You’ve just earned a black-belt and in an instant you’re teaching children and young students? Today, many people are thrust into teaching…. Perhaps too soon.
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If you haven’t been guided through the process, you won’t have a clue as to what it really takes to guide others. No one learns by osmosis, no matter how many books you’ve read, or how much you’ve ‘studied’ with the Youtube sensei.
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An instructor, or anyone in a teaching position within a school or dojo, should be qualified to teach. Not only with a high enough grade, but with experience, to ensure they understand the fundamentals themselves. If you’re asked a question about the basics from a student, you should have an answer for them….. and not BS.
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Teachers should have knowledge of what they are teaching, and the ability to share that knowledge. Knowing, is not the same as communicating knowledge effectively. It’s not simply about beating someone in sparring, exercises, or winning a fight.
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You must also have a good moral character…. It’s called having standards, morals, being respectable and trustworthy…… You have those?…. Right?
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A teacher needs to set a good example for their students and maintain respectability in their lifestyle beyond the school or dojo. As an example, teachers should not be seen by their students under the influence of drink or drugs, or spouting foul language, sexual innuendo, or offensive racial remarks.
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The best instructors are motivating, patient, knowledgeable, and interesting, with good moral standards. They have the eyes to ‘see’, to understand at profound levels, and have a seemingly inexhaustible amount of guidance to provide. Above all else, they have to be able to set a good example to others, so that their students follow that example.
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Many instructors simply teach how their instructors taught them, which might not seem like a bad idea. However, most martial arts instructors did not pursue additional teacher training, and some of these instructors have incomplete and even old-fashioned concepts for running a class (no, you’re not in the military).
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I worry about the kids, the students, that are being taught sub-standard karate by these self proclaimed ‘teachers’, who have very poor teaching abilities, and a lack of instructor education. It can be tough for students with zero experience or exposure to the arts, to be able to discern between authentically trained instructors and those who aren’t.
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Paying students are being deceived, on so many levels. As an instructor you are entrusted with the lives of children and young adults. You have to lead by example, teach by example, behave by example. If you can’t, come on…. be honest with yourself…. DON’T TEACH. 
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“The bad teacher imposes his ideas and his methods on his pupils, and such originality as they may have, is lost in the second-rate art of imitation.” – Stephen Neill (1900-1984)
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