As the new year has kick started, most parent may make it as a new year resolution to have their child start an activity club school. With the increase in popularity of children activity clubs, more parents are searching for a good club and a good instructor. There are many great clubs and not so great clubs too but how do you tell the difference? What should you look for in a good club instructor since the instructor in most cases is the activity club?

Most parents will think that the most important thing to look for in an instructor is content knowledge. They want their club instructor to be dynamic, powerful and impressive in every way. This is obviously very important because there is nothing that looks worse than, for example, a black belt instructor who can’t deliver the goods when it comes to karate content. So this quality is definitely high on the list of prerequisites.

However there are other things to look for that may ultimately be even more important to you. Here are some other important points to consider.

Does the club instructor have good people skills? This might not seem as important at first because after all you want your child to learn about the dance, gymnastics or martial arts first and you are willing to put forth the effort no matter what. But the instructors who have great people skills are usually the ones who care about their students the most. Generally with this type of instructor your child’s progress will be foremost in their minds and they will do their best to encourage your child, give appropriate feedback and ensure s/he success in their program.

The opposite type of instructor may well be very good at the chosen activity but often seems arrogant, aloof and completely disinterested. It seems like they are more focused on trying to break your child’s spirit for the purpose of showing how weak they are in the activity. This may or may not be true, and some children react very well to this type of hardcore training but most may not do well in this environment. Instead, they need a healthy balance of tough love and positive encouragement. Think of which of the type of environment your child will flourish in.

What are the instructor’s qualifications? Again this is not just talking about their technical skill, although this is important. This is about other not so obvious qualifications they should have. So instead of just finding out what degree or certificate they are, try to find out other things such as how long have they been practicing in the specialised activity, how long have they been teaching, how often do they go on courses to improve their own skills? Do they have DBS, safeguarding and First Aid qualifications?

Other important qualities include: Do they do background checks on their assistant instructors? Are they qualified to rank the level that your child is at? Is their school or club a part of a larger organization that offers support and guidance to them?

These types of questions do not always give the full picture of the instructor’s ability in their level of teaching, but they do give you some idea as to how seriously they take themselves and their school or club.

What do the instructor’s lessons look like? Does the club instructor teach the same thing every lesson? Does the instructor seem disorganized and frazzled? Does each lesson flow from one activity to the next or is it disjointed and confusing? Some of these things are signs that your instructor does not know what they are doing.

Instead activity club lessons should be more like the following:

— A high-energy and positive environment where the instructor leads by example and models the techniques or drills.
— Ample opportunity to practice the techniques and drills in different ways while giving constructive feedback.
— Lessons flows seamlessly from one technique to the next and one activity to the next.
— The instructor is well-organized and uses multiple teaching methods such as verbal, visual and experiential.
— Questions are asked and comments are made to help reinforce the content.
— Good discipline is maintained in the class so there are minimal interruptions and children are held accountable for their effort and focus.

Hopefully these ideas give you a better picture of what to look for in a good activity club school and instructor. For more detailed information on similar topics be sure to contact us.