My Martial Arts Home and The Values Within
Our Organization
At Centerpoint Martial Arts we strive to provide a service to the community, our customers, and our students which is anchored by 4 values:
• Martial arts training can enhance any family.
• Helping others is the highest reward in life.
• Everyone should be listened to, respected, and understood.
• Continuous improvement creates the best possible experience.
• Every individual has unlimited potential.
Our facility is open 7 days a week at multiple times throughout each day and anyone is welcome to participate in our classes. Our instructors lead groups and individuals in fitness kickboxing and kenpo karate. We host presentations with the goal of empowering the attendees spiritually, emotionally, and physically. We provide a safe and fun environment for child care. With all that we offer, Centerpoint Martial Arts is a strong community asset in the Southern Maine region.
What I Do
My role as a member of the Centerpoint team is primarily that of an instructor for the kenpo karate program. I work with students of all levels and any age within those beginner or above programs. In most cases, the students I work with are between 6 and 10 years old.
While I have had the pleasure to work with multiple generations of the same family, I’m currently only working directly with children of families. I do however, teach siblings in the same classes quite often. This dynamic provides to opportunity to facilitate the enhancement of families on 2 levels.
The students I teach are strongly encouraged and expected to act with a high level of respect, focus, self-esteem, and empathy while working with me. I appreciate that people have varying attention spans, arrive to class in different emotional states, and are physically limited by their personal natural development. My patience for and attention to each student is measured by these factors, especially when I am working with multiple students. Regardless of how a student is responded to elsewhere, it is important that how I treat all students fairly in consideration of the class.
On the floor, my goal is to teach students how to perform movements in a defined curriculum to the best of their current ability level. Ideally, the student’s goal is to learn those movements. I focus a majority of my attention to the students who are active, responsive, and are making it obvious to me that they want to learn and participate. When a student repeatedly shows disinterest in the exercise and I have another student who is continuing to stay focused, I will spend my energies working with the students who wish to learn.
Outside of actions that are physically disrupting the actions of other students, it is my experience that by giving minimal attention to a non-participating student, respect for behavior is appropriately interpreted. Students who are participating understand that they are receiving positive attention and with each class they can see the reward as they get better at their movements. Students who are not participating realize that they are not getting any attention and that the only way to get attention is to participate in the exercise. This may be contrary to other environments where their same actions invite and is fueled by attention.
I believe that teamwork is integral to any learning experience. Tribalism is a very real part of our human history and has been the root our survival. By sharing goals and values, small groups persevered. For many people, it is natural to work with and feed from each other’s experience to better improve themselves, in turn improving their group.
Although kenpo karate is an individual action, as I teach the students, I prefer to see them work together to improve. I facilitate this through pairing students of different levels or attitudes in drills. The drill might involve mirroring or practical use of movement. In these situations, I encourage discussion regarding the partner of the student and their performance toward the goal. I praise students who notice and assist other students without prompting.
How I Relate to Our Values
I respect my students and appreciate each one for who they are. My approach builds self-esteem through real self-improvement. I show the student and they work hard to interpret my movements into their own. I provide a safe environment to make mistakes, to lead, and to question.
I believe that all of this relates to our values. Each time a student participates and fully engages in a class, the experience becomes a part of them. They take that home with them to their family and influence the members of that family by being a better person.
I recognize each student as an individual and teach to their level. Even during a group exercise, I am watchful for the students who do not look as comfortable with the movements as the average student in the group. I am happy to provide as much individual attention as a student who wants to learn needs.
In every example of a non-participating student that I’ve encountered, I’ve seen improvement and a high degree of skill once they choose to focus. My teaching philosophy requires the student to choose to learn which may counter a parent’s initial expectations for the class. I have not received any direct negative feedback. It’s natural for me to internally question if I’m meeting the expectations of the people who are paying for the classes. I could make improvements in my interpersonal interactions with the parents. I find this challenging considering most of my time is spent on the floor with their children.
How Operations Relate to Our Values
Every staff member is required to adhere to a system within the operating day that reinforces our values and puts them on display for the community. Greeting our guests, acknowledging their departure, and engaging with students off of the floor are all examples of how we live up to the values we are built around.
The curriculum system of teaching allows for no more than 5 minutes for a given exercise activity. Given our staffing level, the ratio of instructors to students is not adequate to provide an appropriate level of attention to struggling students in that time. When we teach based on the clock, there is a potential to overlook our failures to properly communicate instruction and ensure that the student has learned what is a necessary building block for future instruction.