Muay Thai and Modalities
I think its safe to say that we have all had the experience of sitting in a lesson and not being engaged.Looking at the clock and wondering when is this lesson going to end. Time seems to slow down and your energy saps away.
The teacher or coach obviously has the knowledge but cannot get their message across in a way that will captivate you. When it happens the time seems to fly by and before you know it, it’s time to go home! You can’t wait, however, to get back for the next installment! You look forward to the next class and you can’t wait to hear what the teacher has to say. This make you feel good about the entire process of learning. You trust the teacher implicitly…
Sadly, this happens rarely in Muay Thai classes, and Lectures and presentations up and down the country. Most sessions drag on and a feeling of boredom takes over and you eventually leave the class feeling it’s not for you. That’s a real shame because the martial arts have a lot to offer when taught correctly.
As a Muay Thai Instructor and Educator, I understand the importance of engaging the student. I have talked at length for years now about how important it is to connect with the students at a sensory level and not just about vomiting content and information at them.
To really engage with a student requires building rapport. That ability to have empathy and create a connection between you and the student or students.
Whenever and whatever I teach I ensure that I stick to the basics of teaching. I always speak clearly and precisely, at the correct volume for the room. As an actor, one of the first things I learned was how to project my voice to the back of a room. That doesn’t incidentally mean you have to shout. Even a whisper can be projected if you know what you are doing. If you are using a microphone there also techniques for that too. More about that in another video and article.
Always speak with confidence and authority. In Muay Thai you must know your subject well enough to teach. Having confidence is another thing we can help you with at another time. I always ensure that the pace of my delivery is not too quick or too slow. It will fluctuate between the two, varying in tone and pitch. It makes the voice more interesting to listen to.
These are important skills.
I base these ideas on the 40 past years of teaching, performing and educating. I’ve always believed that an outstanding teacher is an exemplary performer. If you don’t have these performance skills and you want to be an excellent teacher enroll on a performance course of some kind. You can see my online session: Teaching Persuasively on YouTube.
The 4 foundations on which all good teaching rests are:
- Rapport
- Behavioural Flexibilty
- Sensory Acuity
- Outcomes
Today we are focusing on number 3 Sensory Acuity and in particular the Modalities.
Jargon aside, Modalities are a fancy way of describing the 5 senses.
What we See, what we Hear, what we Feel, what we Smell and finally what we Taste.
We are sensory creatures and we rely on our 5 senses for our survival.
When we communicate with each other we look, we listen and we get a feeling about things.
It’s human nature… it’s a built in, programmed part of our physiology and although we sometimes take them for granted we need to spend a little more time exploring them to help us build rapport and trust and therefore teach more effectively.
In any group of people there will be some whose main Modality is the Visual modality. In fact, most people I have taught over the years, around 70% of them, are responding visually and like to be shown the techniques. This leaves 30% not responding to your teaching fully. Lets say for sake of argument that 20% prefer to listen to you when you talk about techniques and only learn well when they are given information about that technique. That leaves 10% and they are what we call Kinaesthetic students. You know, Touchy feely people who want to get a feel for the technique by doing it. Not looking or hearing about it. They just want to get on with it!
In the above example I have generalised the situation, but it is close to what happens in a typical class. It’s true to say that a sizeable group of people use Visual with a bit of Auditory. Or a touchy feely person also likes to see techniques performed as it makes them feel good. This is true, but we all have a preferred system initially from which we function in the world.
If you are predominantly a visual person and you’re teaching a group of people and you use your preferred modality you are unlikely to hold the entire group’s attention. As a visual person you will find that you will speak quickly and use visually stimulating words.
Phrases like:
“Is that clear?”
“Do you see what I mean?”
“I’m looking forward to showing you this next technique”
Most visual communicators gesture with their hands upwards and outwards as if pointing to a picture. They will look upwards to the left and right repeatedly as they access memories of the time they practiced the technique. They will see it in their mind’s eye! A picture is worth a thousand words and when they speak don’t we know it!
Sadly, the Kinaesthetic and Auditory students will not be seeing eye to eye with you. The touchy feely person needs to:
“get to grips with the technique”
“know that it feels right”
“Wants get hold of the idea”
The auditory students would like more information about what it is you are teaching them:
“Listen to this guys”
‘Does that click for you?”
“I hear what you’re saying”
They prefer an information-based understanding of the technique and require lots of detail.
An Auditory person will speak at a normal regular pace and likes to be spoken to in that way whereas the kinesthetic student needs time to process the information and prefers a slower delivery. This style often infuriates visual learners!
“get a move on”
An auditory person tends to look left and right as if accessing the organs of hearing… the ears. Some may even adopt a telephone position with their hands!
A Kinesthetic student will often look down a lot a slowly stumble out their words whilst making gestures such as rubbing the hands together whilst talking.
An excellent coach, and you may already be one of these, ensures that when teaching that they use all the modalities when communicating any idea or technique.
This builds up a significant rapport which in turn builds trust in the teacher.
So if you want to be an elegant and eloquent teacher, take these principles on board and include them in your language. Non Verbal as well as verbal.
Here’s a brief example:
“Hi Guys,
Great to see you all hear today, I sense that we would like to get to grips with some Roundhouse kicks today. I will let you see what we will do and get a sense of how the kick should feel when you get it right. The roundhouse kick is a technically beautiful kick that provides masses of power when done correctly and is one of the most important kicks in Muay Thai. You can see how effective it is when it makes contact with the opponent. Feels good, yes? Ok guys lets sound it out and lets get a clear idea of how we fit it like a glove into other combinations”
Remember when using visual modalities your voice should speed up and then slow down when talking about feelings. We always deliver information for the auditory students at a normal speaking pace.
There’s a lot more to modalities than this small article, and these rules apply to all forms of communication. Next time you’re watching TV, take a close look at the adverts or watch a good comedian. Listen out for Modalities. Notice when they use Visual, Auditory or Kinesthetic modalities. Then start to use these techniques when you are teaching and notice how the level of engagement rises. You are more likely to retain students to if that’s something you might have problems with. A poor communicator always blames his/her students. If your students aren’t getting the message, look at yourself. You need to brush up on the basics!
Remember the mantra:
“The meaning of Communication is the response you are getting“
At first you may feel self conscious when using changing modalities but once practiced it will become part of what you do and your students will thank you for it.
Check out my Muay Thai Channel on YouTube on similar subjects.