By Søren Sjøstrøm Hansen, Member until 2013

An essential prerequisite for Shindenkan to be able to continue its sustainable traditions in Denmark and at the same time create "critical mass" at all levels of the educational pyramid is to ensure a sufficient number of qualified instructors and assistant instructors. And this had to be remedied on this last summer day in August 2008.

Approx. 50 Shindenkan members from all schools had accepted the invitation to instructor course 1 to improve their skills in "the art of acting as an instructor". As the instructor courses are also mandatory for providing competence, this might also have encouraged some of us to sign up. The course is aimed at all Shindenkan members from 7+. kyu. and must be passed before 5th kyu graduation. This meant that there was a large spread of age and management experience among the participants.

The course, which is aimed at training new as well as slightly experienced assistant instructors, started with a bit of management theory spiced up with a series of stories from the "real" dojo and good advice, which gave a lot of blood to the teeth for the subsequent practical learning process, where everyone and anyone (from jokokidz to old/wonder boys/girls) got the role of director in a very intensive RPG. The atmosphere was high, exchange of "better practice" fsva the toolbox, knowledge and experience bases took place as planned on a very large scale. The roles of the critical student, the better-informed student with many years of experience from another branch of karate, the crying student or the confused teenager, the lazy and unmotivating student or the flirtatious mother in many cases came incredibly naturally to them, which meant that the learners directors had their hands plenty full to avert total disaster at times.

An incredibly dynamic process, where the individual, regardless of degree and age, was tested in patience, professionalism and firefighting in one go. This also provided some really good "take away" feedback for the individual as well as a number of generic learnings that each individual can choose to use in future work, school or teaching situations.

In our group, the following "take away" points were: the roles between instructor and assistant instructor must be aligned, focus on the goal of the lesson is important, inclusiveness is an art but everything has a limit (the individual must not spoil the benefit for the other practitioners) , the curriculum must be the backbone, the way we do things in Shindenkan cannot be compromised and if the stage is set correctly, the goal can be reached every single time.

I must say that it sounds simple, but everyone had a positive "aha experience", which contributes to a deeper personal development and understanding - and not least sets new boundaries. The course ended with the groups giving each other gifts in the form of learning and good advice. That the course is also for JokoKidz is confirmed by my son, Anders, aged 12, saying that it had been a really good and educational experience, without reservation.

Approx. half of the participants from Instructor Course 1 had chosen to challenge their learning ability by continuing directly on Instructor Course 2, which is targeted at teaching students from 8.kyu to 7.kyu.

It is offered to Shindenkan members from 5+ kyu and must be passed before 2nd kyu graduation. The course is aimed at the somewhat experienced instructor with between 1-3 years of teaching experience. After a short break, work continued with the director's role and once again selected directors were given a not entirely easy task.

The development in complexity and bizarre students (it should be noted that the situations are taken directly from the dojo) naturally had some interesting consequences for the teaching, but once again it meant that the groups could distribute gifts to each other in the form of good advice, experiences and tips - which must be the highlight of any experience and knowledge sharing.

No need to reinvent the deep dish. In addition, the purpose of course 2 was to ensure that the future Shidoin-dai (local assistant instructor) is so knowledgeable about the organization that they can act as real ambassadors at all levels and be able to create clarity about Shindenkan, Shindenkan, Kaidenkan as well as the structure and function of the various systems and role worldwide. Through an overall understanding of connections, structure and function, the assistant coach will be prepared to be able to answer questions about the organization for 10th kyu – 7th kyu.

The theoretical review of the above required a lot of attention, the ability to take comprehensive and good notes, as the course was concluded with a written competence test.

Personally, I was happy to sign up for both courses together.

Course 1 gave me a lot of reflections on the connection to management situations in the company where I work and challenged me on why I didn't immediately use the same methods. I believe that in everyday life I have no doubt about the set of values under which I am employed/work and how far I can allow myself to go, including using the right and duty of management. Likewise, I know how I can and must stage or stage a given situation in order to achieve. Despite the fact that I am starting my 4 years under Shindenkan's auspices, I do not have this security close enough in life and perhaps waver a little on my own understanding of the value set.

Therefore, it was a welcome opportunity for me to get an insight into Shindenkan, Shindenkan, Kaidenkan and the structure, function and role of the various systems worldwide, including especially the more than 1000-year-old roots on which the organization is based. Despite having gnawed my way through the entire Shindenkan website on a flight across the Atlantic, and intensively listening to Renshi-dai Søren and Renshi-dai Martin's review on the board, there are still several hours of self-study before I can claim that I am well rooted in the structure of the organization and has enough insight to be able to stage a teaching process and have the self-confidence needed to be able to make the right decisions in situations like those we experienced during the role-plays.

As in other contexts, the perfect instructor must not only be technically skilled, but must also have an understanding of the organization's roots and, not least, be able to convey knowledge in a pedagogical way. In an organization like Shindenkan, where there is room for everyone and there is training at many belt levels, I have deep respect for our black belt instructors (well, kudos to all of them) and their ability to create a meaningful training for everyone at the same time . The whole comes in a close interaction between technical understanding, the ability to learn from oneself and create the right framework to teach the individual practitioners at their level.

Instructor packages 1 and 2 are the first out of 5, which is why participation in the above courses is just a superficial touch and insight into the "art of acting as an instructor". But it is exciting and instructive to share knowledge with the professional part of the organization (the black belts) as well as gain access to the enormous knowledge that we participants bring with us from their very different backgrounds - with one aim, namely "that the educational pyramid is filled out and secured future". The inspiration from the course should probably provide some thoughtful moments with flash backs and processing of situations from the role-playing games under my motto "trust yourself and keep a cool head".

Thanks to all instructors and karate colleagues for a good day.

With best regards
Soren Hansen
4 kyu, Ballerup, 2008