Episode 751 - Announcing Martial Arts Teacher Training and Certification

In this episode, Jeremy and Andrew are joined by Craig Wharem Announcing the Martial Arts Teacher Training and Certification (MATTaC)

Announcing Martial Arts Teacher Training and Certification - Episode 751

Part of whistlekick’s goal is to improve the quality of education in Martial Arts and help teachers and instructors become better at what they do. In this episode, Jeremy and Andrew are joined by Craig Wharem to announce the new Martial Arts Teacher Training and Certification Program (MATTaC).

After listening to the episode, it would be exciting for us to know your thoughts about it. Don’t forget to drop them in the comment section down below!

Show Transcript

You can read the transcript below.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Hey, what's going on everybody, welcome. This is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio. And we've got an episode today where we're going to tell you all about a new thing that we made. And if you've been around for a while just because it's a commercial doesn't mean there isn't value to those of you who will never have any interest in doing what we're doing. We're tackling the subject today of becoming a better instructor. I'm joined by frequent, often co-host, Andrew Adams, and somehow slightly less often, less frequent, despite having no official role on this show. Craig, welcome. 

Craig Wharem:

Thanks for having me. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

If you, the listener or viewer, want to go deeper on this or any of the other things that we do start at whistlekick.com, you might end up at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. And just a heads up, the thing that we're talking about today is referenced available, you can sign up at whistlekick.com. So Andrew, I'm going to turn it over to you. Because yeah, you're playing a couple different roles as we do this episode. 

Andrew Adams:

Alright, so here I am to play a couple of roles. Let me grab my drumsticks. And we'll get going.

Jeremy Lesniak:

If there's anybody who could handle drumsticks in this. Well, in this context, it's you. 

Andrew Adams:

Yeah, that's fair. So we're here to talk about the martial arts, teacher training and certification, which is a mouthful. So you have dubbed it MATTaC. And for the listeners, I knew nothing about this certification program, until probably a couple of months ago. I had nothing to do with it. And when I first heard about it, I was like, “Oh, that's interesting”. How did you guys think of this as an idea to do and why? So Craig, let me ask you like, well, where did this come from? What stemmed from this? 

Craig Wharem:

Sure. So ever since I was looking, I wanted to be a teacher. And I fell into karate teaching, and it just became a passion. As passionate as I am about the arts, I'm just as passionate about education and improving the quality of education. So when Jeremy and I became friends, probably five, six years ago, we started to talk about it and started to take form then. And then within I'd say, the past 18 months or so it started to get more serious, more serious. And then for about a year, we've played it pretty close to the vest on just developing what we feel is, you know, a really strong certification program where we help make teachers better, we help improve them in any skill set. You know, and anyone can benefit from it. 

Andrew Adams:

Okay, that makes sense. Now, Jeremy, you, most of the listeners will know, or if they don't know, they're about to find out, you were pretty heavily involved in CrossFit for a long time I was. And when I heard of this, the first thing that came to my mind was CrossFit also does this type of certifications. And how much of that kind of came into play when you guys were designing this?

Jeremy Lesniak:

Well, it's really about the ethos, I think one of the MATTaC differences between CrossFit and nearly every other physical pursuit, at least, all of the ones that I'm aware of, is that broadly, there is a culture, whereby the longer someone has been doing the thing, the less likely they are to seek out ways to improve doing the thing. That was martial artists, we are quite used to getting better at our own skills. But I've noticed over the years, and especially over the last few years, because with whistle kick, I now have the opportunity to see a lot of different schools and how they do things. 

And there's an adage in our industry, that is a sad but true observation that just because you can do doesn't mean you can teach. And I found that the more somewhat the longer someone had been teaching, the less likely they were to want to improve their skills, which I found to be a real bummer. So I looked at what's the one place in my life where I don't see that culture existing and it's in the world of CrossFit. There's a culture there where let's just keep getting better, because that helps us to keep getting better. 

And so as Craig and I put these things together, despite neither of us being prone to wearing vests, we didn't talk about it very much. And we slowly built this umbrella. And we're now releasing the first piece of that, you know, it's Martial Arts Teacher Training and Certification because not everything we're going to do as a certification, not everything we're going to do as a training. And we have this broad goal, that the level of martial arts instruction across the world is elevated. 

Andrew Adams:

Interesting. You know, one of the things that I took away when you first told this to me, my first initial thought was, well, that's interesting. But, you know, I've already been teaching for a while, like, why would I need this sort of thing? And all I could my mind continued every time going back to was an episode, Jeremy, that you and I did on what makes a good instructor. And one of the biggest things we talked about was that the instructor themselves is constantly learning that, that at no point should the instructor always know everything. 

