students with prior martial arts experience. There is a temptation to think that these students need to ‘unlearn’ what they have been taught. But I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. There are many similarities and many differences, and I am fascinated to explore them.

Martial arts practitioners and athletes can sometimes (not always!) be grouped and fast tracked together. They often have confidence and are good at working in teams.

Practitioners from other Taiji styles or schools are always welcome, and this is where having an open mind is really important - from both sides! Who’s to say that ‘our technique is better than theirs’?

I have taught a few U3A classes as a cover teacher, where the average age of the students can be older (my oldest student was a lady in her early 80s). Some of the balancing work in the Qigong can be tough for an older age group, but they need it the most. I make sure to emphasise it is OK to hold onto the wall for support and to be careful with the pace.

What I think is a mistake in a mixed ability class, is to give the whole class 50 minutes of Qigong when they have signed up for Taiji! Starting a dedicated Qigong class is always an option and may appeal to a different audience segment and immediately take care of the class structure dilemma discussed above - serving students that want to focus on breathing and gentle movements rather than the origin and application of moves in a form.

Wrapping up, my ideal student is anyone that wants to learn, and who is open minded. There is something truly amazing about watching a complete beginner pickup the essentials of the first section of our short form in their first class.

Additionally, if they have curiosity about the martial heritage and practice of Taiji and the other internal martial arts and want to explore that heritage, then I feel they will get more from their practice, and ultimately be more healthy for it.

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Credits.

Featured cover photo Nipun Haldar, A black and white dog laying on the ground, Unsplash.

Yin and Yang puppies!

Come on people - what more do you want from me? 😄

Class structures, lesson plans and my ideal student

Introduction

Class Structures

Getting paid

Lesson Plan

My ideal student

What’s Fa Jin?

Traditional Chinese Martial Arts