A Few Thoughts on Instructing
Although cliche’, instructing exercise is more of an art than it is a science. It is learning to skillfully time your verbal cues to improve the subjects present time performance. What it is NOT is continuously teaching. Teaching and instructing are two different things. Teaching is verbose and is done outside the performance of the exercise. Over the years I have seen many well intended instructors fail to properly make the distinction between teaching and instructing with the result being a subject who now has to concentrate on an exercise while simultaneously trying to interpret the barrage of verbal information being relayed by the instructor. A person only has so much attentive resources.
As an instructor it is imperative to understand that you are part of the clinically controlled environment that we strive so hard to provide. We go through the trouble of controlling the temperature, perfecting the equipment, and eliminating any external distractions that could potentially distract the participant. So why on earth would we as instructors talk more than the bare minimal amount necessary to critique the subject's performance? As already mentioned, the instructor's job is to study the subject and provide precisely timed verbal cues WHEN NEEDED. That means that you are giving them something specific to work on and someone can only work on one thing at a time. You must relay the cue and wait to see if they execute it. Pick your battles. Do not assault a subject with everything they are doing wrong and then try to correct it all at once. All you will be doing is making a bad situation worse.
Understand that during the set the subject is under extreme duress. They are panicking and their minds are racing a million miles a second. You must provide a way pull them out of the panic and calm them down so that they can fulfill the real objective. If you aren’t calm then neither are they and talking continuously shows that not only do you lack the skill to calmly relay instruction, but that you don’t have skill to tame yourself. And if someone not physically engaged in the exercise can’t control themselves what shot do they have?
There will be times when a subject's performance is so bad that you’ll feel the need to reteach the exercise. Do this outside of the exercise and do it sparingly. A subject doesn’t need to go through a lecture every single workout. Say what you need to say and then choose one thing out of all that was presented to work on. Surprisingly, improving one aspect of their performance tends to improve other things. When/if they are able to execute what you taught then praise them. If they don’t, make sure to critique them with a succinct cue during the exercise. Make sure not to follow up this cue with something different to correct. You will only confuse them.
Be economical with your use of words. Not only will your cues be more effective, but you’ll be providing them with the objective and calming presence that they need in such an intense situation. If a subject seems not to be listening to you it is most likely that you are talking too much, and you have become a background noise that they have tuned out. In addition, you won’t be distracting other trainers' subjects with your excessive gab.
