The ATA's 10 Class Management Skills

bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

This post was originally published as an article in a dedicated KarateForums.com Articles section, which is no longer online. After the section was closed, this article was most to the most appropriate forum in our community.

Part of the American Taekwondo Association's instructor certification program is learning and applying what the organization has identified as 10 class management skills. Application of these skills is important in providing a positive experience to the students of each class and helps the instructor manage the class through positive methods of leadership. Let's review.

1. Set Mood and Tone of Class

This is the first class management skill and for good reason. Starting with the bow-in, it's important for the instructor to present him or herself with a positive, upbeat, ready-to-work attitude. Presenting oneself in this manner serves to get the students excited about the class as well.

2. Create a Positive Climate/Atmosphere

This skill flows right along with the first one. Even if the previous portion of the day has been the worst of our life, it's important to create a positive class atmosphere to promote the best learning experience possible for our students. As instructors, we probably see our students on average of 3-5 hours per week. It's imperative to make those few hours as positive as possible.

3. Use the Personal Approach/Individual Contact

Although classes are a group setting, the individuals that make up that group each want and deserve an instructor's attention. It's important to approach students individually as often as possible to make a correction, give some praise or offer a compliment. In the same vein, it is also beneficial to make individual (and appropriate) contact by shaking hands, high-fiving a child or correcting a technique. This allows you to personalize the classroom experience for each student.

4. Set Direct Goals

This class management skill is utilized by the instructor in class design. It's important to have a goal for the class and have the drills for the class lined out in order to reach that goal. It is also important to relate the goals of the class to the students, so that they know what is expected of them and how they will reach that goal in class. The goal could be to learn the first half of a new form. By stating this, the students get themselves ready for the task at hand and understand that by the end of class, they should be able to meet this goal and demonstrate goal attainment at the end of class.

5. Give Thoughtful Feedback to Each Student's Response

Students ask questions, and it's great that they do. As instructors, it is important to be able to listen to these questions and provide thought-out responses to the best of our ability, to search out an answer and get back with them if need be or to provide resources for them to seek out the answers on their own. Students will learn soon enough if an instructor is feeding them hogwash, so i's best to be honest if an instructor doesn't have an answer. There is no shame in not knowing, as long as there is willingness to look for a response.

6. Reinforce Positive Behavior

Finding positive behavior, and reinforcing it immediately, will let other students see what you expect out of them in class. This will shape the class. If a student answers up properly right away where others may be a little more shy, reinforcing that behavior lets others know that it is appropriate, and they will work to follow along.

7. Give Realistic Praise

Everyone responds well to praise. It's important for praise to be realistic so that it doesn't sound disingenuous. For praise to be effective, it should be specific. Instead of praising a good kick, praise what made the kick good, like a proper chamber position and base leg pivot. Praising the student this way gives them specific feedback, and helps other students' understanding as well.

8. Give Positive Correction Rather than Criticism

Positive correction goes a long way in keeping attitude towards learning positive. Avoiding negative language during corrections, like "that's a terrible chamber." Instead, get right to the heart of the matter by being specific; "you can make your kick easier and better by getting your chamber up high and tight." The student knows what to change, and the instructor can monitor the student's attempt to change and correct the technique.

9. Refer to Students by Name

This class management skill is pretty straightforward. Learning and using a student's name individualizes and personalizes the classroom experience.

10. Teach the Concept of Personal Victory

The idea behind this class management skill is to convey to the students that each class makes them a little bit better in one facet or another, no matter how small the gain is. Whether it is attaining the class goal of learning half of the new form, or making it through a class after a particularly hard day, the student that finds the victory within that day will be driven each time they return.

Learning and applying these 10 skills has helped me throughout my career as an instructor. I'm sure many will read these and see that they use some of them already, and perhaps there are a few here that might be new to some. I hope they prove helpful.
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Patrick · KF Administrator

Thank you for the submission, Brian.

Today marks 8 years that Brian has been a member of our staff here at KarateForums.com, so I thought we'd publish an article written by him.

Thanks again, Brian!

Patrick
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bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

DWx · Black Belt

Great article Brian.

Say what you will about the ATA, they do have a good business model. As has been said on the forums before not everyone can teach and really you should be taught how to teach.

bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

Thank you, Danielle. I do think the ATA tries to do the best job it can in preparing its black belts to teach. Some of it is over-marketed, but a lot of their concepts and principles are right on target.

The thing with personal approach/individual contact is to make sure its not too much, and not too little. The key is to be appropriate, which most people are, anyway. As an instructor when I correct technique, using appropriate contact to get a punch in the right place, or a kick chamber positioned properly, etc, helps really register it with the student. What's important is that no physical contact should last more than a second or two, really.

It sounds to me like things are a bit over-regulated for you over there, Danielle, and its too bad it has gotten that way.
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DWx · Black Belt

Yeah it's not regulated per se but we are heavily discouraged or are supposed to make sure it is 100% clear that the contact is appropriate and we're not singling out students. It's a zero tolerance policy in place to protect the adult from false accusations. Whole NSPCC / government website dedicated to protecting kids in sport: https://thecpsu.org.uk/
I can only assume over the years more and more cases of abuse/bullying have been uncovered but also there have been more and more instances of accusations. Even if the adult is found innocent, mud sticks so to speak and a reputation can be affected beyond repair. By keeping our distance it's a way of protecting ourselves from accusation.

To be honest I will still move someone's arm to the correct position when punching or blocking and I will direct verbal correction to specific students after correcting the class as a whole a couple of times. However for certain things I am a lot more cautious about. For example if I was demonstrating defense against a lapel grab, I make sure to try to either pick one of my own friends/training partners to grab me or I try to make sure it is an adult female that grabs me, not a male and definitely not a child. The physical contact doesn't bother me so much but you never know how the other person or bystanders will view it and I'd rather not take that risk.
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sensei8 · KF Sensei

Another solid gem of an article from Danielle...across the board.

Not all governing bodies and/or styles of the MA are seen equally in the eyes of the beholder. There are some things that the ATA is a proponent of that I don't agree with. That's fine because..."You can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time!"

Nonetheless, the ATA's business model is quite impressive. What gets my attention is numbers when I look at a business. One of ATA's most impressive number is the size of its student body...350,000 members...and growing.

Can't be doing something wrong and still generate that type of numbers!! ATA is a model of "Who Moved My Cheese" imho, because the ATA is always striving to change, and not by trying to remake the wheel, but to re-invent themselves appropriately.

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bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

Thank you, Bob. One of the nice things that the ATA does is they are always thinking of ways to improve and add to the student experience. When I was in the ATA, for instance, the World Championships only involved sparring at the finals at the end of the tournament year. Now, they've branched it so that an individual can win a world championship in forms, weapons, or sparring. That's one change I've seen, of many. Sometimes, I think they change or add things that they don't need to, but, on the other hand, they have lots of people constantly coming up with ideas, which at times will lead to some that not everyone likes. But they don't stagnate, that's for sure.
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ps1 · Black Belt

Thanks for sharing this information, Brian. I just wrote the instructor training manual (over 100 pages) for my academy and am in the process of proofing and editing now. I might use some of this.
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bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

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