More often than not Martial arts instructors approach the sale of their product through two different venues: either the self-esteem approach or the self-defense approach.
Either way an instructor approaches it to the child, parent, or adult student; an effective instructor can eventually blend the two approaches together in a way where the student not only gains the self-confidence, self awareness, self-respect or to sum-the self-esteem they need, but he/she also gains a defined and unique understanding of the material that they are learning.
Two different scenarios would go like this: One, either the instructor allows for their students to develop sloppy technique, or have a misconstrued concept of their art due to the fact that the instructor doesn’t want to offend or bruise their students fragile psyche.
Two, the instructor becomes so focused on the self-defense aspect of the Art that they are teaching that they put that before the student.
To elaborate, the Green Check approach isn’t a new way for Martial arts schools to do banking, instead it’s an evolution in teaching that focuses on both the students intrinsic needs that he/she looks to gain from the art, but also on the art itself.
How do Martial arts instructors use the Green Check approach effectively.
Take the life of a normal ten-year-old boy named Billy.
Billy wakes up on a Friday morning to his mom waking him up.
Of course this is the third time his mother has come in the room to get Billy out of bed, so she makes a comment like, “I will not tell you again, I am so tired of doing this every day…. Get out of bed now or you will get it,” or what have you.
Well, Billy goes to school on the bus, and the only thing that he hears from the bus driver is, “Sit down!!” Now Billy is at school and he gets his spelling test back from his teacher and it’s covered with corrections in red ink.
Billy leaves school to go home to a list of chores, which include cleaning his room.
Again she says something like, “I thought I told you to clean up your room. Do it now!!!” Even though Billy did, he just took off his shoes afterward.
What’s the problem here? Billy’s life is nothing but a red X. He learns what not to do or how to fix something because everyone in his life is correcting him through what he does wrong.
An effective Martial arts instructor can’t just be another one of those people who red X everything.
So Billy made it to class after all, and in class today one thing that the class is working on is the Horse stance.
Feet shoulder width and a half apart, knees bent deep, back straight, toes pointing forward, hands up and pulled tight… but Billy, even though he is working hard, just doesn’t quite get it.
An instructor who is just a part of Billy’s world of Red X’s would simply walk up to Billy and say, “Don’t slouch, straighten your back… fix your feet… bend your knees more.” I wonder how long Billy is going to think Martial arts are fun with that approach? But Billy’s instructor is really a master of Green Check Fu so when he walks up to Billy, the scenario is much different.
Not only did the Green Check instructor correct Billy’s technique, he gave Billy praise in the process, thereby achieving the blended balance mentioned earlier; and it can be bet that the next time Billy performs a Horse stance in class, he will be an even bigger success at it because he will strive for the level that his instructor set for him.
Not because he doesn’t want to be corrected again, which is the approach that he has with the rest of life from home to school; but because he is looking for another high five which he will get because that same instructor cares enough about Billy to ensure that he does.
Instead of spending his time figuring out ways to eliminate Red X’s in his life Billy is figuring out ways to gain more Green Checks.
Find Confidence in your local area
