{"id":49,"date":"2020-05-09T13:42:54","date_gmt":"2020-05-09T13:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thehigherwaycode.com\/blog\/?p=49"},"modified":"2020-05-09T13:42:54","modified_gmt":"2020-05-09T13:42:54","slug":"top-tips-for-the-muay-thai-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehigherwaycode.com\/blog\/top-tips-for-the-muay-thai-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Tips For The Muay Thai Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Muay Thai and Modalities<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Modalities and Muay Thai\" width=\"770\" height=\"433\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9rs_5Pv7vbg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The teacher or coach\u00a0obviously\u00a0has the knowledge but cannot get their message across\u00a0in a way that will\u00a0captivate you. When it happens the time seems to fly by and before you know it, it&#8217;s time to go home! You can&#8217;t wait, however, to get back for the next installment! You look forward to the next class and you can&#8217;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\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">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&#8217;s not for you. That&#8217;s a real shame because the martial arts have a lot to offer when taught correctly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Whenever and whatever I teach I ensure that I stick to the basics of teaching. I always speak\u00a0clearly\u00a0and 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&#8217;t incidentally mean you have to shout. Even a whisper can\u00a0be projected\u00a0if 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">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. \u00a0I always ensure\u00a0that 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-90 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/thehigherwaycode.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Inmo-Bob-Validates-Two-Muay-Thai-Instructors-and-Presents-Their-Certification.jpeg\" alt=\"Inmo Bob validates two successful students who passed their instructors exams\" width=\"727\" height=\"546\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thehigherwaycode.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Inmo-Bob-Validates-Two-Muay-Thai-Instructors-and-Presents-Their-Certification.jpeg 727w, https:\/\/thehigherwaycode.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Inmo-Bob-Validates-Two-Muay-Thai-Instructors-and-Presents-Their-Certification-300x225.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 727px) 100vw, 727px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">These are important skills.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">I base these ideas on the 40 past \u00a0years of teaching, performing and educating. I&#8217;ve always believed that an outstanding teacher is an exemplary performer. If you don&#8217;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: <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/I7wDrePxlzo\">Teaching Persuasively<\/a> on YouTube.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The 4 foundations on which all good teaching rests are:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Rapport<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Behavioural Flexibilty<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Sensory Acuity<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Outcomes<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Today we are focusing on number 3 \u00a0Sensory Acuity and in particular the Modalities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Jargon aside, Modalities are a fancy way of describing the 5 senses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">What we See, what we Hear, what we Feel, what we Smell and finally what we Taste.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">We are sensory creatures and we rely on our 5 senses for our survival.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">When we communicate with each other we look, we listen and we get a feeling about things.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">It&#8217;s human nature\u2026 it\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">In\u00a0any group of people there will be some whose main\u00a0Modality is the Visual modality. In fact, most people I have taught over the years,\u00a0around\u00a070% of them, are responding visually and like to\u00a0be shown\u00a0the\u00a0techniques. This leaves 30% not responding to your teaching fully. Lets say for sake of argument that 20% \u00a0prefer to listen to you when you talk about\u00a0techniques and only learn well when they\u00a0are given\u00a0information about that\u00a0technique. That leaves\u00a010% and they are what we call\u00a0Kinaesthetic 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!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">In the above example I have generalised the situation, but it is close to what happens in a typical class. It&#8217;s\u00a0true to say that a sizeable group of people use Visual with a bit of Auditory. Or a touchy\u00a0feely person also likes to see\u00a0techniques performed\u00a0as it makes them feel good. This is true, but we all have a preferred system initially from which we function in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">If you are predominantly a visual person and you&#8217;re teaching a group of people and you use your preferred modality you are unlikely to hold the entire group&#8217;s attention. As a visual person you\u00a0will\u00a0find that you\u00a0will speak quickly and use visually stimulating words.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Phrases\u00a0like:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cIs that clear?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cDo you see what I mean?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to showing you this next technique\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">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&#8217;s eye! A picture is worth a thousand words and when they speak don&#8217;t we know it!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Sadly, the Kinaesthetic and Auditory students will not be seeing eye to eye with you. The touchy feely person needs to:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><em>\u201cget to grips with the technique\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><em>\u201cknow that it feels right\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><em>\u201cWants get hold of the idea\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The auditory students would like more information about what it is you are teaching them:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><em>\u201cListen to\u00a0this\u00a0guys\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><em>\u2018Does that click for you?\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><em>\u201cI hear what you&#8217;re saying\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">They prefer an information-based understanding of the technique and require lots of detail.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">An Auditory person will speak at a normal regular pace and likes to\u00a0be spoken\u00a0to in that way whereas the kinesthetic student needs time to process the information and prefers a slower delivery. This style often infuriates visual learners!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><em>\u201cget a move on\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">An auditory person\u00a0tends to look\u00a0left and right as if accessing the organs of hearing\u2026 the ears. Some may even adopt a telephone position with their hands!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">This builds up a significant rapport which\u00a0in turn\u00a0builds trust in the teacher.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">So if you want to be an elegant and eloquent teacher, take these principles on board and include them in your language. Non Verbal\u00a0as well as\u00a0verbal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Here&#8217;s a brief example:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cHi Guys,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">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\u00a0that 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\u00a0makes contact with\u00a0the opponent. Feels good, yes? Ok guys lets sound it out and lets get\u00a0a clear idea\u00a0of how we fit it like a glove into other combinations\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Remember when using visual\u00a0modalities 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">There&#8217;s a lot more to modalities than this small article,\u00a0\u00a0and these rules apply to all forms of communication. Next time you&#8217;re watching TV,\u00a0take a close look at\u00a0the adverts or watch a good comedian. Listen out for Modalities. Notice when they use Visual, Auditory or Kinesthetic modalities. Then\u00a0start to\u00a0use these techniques when you are teaching and notice how the level of engagement rises. You are more likely to\u00a0retain\u00a0students to if that&#8217;s something you might have problems with. A poor communicator always blames his\/her students. If your students aren&#8217;t getting the message, look at yourself. You need to brush up on the basics!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Remember the mantra: <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>\u201cThe meaning of Communication is the response you are \u00a0getting\u201c<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">At first you may feel\u00a0self conscious when\u00a0using changing modalities but once practiced it will become part of what you do and your\u00a0students will thank\u00a0you for it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Check out my Muay Thai Channel on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9rs_5Pv7vbg&amp;t=182s\">YouTube<\/a> on similar subjects.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/app.getresponse.com\/view_webform_v2.js?u=yhtcf&#038;webforms_id=STJL4\" data-webform-id=\"STJL4\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; 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\u00a0obviously\u00a0has the knowledge&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[33,31,9,18,32],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts","tag-contact-sports","tag-modalities","tag-muay-thai","tag-nlp","tag-thai-boxing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehigherwaycode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehigherwaycode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehigherwaycode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehigherwaycode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehigherwaycode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thehigherwaycode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehigherwaycode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehigherwaycode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehigherwaycode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehigherwaycode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}