| Friend,
Alright, let's talk martial arts curriculum design, starting with...
IF IT AIN'T BROKE...
For starters we're going to run with the caveat that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Too often I've seen martial arts instructors who continually tweak and jack with their curricula, even when there is absolutely nothing wrong with what they're teaching.
Typically, this is a result of suffering from Shiny Object Syndrome, whereby an instructor is addicted to attending seminars and watching martial arts instructional videos, and feels the overwhelming urge to immediately start teaching all the cool new stuff they've learned.
Yeah, don't do this. My advice is to mostly stick to your core art and curriculum, and save the cool new stuff for your advanced students or Black Belt Club (or whatever you call your unlimited elite membership - come to think of it, "Unlimited Elite Membership" is as good a name as any).
Why do I say this? Because constantly changing your curriculum and moving the goal posts on your students is just as frustrating for them as it would have been for you as a student. And if you ever experienced this when you were a student, you know how difficult it can be.
I remember that one of my early instructors had a falling out with his instructor, and was forced to leave their organization. Well, he went through a few new organizations in a very short period of time before he found the right fit.
Unfortunately for us, each of these organizations had a slightly different way of doing things, and what that meant for his students was that we had to learn new ways of doing things each time he changed organizations.
Let me tell you, when you're 15 and your whole life revolves around getting your next belt rank, and your instructor decides to change the requirements on you in a seemingly arbitrary manner, it's damned frustrating. That's exactly the sort of thing you want to avoid when you're working on your curriculum.
Which brings me to my next point...
DON'T REVEAL YOUR MASTERPIECE UNTIL IT'S COMPLETE!
Chances are good that once you start this process of revising and updating your curriculum, you are going to go through several iterations of the new curriculum before you find the right fit. That's simply to be expected.
However, the last thing you want to do is subject your students to being your guinea pigs while you figure out every last little detail and point of minutiae in your martial arts curriculum masterpiece. There's a reason why artists don't like to reveal their work before it's finished, and that's because:
#1 - Everyone's a critic, #2 - Not everyone is going to see your vision while it's just an idea, #3 - And, people tend to hate change. That means their default setting when it comes to change is to resist it, even if it's an improvement over their current state.
So, even mentioning the idea that you might be changing the curriculum can cause students to go flaky on you. As I said, people HATE change... and likewise they hate uncertainty as well.
Look, your students have enough uncertainty in their lives. Job security is kaput, the economy still hasn't bounced back to where it was before the recession, technology is disrupting their lives left and right as new inventions and tech get introduced almost faster than people can keep up...
And in the midst of all this, people need something solid to cling to, something that is predictable and familiar. For many of your students, that thing is your dojo. So don't screw it up for them.
Accordingly, my rule on introducing changes to my curriculum is to only do it once in a calendar year, tops. That's it. So when I'm working on changes to my curriculum I tinker and tinker and tinker with it until it's exactly what I want, and then and only then do I reveal it to my students.
Heck, I won't even announce it before I'm sure it's ready for prime time, simply because I know that students hate it when you change things up on them. So, be conservative in introducing new curricula to your students. VERY conservative.
And that brings me to my third point in today's email...
KNOW YOUR GOALS
Every good teacher knows that in order for a curriculum to be successful, you have to know what your goals are before you design it. Doing otherwise would be like constructing a building without input from an architect, or building a bridge or a road without input from an engineer.
When you see those pictures online of houses and office buildings with stairways and balconies that go nowhere, it's because either the builder's didn't know how to read plans, or they didn't have any. Designing a curriculum without knowing your intended outcomes is much the same. No good can come of this, trust me when I tell you this.
So, before you even begin, you need to know your intended outcomes and goals. And don't just say your intended goals are "to perpetuate the art" or some vague bullshit like that.
As if the "art" were an end unto itself...
Look, the "art" was designed for a purpose, and nine times out of ten that purpose was to serve the needs of people. PEOPLE ARE THE ART. Get that through your head. And although for many martial arts practice is a lifestyle, it is not a religion (not for me, anyway), and it should not be treated as such.
Instead, it should be looked upon as a vehicle for growth, a tool for improving the quality of life of its practitioners, and of course as a means of self-defense (and even as a tool for their survival in some cases).
But I warn you, when you look at the art you practice and teach from that perspective, suddenly you're going to find certain things that have always been done a certain way to be irrelevant or even downright arbitrary. And, you're going to want to fix them.
Of course, I'm not telling you to throw out the baby with the bathwater. You don't have to change your art to improve your curriculum in order to make it easier to teach and learn.
However, it's very likely that you'll come up with ways to teach old skills that are better. More efficient, more enjoyable, and more appropriate to the attitudes and personalities of your current students.
Sometimes, this can earn you the scorn and ridicule of others in your system or organization. Be advised that what you see as innovation, others may very well see as blasphemy. So, be sure that you can live with the consequences of revealing your creation before you choose to show it to the world.
FINAL ADVICE
My final advice to you on this topic is the same advice I give to everyone who is worried about what other people will think when they adopt new practices in order to improve and grow their dojos.
First, your critics don't pay your bills. Write that in big bold letters and post it up above your desk, because it's going to be crucial that you remember that as your dojo grows.
Second, your instructors don't pay your bills, either. I realized about the second or third month I was in my own place that my instructors often did things more because it was the way they were taught, than because of any logical pedagogical deduction or innovation they may have stumbled upon.
So remember that you are running your own school. And as long as you are teaching the same techniques you were taught, it shouldn't matter how you teach them - all that should matter is that you are passing along the same skills that were passed down to you.
And if in the end the process is more important to your instructors than the result, well... you have to question the benefit of any relationship that predicated more on control than mutual respect and concern. That's all I'm going to say about that.
Okay, so that wraps up today's email. Tomorrow I'm going to start getting into methods of reorganizing and updating your curriculum for school growth. Be sure to stick around for it, because it's going to be really useful info.
Until next time,
Mike Massie MartialArtsBusinessDaily.com
P.S. - I've always lived by the adage that "It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission." However, if you decide to take the info I provide in this email series and use it to revise and update your curriculum, you should take full responsibility for doing so. So don't blame me if your instructor or organization gets hot around the gi collar about you screwing with their traditions. He who slays sacred cows is bound to get chased out of town by angry mobs of sacred cow worshipers. Don't say I didn't warn you...
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