And so it was interesting to go into this with that kind of an open mind and see what this was, and kind of develop it from there. Now, Craig, one of the things I am curious about is this program and I know the for the listeners, I know the for the question, I'm about to ask a little peek behind the curtain there. Going back to Craig. Craig, this certification and the teacher training is all about how to teach people to do a better Front punch, right? And how to get stronger sidekicks, right? That's what this program is about. 

Craig Wharem:

No, not even close. You know, the thing is what I found, and one of my motivations behind this is kind of like Jeremy said, just because you can do something well doesn't mean you know how to teach it. Well. I use the analogy here, the school I run, where, if you're a blackbelt, in Kempo, that's awesome. 

You could be an orange belt teacher, though. It's a whole different skill set, because teaching is about communicating, empathizing, and knowing how to break it down. There's a science and an art to teaching.And what I found was when I doubled down on teaching that to my staff, they flourished, you know, they, they understood that, it didn't really matter. And I test drove that theory myself. 

Over the past couple of years, having no formal education in you know, going to college and anything like that, for teaching, all of mine has learned from, you know, 20 years of teaching. I went in, I started teaching in school substitute teaching, jumping into different classrooms, teaching content that I was handed, using the principles that I've learned over the years, and it still worked, I still was able to gain rapport, build a positive culture, and communicate what needed to be gained with the students who never throw a punch or kick. But instead, we're learning algebra.

Andrew Adams:

Interesting. And that makes sense, you know, how it was delivered was in a very non-style, it's very style agnostic way. You know, it really, the program really does delve around the ideas of teaching, not what you're teaching. And so, you know, Jeremy, you have not officially opened this up to the public, but it's going to be opened up pretty soon. But you did run the program with a number of people. Would you like to talk about that?

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yeah. So by the time this airs, it'll be public. And that's kind of why we're recording this now. As we are as part of our launch for MATTaC. And, yeah, martial arts teacher training and certification is a mouthful. And I just liked the acronym MATTaC. I don't know. It's just something we'll do with marketing someday with MATTaC. I don't know how or what, but we'll get there. Eventually. Overall, I lost my train of thought. What were you asking me?

Andrew Adams:

So it's not open to the public, but it will be once you have run this program.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Audience if you can't tell, I am so excited about this, because Craig and I have worked so hard for so long on this, that the fact that we're here now, like I want to cry. And I almost cried a little bit. Because we did this on Sunday, we brought a group together that Craig and I knew was ready for primetime. So we did it, we invited people that we knew would not only show up, but give us real feedback, right? There are people and I'm sure everyone out there can relate. There are people you go to when you want feedback that makes you feel good. And then there are people you go to when you want real feedback. That doesn't always make you feel good when you really want to know what you have. And that's the group that we pulled together. We said you know, this group will be honest with us, Andrew, you were of course one of those people. And Craig and I took this depending on how you look at it five Six years or 18 months of effort and put it out there. And yeah, I just didn't answer your question again. That's okay. I'm having a hard time focusing out of my excitement on this truly. 

Andrew Adams:

Yeah, I totally get it. How can people like when and how can people sign up for this? Like, when are they going to be able to?

Jeremy Lesniak:

That's easier? But that's an easier question for me to answer. We are releasing this publicly for the first time, the day after free trading day northeast on November 13. Sunday, November 13. in Keene, New Hampshire, we're gonna have limited slots, because it's just Craig and I and two people can only handle so many people. 

And anybody who's ever taught a martial arts class knows that, you know, ratios matter, anything knows that ratios matter. And we're focused on delivering a quality product here. So for those folks who might be attending free training de ne or if you're watching or listening to this in the future, our plan is to expand this not just geographically, but in terms of what we're offering, what the classes are.

Andrew Adams:

Now, Jeremy, I'm gonna throw it back to you here for a second. Sure. I know that the CrossFit organizations have these different levels of certification, but I don't know much about them other other than that they exist. I'm curious, how does this program compare financially to a CrossFit program?

Jeremy Lesniak:

So I want to make sure that people understand we are not teaching a CrossFit course, I want to be very, very clear. We are not teaching fitness, we're not teaching, I'm not taking material because there was a time when I was, let's see, my level two certification expired. And like the next week, I was so deeply in that world for so long, and I gained a tremendous amount about it gained a tremendous amount from it, that we're mimicking two things that are done. One, there is a progression of core education crossfit as a level 1234. There are certain prerequisites at certain stages, things like that. And then there's also specialty courses. 

