Backup Plans

I attended a martial arts seminar a while back. It was fun and informative. I've decided to put into words some of my experiences and resulting thoughts and feelings on things learned there.

The importance of a lesson plan cannot be underestimated. In my dojo, I am anal about having lesson plans and sticking to them. This makes life simple in so many ways, it is too difficult to count them all. Nowadays, if asked to teach on the spur of the moment, I simply think back a bit to a lesson plan, and teach it. That situation has happened several times, with much success.

At the seminar, a presenter was asked last minute to fill in for one of the regularly scheduled presenters. It quickly became clear that the sub did not have a lesson plan, as he missed making many points. He rambled frequently, and when he would have us break to practice, most individuals had no clue exactly what to practice. 

Meanwhile, I've had to fill in under similar circumstances on many occasions. Never once did people wander around, looking for help after we would break from teaching to practice. We would also practice 3 minutes for every minute I spoke.


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