The Trainer As Performer
After countless years teaching a variety of subjects one thing stands out above all else. I have been a performer and it seems performing has been in my blood since I was a youngster. My mother said I was always clowning about and trying to be the centre of things. At the time I never really thought about it as I spent most of my early youth Meditating, studying Buddhism, playing guitar and doing martial arts. It wasn’t until I had to decide on a change of career in my late 20’s that it dawned on me that I wanted to be an actor. So in 1984 I took the huge decision to apply to The University of Birmingham for a place on their prestigious Drama and Theatre Arts course.
I had left school at 16 with little or no qualifications so it was with some trepidation that I worked hard and entered the University in October of that year. What was a surprise to me was how well I had done in the workshop sessions prior to them accepting me…I was up against young people who had years of drama experience behind them and here was I at 30 green as grass…
I think it was my desire to succeed that got me in and coupled with the many life skills I had learned bringing up kids, fighting against negative comments, coming from a traditional North east working Class background and living in relative poverty most of my early life. Although at the time it never felt like that!
Three years later I was officially a card carrying thespian and started working on TV shows, acting in films in Malta and Manchester as well as working the London Alternative Comedy circuit for 12 years alongside people like Harry Hill, Bill Bailey, Harry Enfield and Phil Jupitus.
I was one of the very first Motion Capture Artists in the Industry ( I worked on over 50 games) and still act as an advisor on a few games to this day. I guest co-presented a show on Kerrang with Tim Shaw and gave presentations to business schools as well as private conferences. In recent years I have continued to work as a medical role player and Lay Clinical Educator at The University of Birmingham Medical School and as always continue to teach Martial arts.
Why am I going on about all this stuff you may ask…
Well. Over the past few years I have been asked by many martial arts teachers what is my teaching methodology? How do I make it look so effortless? How come I seem to flow through the whole process? How come I never get Nervous? What gives me that control?
It wasn’t always like that! I had to work at it. A black belt does not make you a teacher…FACT!
Every year I run an Instructors validation course for my guys and every year the same question comes up. How can I be a better trainer/teacher? My answer is always the same.
YOU HAVE TO BE A PERFORMER
Good performers sell a story and so I tell them to find their story. I show them how to use the space that they are performing in. To use their voice and above all create a presence in the room. I have thought long and hard about how I and others do what they do and I know it takes a lot of work to make it look easy. I’ve done that work and now I want to share with you just how an actor does this. It’s true to say there are some who are natural but not many. There are more out there who think that they know what I’m talking about but they stand in front of an audience and there s nothing. No real communication. You know that the meaning of communication is the response you get and if the response is not the one you desired then you need to change your approach. Sadly most teachers blame the students! As if it’s their fault…
A good communicator takes responsibility and maintains a high level of situational awareness during their performance. As a comedian you would know if you weren’t doing your job Laughter is great Heckles were an opportunity but if you got it wrong… get off… taxi… and other unmentionable utterances would assail you on the stage. Even actors don’t get that treatment…when was the last time you went to the theatre and saw a bad actor get booed off? Being a comedian teaches you a lot about controlling your own state by manipulating the audiences state. These are skills I can teach you and during the next few sessions I’m going to do just that.
So Let’s start at the beginning of the process.
A good communicator must first and foremost know their subject. At the very least they must know just more than the audience and should be teaching at the level of their knowledge.
1. Know your subject.
2. Teach with Passion: Nothing sells like enthusiasm. It’s infectious…
3. Prepare to make your entrance!
This is where I come in guys!
The word entrance has always fascinated me. Honestly … it has…
Look at the word ENTRANCE…. EN TRANCE
Look again at the word TRANCE.
Trance: “An Altered State”
You see, your job as a communicator is to trance out or to put it differently… alter the state of your audience and put them into a state of openness ready to absorb the information you are about to impart.
I regularly see teachers do just the opposite. They walk out in front of their group (I’m going to use the term audience from now on) armed with knowledge of their subject but lack presence, lack the ability to change the state of their audience.
I see it happen at the University all the time and I personally have been subjected to bad teachers and terrible teaching… No engagement…little or no connection and whilst the teacher obviously knew their subject they built little or no rapport with me and my attention would wane and my state would alter to one of abject boredom. We have all seen this happen…too often sadly. ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz
And yet we can all remember a teacher who had us so fully engaged in the subject the time would fly by and before long it would be over and we would feel energised about the subject being taught. My Physics teacher was so good a communicator we actually looked forward to his lessons every week! He had passion and personality…He had presence and knew how to use it.
That ability to entrance an audience can be taught, and if you already have it, and you have a natural talent for working with an audience I believe I can enhance it. Make it even better…
So here we go:
If you want to create a state in an audience Go there first. Yes…that’s what you need to do. If I go out on stage in front of an audience without this preparatory phase I will give a lacklustre performance and it will show. The audience will know. We have all seen the teacher who lacks confidence and loses control of the room. They didn’t prepare their state. It’s not enough to know the subject! You need to know where you are emotionally. What state you are in. What you are going to do out there.
There are three types of behaviours that I have noticed in teachers.
A : Strongly External (The Extrovert)
B: Present in the space (The Middle Path)
C: Strongly Internal (The Introvert)
It’s important to know what type you are, to identify honestly which one you are in front of a class and take action. Understanding and being honest with yourself is the first and hardest thing for most teachers to do. Unless of course you are a B
B is in the flow. The middle way between two opposites. Controlling the space, controlling the audience, controlling their state and that of the audience. They own the performance. B is Being!
The stage is theirs.
You see this in great actors, great orators and great leaders influencing the audience beautifully and the audience is held in the palm of their hand. Adolf Hitler was one of those! Martin Luther King at the other extreme. It’s a responsible place to be.
It gives you the power of persuasion so be careful what you do with it! You might become the Darth Vader of Influence and Persuasion.
Incidentally a good communicator will make use of the Introvert state, make use of the Extrovert state so I’m not saying they’re bad. I want you to be aware of these states and in that way utilise them when necessary. I’m training you to be aware. Nothing more. If you can inhabit State B The “being” state you have more choices in how you behave and how you can influence your audience.
The first technique is done prior to the performance itself. Before you go on ….
Before you even open your mouth…
You need to prepare…
This preparatory phase is so important. It puts you in the right state of mind.
A good state to have is one of confidence… that’s a handy feeling to have in many situations. Do you remember a time when you were confident? Pick something that you know you can do well…it can be anything at all…I’m confident I can make a good espresso! I am confident I can drive my car! It doesn’t have to be anything huge. Confidence is confidence and will manifest itself in your body in the same way no matter how simple the task may seem. So Pick one NOW…
Go back to that time in your minds eye. Close your eyes it will help you access the state avoiding visual distractions. An internal state is characterised by many things but first we are going to think about how it feels.
So… Locate the feeling … where is it?
In the chest, the arms, the neck, the legs?
Is it heavy or light… or neutral
Is it warm, hot, cool
Does it pulse, throb, shivering spinning… Notice it’s qualities in terms of how it feels.
We are not interested in why it’s doing what it does. Interesting though that might be. I want you to explore What it’s doing…
When I think of a time when I have confidence it’s in my legs and it’s a solid heavy warm feeling moving up and down my calves. Now that I know that I can access it at any time. Usual at a time when I need confidence…
Now that I have achieved that state I Anchor it. When I need it, I trigger that Anchor! It’s a handy bit of kit and has served me well over the years.
But that subject is for another blog post.