So Craig and I have put together what we're calling our level one, you know, our introductory level course, which does not have a test, it is not a certification, it is a teacher training. But level two will be a certification. And we have also got a whole list of specialty courses that we've already considered. We alluded to some of them in the teacher training in the level one, because we want this industry to get better. And I do want to shout out CrossFit as having put together some of the best training on any subject. In fact, I will go even further, the best training on any subject I have ever attended. And that is my goal. My goal is that we get to that level of quality.

Andrew Adams:

Yeah. And you know, one of the things that you know, what viewers and listeners should understand, like I did take the course last weekend, and 90% of me, it was all educational, it was information thrown at us, I took a ton of notes. There were some great quotes that came from the seminar, which is not seminars, certification, I will definitely be using them in my classes and just things for me to think about as I continue to teach. But Craig, I'm interested, how it's different, like doing this type of certification. 

We've all the three of us. And most of our listeners and viewers have probably stood in front of a class and taught a class and you are teaching something physical. This course is not like this course where I was sitting at a desk most of the day, I would say probably 80% of it was just learning information, which was amazing. And like I said I took somebody else. How difficult was it for you to be able to step out of teaching a class this way you punch and kick to teach how to teach.

Craig Wharem:

Because I've done it for so long from training my own staff. You know, Andrew, you've met some of my instructors who work for me, Jeremy, you've met them all. I put a very, very high priority on the word school and teacher. So for me, it was pretty simple to step into that role because what I taught you Andrew is no different than exactly what I'm teaching my day to day stuff. half a year. Because the thing that really kind of always bothers me is the lack of educational confidence that martial arts instructors and teachers have. 

I'm just a Taekwondo instructor, I'm just a karate teacher, whatever it may be, I can't stand the word just interesting because what we teach can help people in so many ways. And for me, one of the things that I define as what we do and how I prioritize things, is that I did the stats based on the information I had. 98% of our students here have never used the physical skills that I've taught them. 100% of them have been stressed out, overwhelmed, depressed, anxious, upset. And so when I stepped back, and I said, okay, well, we need to empower martial arts teachers who are in a unique position in the community to help, what are they going to benefit from, and they're going to benefit from sitting down and listening and not being afraid that they're learning, I'm learning a front kick a different way, and it's going to be wrong. 

And so the original idea was, you know, and Jeremy, we actually have a note on this, Jeremy drills, Craig lectures, because I'm comfortable in that role. Sharing stories, I've gotten a lot of them from teaching over the years and stuff and being open to trying to inspire, you know, the confidence that most instructors need, even if they don't realize they need it. They don't always recognize the unique position they have in a community where they could really make some lasting impact.

Andrew Adams:

Yeah, that's great. One of the things that I really enjoyed and took, enjoyed and really took away from taking the certification program was happy seeing how others handled situations that I myself have been in or will definitely see myself being in in the future. You know, there were some role playing situations, they were they were, you know, there were eight of us there taking the class. 

And so I got to see seven other people handle situations in the teaching environment, you know, how would you deal with this particular type of student? And while the other instructor was dealing with that type of student, I'm thinking in my head, what would I do? Like, how would I do it, and nine times out of 10, for in this case, six times out of seven. It was different, how I would have handled it, but I took something away from seeing how they taught. And I think that's an important thing for people to get when they are thinking of this program. You know, I said at the beginning that it's not just about, you know, credit, you mentioned that this program is not about teaching you how to punch and kick. You know, whistle kick has never been about that. But learning how to teach and thinking of different teaching concepts is interesting. Now, Jeremy, I'm curious. You and Craig both came into this together, but you both have your own experiences. And I'm curious what you learned from Craig, that helped you with the certification.

Jeremy Lesniak:

I think the most important thing is this idea that, you know, my school, if we want to call it a school, is whistlekick. You know, you use the term style agnostic, which is a term that we use internally, quite frequently, when we're deciding what, why and how we're going to do things. We're never going to tell people, here's how you punch and kick. But we will tell you, here's why you might punch or kick, here's when you like, punch or kick. 

And so if you experienced this class, and I'm gonna make a small correction, on the language that you're using, this is not a certification because there was no testing. Oh, fair enough. Yeah. Okay. This is this is a, this is a class, you receive a certificate of completion, not a certificate of any kind of a standard. Yeah. And that's important, because that is going to become critical as we move forward. Because we want people to get better. And we want schools to say, you know, 80% of our instructors are whistle kick level two, or three or whatever. Right. So like, there's a pretty big and lofty goal here.

