I’m assuming for the most part you love teaching karate, but I know you have some days that you wish you could do over.

It’s important on those days when you’re feeling flat, unmotivated and lethargic that you find your passion for teaching karate, otherwise your class will fall into the same slump as you.

KEY POINT: The energy of your class is often related to your own personal energy.

When the energy drops, students get bored. When students get bored students stop coming. When students stop coming, your passion for teaching takes another beating. It’s an evil downward spiral…

Here are some tips for setting and maintaining high personal energy to ensure you teach well…

• Get plenty of sleep!Avoid teaching class when you’re physically, emotionally or mentally exhausted! Nobody likes a grouchy unmotivated high school teacher – why would it be any different for you?
• RelaxLeave any unnecessary outside stress OUTSIDE! Bringing your personal stress into the dojo will rub off on your students. In other words, negativity breeds more negativity. If you must, pound on your punch bags or do 50 pushups before your students arrive to amp up your own energy and release your pent up tension.
• Structure & PlanningGive yourself a few minutes before class to mull over what you’re going to teach. Come up with a basic karate class plan with some different martial arts drills and exercises that you could possibly use. When your students arrive  you’ll be better prepared and feel more organized.
• Allow yourself sufficient time to get to classMany instructors rush from their day job, battle the traffic and arrive frazzled at the dojo only to be irritated that their students are lined up out front waiting for the doors to open. Sound familiar? Give yourself an extra 15 minutes to arrive early, get ready, relax and plan your session.
• Enjoy it!If you find you’re irritated or frustrated you gotta break that feeling my friend! Take a step back (physically and emotionally) and just smile. Put things in perspective and realize that your current circumstance is temporary and really is *NOT* a big deal. Getting bent out of shape over a student who can’t do his technique, or frustrated while disciplining an 8 year old raises your stress level and disrupts your momentum.

  Let it go! And get back to enjoying why you’re there… just like when you first starting teaching karate!