Instructing – a privilege that can be taken for granted

Let’s face it, when you’re feeling ill, down, tired, grumpy or just plain lazy, teaching of any kind can be a chore. When what you’re teaching is as physical as most martial arts, and as athletic at Taekwondo can be, motivation can be as hard to find as hen’s teeth.

This weekend, it was hammered home to me, what a privilege it is to be able to teach martial arts to people. I was invited to go to Cork and give two seminars, as well as assist on a kids’ grading, by my close friend Paul O’Leary of Rebel Martial Arts.

Not only did I get to travel to Cork and do nearly eight hours of personal training with Paul, but I was able to cover my costs by doing these seminars. There aren’t that many ‘hobbies’ where people get to be paid to do what they love.

Not only that, there are very few hobbies where people place their trust and even their physical well being into your hands. at these seminars, they were giving me carte blanche to grab their children, shout at them and – in the case of the adults – hurt them quite a lot. Not injure mind you, but hurt them. And all of this was done with willing and a smile.

Think about that for a minute. Complete strangers come to your club and put their physical and menal well-being not your heads on a regular basis. Some are complete strangers, people who may not even have heard of you from friends or relatives but who did a random search on the Internet and decided to train with you. Taking it further, I guarantee that some of ese people will have been thorough a traumatic experience and are looking for someone who can teach them the skills they beleive they lack.

Not only do they do that, they pay you what could be large sums of money to some on a regular basis. All,to do something that you have to love in the first place because you reached the standard required to become an instructor.

So, next time you’re full of flu and cursing the rain sleeting down onto you, just think about the people who put their trust in you to teach them, hurt them, and improve their health and well-being.