 But one of the things that I haven't had is a whole bunch of students where I can work through a lot of these things. And as Craig mentioned, on our notes, because we have pages of notes that we work through, as we do this, there's a division, right? I don't have as many stories to talk about the time. Student Aid to this student B did that I don't have the anecdotes for illustrating these examples. But what I do have is skill, putting together drills and die. Handling and finding, okay, you're there's something going on here. Let's unpack that. And folks who have been listening to the show for a long time, have seen me do that with guests on the show interview. And I do that on an almost weekly basis, as we work through topics and find why it becomes a really critical element, as we thread through this course. And everything that Craig and I are doing is hitting on those points. So what I gained from him is, let's call it application of these concepts that I know that I understand, but I have far less experience implementing.

Andrew Adams:

Yeah, I will say it was a great marriage of your two strengths. You know, Craig, tons of experience with hundreds and hundreds, if not 1000s of students, throughout his years of teaching and implementing his ideas on teaching. And Jeremy, your ability to come up with drills and connect with those drills to specific people was phenomenal. I'm curious, what am I missing? Like, what else did I do that I continue to go back to? I know that there are people out there listening, that are thinking in their head? I've been teaching for 40x years. I think I do a great job. Why should I take this sort of program?

Craig Wharem:

How often do people do that, how often do they practice their own martial arts material, it's the same concept. If you go to your martial arts classes and your training in your martial arts, then it's the same exact thing, if you go to a teacher class, and you're learning how to improve your teaching, it's the same thing. Like, you know, I appreciate the kind words, I've taught a lot, I have a lot of experience with a wide range of, of, you know, different needs and things. I still go and shadow schools.

I'm still chatting with educators all the time outside of martial arts to get better. I ask for feedback from people who have taught longer than me on things, not the content of what I'm teaching, but the quality at which I'm delivering it. And that need to continue to improve from an education standpoint is important. Because you, you get the opportunity as a teacher to plant seeds of growth and your students. 

And if you don't constantly continue to maintain the equipment you use for that, then you're not going to yield a great product, you're not going to be able to have this awesome impact on people who need you. And that's really important. So the other thing I want to highlight is when we did this with the eight people, there were people there who had no experience teaching groups, none. And then there were people there who had been teaching since that, you know, for the past 40 years, and they both walked away with things that helped change and tweak them. 

I've heard from everyone about how, and everyone got it a little something different, because that's what we're there for. You know, after you train in the martial arts for a long period of time, it's not about learning a fancy new kick, it's about learning maybe a new little tweak on the kick that you like better, you know, one of my martial arts surfaces all the time, if you can find one little gem of information in a in a course, then it's worth it. And I agree completely, just because you've taught for a long time doesn't mean you can't continue to improve or find a new way to teach.

Andrew Adams:

Perfect, very well said. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

Can I add on a little bit to that?

Andrew Adams:

I'm gonna say Jeremy, what would you have to say about that?

Jeremy Lesniak:

I've got another way of looking at it. When someone meets something like this with resistance. And I understand that logistically, it might not work out or somebody might not want to pay to come to court. I totally get that. And if those are your reasons for not attending. Yeah, I'm with you. But if your reasons are, I'm not going to get anything out of that, I would challenge you with that you are looking at it in one of two ways. 

One, no one can make you a better teacher, which is incredibly arrogant. And I think that if you are listening to this channel, you know that we constantly find ways to supply new and different information. In fact, we are completely committed to bringing new, better, more different things. And we've been able to do that time and time again. Or you're saying that Craig and Jeremy have nothing to teach me. I'd also suggest that if you've been listening to martial arts radio for a long time, you're probably getting something out of these episodes. 

If every time you listen to an episode, you get nothing. I can't imagine you sticking around very long. So please consider that what we've put together with significant amounts of.. is something that I cannot fathom. Somebody would not get something out of it. True, if that makes sense.

Andrew Adams:

Is there anything else that I'm missing? Well, anything you guys want to say, before we wrap up?

Craig Wharem:

I am just proud of what we've put together, I think that it changes some things around. And we're not saying that we're better teachers than anyone else. All we're saying is that we've combined our experience to help hopefully inspire something. And I'll be honest with you, as I went into that course, and when we did it, with the eight folks who came up, as I watched them roleplay, I was like, Oh, I like that. 

That's a cool idea that I might take that too, you know. So it's an exchange a little bit. And we see the way that you handle something, you see the way we handle it, and it melds into teamwork. Because a rising tide raises all ships, right, we want to raise the level of education in the martial arts. That's not to say that it's not already at a higher level, because I think that we are better teachers now than we used to be. And I think that that'll continue. But it's, it's an exchange, where it's not us saying we're better. 

