Advice For Future Martial Arts Instructors

    Becoming a martial arts instructor was one of the highlights of my life. I had studied Karate for over 10 years and trained under some of who I consider to be the best teachers in the world. So, when it came time for me to choose a career path - I already knew what I wanted. I wanted to be a karate instructor.

    I thought I knew it all. I was a cocky 21 year old black belt and who wouldn't want to hire me? After 2 months of trying, I couldn't get hired. Each Karate school I went to was impressed with my skills, impressed with my tournament wins, but in the end, they felt I wasn't ready yet. But, why? For this answer I went back to my Karate Trainer, Karl.

    I told him all about how I wanted to teach Karate just like him. I complained about how every school I applied to turned me down and asked him why? What did it really take to teach Karate? He listened to my whining and when I was done, he gave me some of the best advice anyone could get who wanted to be an instructor.

    What is the best advice I can give you? You have to have a passion to teach others about Karate. Everything I'd been saying revolved around my own love for Karate and not about how I longed to teach others. He told me it is one thing to study Karate and quite another thing to "teach" Karate. This is probably THE best advice I can pass to you.

    You have to want it more for others than you want it for yourself. Teaching martial arts isn't about the glory of being in charge... it's about passing the art on to a whole new generation. Teaching is truly the most self-less act you can do and thus, requires you to be completely detached from your own ego.