It has been said that if you teach something once, you learn twice. I have always been fascinating with teaching. Maybe it's because both my parents were college professors and therefore it's something that I naturally modeled from them. I learned many great things from my parents growing up but one of them that heavily and POSITIVELY influenced me was the importance of LEARNING and the importance of SHARING what we learn!!! Other than learning, there is nothing that gets me as passionate and juiced up as TEACHING. I truly feel alive when I teach. Perhaps some of you reading this blogpost right now will relate with me and can understand what I am talking about it. Regardless of your field of expertise and knowledge, I can think of nothing more special and important for the advacement of the human race that TEACHING and teaching done well!!!
Why a blogpost about teaching? Well for one, all the knowledge that we have is because someone either wrote it in a book, taught it in a course or seminar, or personally showed it to us! We are ultimately where we are in our lives because of the teaching we have been exposed to or not been exposed to!!!
As a strength coach, I have made it one of my life's purposes to teach and empower as many people as possible to be better in movement, athletics and in life!!! If at the end of my life people say that I was an enthusiastic teacher and was able to influence people to do greater things, than that is how I define success. More importantly, if my children say I was able to influence them and guide them with wisdom, humor, focus and a passion for learning and teaching then that will be a successful life!!! I can only pray to God that He will continue to guide me and fill me with wisdom to be able to humbly teach and share with others what I have been so fortunate to learn from the shoudlers of giants!!!
Are you a coach or aspiring coach?
The following are my top reason why you need to get out there and teach what you are learning:
1) Sharing knowledge gives you a better understanding of the material.
That's correct!!! When you teach something you learn the material better yourself and therefore futher your understanding even more!!! Teaching in a very direct way causes you to put things together in your mind that you would have never put together just keeping it to yourself!!!
2) Teach things you are passionate about!!!
There is perhaps nothing as boring and lame then to watch someone teach a subject that they either know little about or have zero passion for! Do everyone a favor and find what you are genuinely passionate about!! Remember the boring baked out teacher in High School or College that put you to sleep? B-O-R-I-N-G!!!! Get excited when you teach and put some passion behind your words!!
3) Use your hands and alter the tone of your voice!!
I feel that teachers that vary the tone of their voice to accent worthwhile points in their teaching is important. It has been said that the majority of what we learn is not through words but more through body language and tone. I am not saying you have to be like Tony Robbins and jump up and down to get peopel excited but move your body, especially if you are teaching in a large group setting.
4) Make eye contact with people!!
I think when you look at people in the eye it has a very powerful impact on the person. Be genuine in your eye contact and don't just SPOOK people out by being too intense. Smile with your eyes....try it!!! Check out this great post on the looking people in the eye over at the Art of Manliness website.
5) Prepare yourself!! STUDY, READ, ATTEND WORKSHOPS AND LEARN!!!
The best teachers that I know are the ones that are always learning, always revising and always discussing ideas with others!!! When I think of great coaches and teachers they are always the ones that study, read, attend workshops, converse with others in and out of their fields and genuinely love to learn!! Think of how lucky we are in the RKC community to have Pavel, a man who never stops learning and never stops asking questions!! Master RKC Dan John is another coach who has forgotten more information on strength training than most of us will ever know!!! Brett Jones and Gray Cook, other passionate learners and studiers!!!
The bottom line is that in order to teach you have to fill your mind with great ideas and that only comes from reading and interacting with others who know more than you. This may be the single most important aspect of becomming a great teacher. It doesn't guarantee you will be a great teacher but it definitely gives you a lot of ammunition to build some credible systems, programs and information to teach to others!
6) Hang out with people that are smarter than you!!
Simple really! Attend seminars!! Ask questions!! Go out to eat with these people!!! Befriend them and genuinley support their efforts to help you and help others!!!
So that's it folks!! Get out there and TEACH, TEACH, TEACH!!!!!!