So it's not us saying anything like that, it's us saying, these are our ideas, this is how we're presenting it to you. And we found success doing it. Like I said, I'm not standing up there saying things that I don't make my own team go through when we're teaching. And we have a specialized school in that most of our students, you know, require a bit more time than others. And that's okay. A lot of guidance counselors, and therapists and social workers refer students to us because of the way we teach. And so if we can take some of that, and help you continue to make an impact on people who need it, then that's the whole point of the course.

Andrew Adams:

Awesome, Jeremy.

Jeremy Lesniak:

It's about creating a culture. Right? There's something that I'm taking right from one of the points in the course, this idea that it is not Craig and I standing up at the front of the room saying this is how you must do things because we know all and you should listen to us. It's us creating an environment as we share information that is designed to get you to think and fostering that environment in such a way that everyone gets something out of it, not just from us, but from each other. 

And that's exactly the same culture, that interview and I put into martial arts radio, it's the same culture that goes into free training day, it's the same culture I put into the seminars I teach. It never listened to me. Do what I say. Here are my ideas, take them, try them, experiment with them, learn what you can from them, and learn what you can't take from what I or in this case we are sharing. It is something that I think is not going to be unique. Because again, that's kind of arrogant. 

But I think it's rare. And it's a circumstance where I cannot imagine that there's a more economical way in terms of both time and money for you to develop skills that will help you reach whatever your goals are, as an instructor, whether you're what you're looking for is I want to be able to teach classes better, so I retain my students better, I want to better be able to handle the oddities that pop up, I want to better be able to handle challenges within my school or between students, any of those things, we cover this and so much more. And sure, you can go read a bunch of books and get a lot of the same stuff. You can go train with a bunch of instructors and pick their brain and see this, but this is purpose built. 

We started Ground Zero. Knowing our audience, knowing our experiences, knowing the parameters being that this is a one day course this is not an hour long thing. This is a full day. And it was designed as such, because we felt that was the best way to get people going whether they are, you know, just about to start teaching their first classes or they've been teaching for 40-50 years. Awesome.

Andrew Adams:

Well, Craig, I want to thank you for coming on and letting us know about this. Jeremy, I thank you for coming on, but you kind of have to be here.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Thank you for coming on your own show.

Craig Wharem:

It was my pleasure. I had fun.

Andrew Adams:

It was good. Hopefully we'll see a bunch of people on the Sunday after free training day northeast November 13. It would be the day of magic although the 12th is free training day. I hope to see everybody there too, as well.

Jeremy Lesniak:

And of course we're going to be doing things this morning in the future. So a few things that I want to make sure we disclose as we go forward. Prices will slowly march up on this, as we get more reach for it, prices will go up. 

So if it's something you're interested in, don't wait. That's number one. Number two, the way we have this setup is that there is a dynamic element to it. So it's not going to be the same. If you attend multiple times, you will get slightly different experiences, the core elements will be the same. But it doesn't mean that attending again will be of no value. Okay, just like anything else, practicing it will be better. And if you pointed to something that I want to address, you said that you know, the majority of your time you were sitting. Ask a group of people to sit all day or most of the day. And how do you know whether they are engaged? How much fidgeting do they do?. There was almost no fidgeting, there was something I was watching for that was determining whether or not we were going to move on at certain times. I didn't see any of you fidgeting. The only fidgeting I saw was notetaking. 

It was a lecture, it was a discussion. It was a drill. It was crosstalk; it was all of the ways that people learn, right? demonstration, practice, listen, right, all of those things. And so if you're watching or listening to this years in the future, know that, like everything else whistlekick does, it's grown and it's better. And if you want to go deeper, you can sign up or learn more at whistlekick.com. 

Andrew Adams:

Cool. 

Jeremy Lesniak:

All right. If you're still here, thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. We appreciate all of you. And if you want to book one of these get Craig and I to come out and teach this in your area. Maybe you want it just for your students, we can do that. 

Maybe you want to host it and bring some people into your area to take this class. There's a way where you bring people in as they sign up. You can send some of your students for free. We've built the economics around that as well. So don't be afraid to reach out Jeremy@whistlekick.com and I'll loop Craig in and we'll do all that good stuff. So do we want to try a three person sign off?

Andrew Adams:

I think we each take one.

Craig Wharem:

Oh, this is stressful. Okay.

Andrew Adams:

Until next time, train hard.

Craig Wharem:

Smile. Oh, I screwed it up.

Jeremy Lesniak:

Have a great day.