How to Effectively Teach Health Qigong
—— Dedicated to Health Qigong Community Sports Instructors
I have served as a Health Qigong community sports instructor for many years, often teaching friends how to practice Health Qigong. Here, I will briefly outline my methods and experiences for everyone to discuss.
1. Prepare Well Before Teaching
First, one must be proficient in the techniques. You should be able to briefly introduce the name, origin, and characteristics of the techniques to be learned; accurately state the sequence and names of each movement; break down each movement into several sub-movements for teaching purposes; demonstrate the movements according to the textbook standards; and be familiar with the rhythm of the accompanying music, moving in sync with it while demonstrating the complete set of techniques.
Secondly, prepare the necessary audio equipment and corresponding music for the techniques. The accompanying music should be selected to include commands and be a longer version to align with the students’ daily practice after the lesson.
2. Arrange a Teaching Plan
The teaching plan should be arranged based on time requirements, student conditions, and venue conditions. Generally, for techniques with fewer movements, such as the Six Character Secret (Liù Zì Jué) and Eight Pieces of Brocade (Bā Duàn Jǐn), a 2-hour session divided into two classes is preferable. For techniques with more movements, such as the Five Animal Frolics (Wǔ Qín Xì) and Mawangdui Daoyin (Mǎ Wáng Duī Dǎo Yǐn), a 3-hour session divided into three classes is better. If the students are mostly young people with good physical strength and strong learning ability, the schedule can be tighter, and even two consecutive classes can be arranged if necessary. If the students are mostly middle-aged and elderly individuals with weaker physical strength and lower learning capacity, the schedule should be more relaxed, with a certain time interval between classes, and consecutive classes should be avoided.
3. Implement Teaching Step by Step
During teaching, the instructor and students should stand facing each other. Due to space and number constraints, students can also stand beside the instructor, as long as they can see the instructor’s movements and hear the explanations clearly, and as long as their movements do not interfere with each other.
Before teaching the movements, briefly introduce the name, origin, main characteristics, and learning plan of the technique. Then, start from the initial posture and teach each movement step by step. When learning each movement, first announce the name of the movement, then break it down into several sub-movements, learning one movement at a time. The steps are generally as follows:
1. First, demonstrate the complete movement of the technique to the students. If there are movements behind the body, turn around and demonstrate again. This is to give students a complete initial understanding of the movement.
2. Learn the hand and foot positions of the movement. Explain the standard requirements for hand positions and the starting and ending points of the movements. Describe the direction, distance, angle of the foot movements, and the requirements for the heel and toe.
3. Lead the students to learn the sub-movements one by one. Each movement can generally be divided into 4-8 sub-movements. When learning the sub-movements, first give the command, then slowly perform the movement while explaining the specific requirements. Once most students have successfully performed the movement, proceed to the next one. After completing all the sub-movements of this technique, connect all the sub-movements and perform the complete movement continuously 1-2 times.
4. Correct errors and answer students’ questions. Correct any mistakes found during the teaching of this movement, explain the reasons for the errors and the methods for correction, and further clarify the requirements for the movements. Engage in classroom interaction by asking students if there are any parts of the movement they did not hear clearly or understand, and provide immediate answers and demonstrations.
After completing the teaching of one movement according to the above steps, you can proceed to the next movement. After learning two or three movements, connect the previously learned movements and perform them with the accompanying music. At the end of each class, perform all the movements learned in that session. At the beginning of the next class, first perform all the movements learned in the previous class, then continue learning until the complete set of techniques is mastered. After mastering the complete set of techniques, immediately perform the entire set with the accompanying music 1-2 times, thus completing the teaching of the entire set of techniques.
4. Pay Attention to Two Key Aspects
Throughout the teaching process, it is important to pay attention to two key aspects. First, make good use of commands. Commands play a particularly important role in teaching; they use the simplest words to indicate the parts, directions, routes, and positions of the movements, allowing students to move immediately without hesitation. Commands generally consist of 2-4 words, serving as instructions and prompts for the sub-movements. For a 4-word command, the first two words generally refer to the legs and feet, while the last two refer to the arms, or all four words can refer to either the legs and feet or the arms. The wording of commands should strive to be concise, simple, standardized, and accurate. The commands used in teaching should be as similar as possible to those in the accompanying music.
Secondly, ensure good demonstrations. Demonstrations serve as a standard to establish the learning goals that students should strive to achieve. There should be no double standards or multiple standards; there can only be one standard, which is the Health Qigong textbook published by the General Administration of Sport of China. Demonstrations in teaching must comply with the standards set in the textbook. Generally, the instructor demonstrates while explaining, but it can also be done by having an assistant demonstrate or allowing a student who performs a certain movement well to demonstrate a more challenging movement. This approach can help bridge the gap between the instructor and students, enhance communication among students, and boost students’ confidence in learning Health Qigong.
The practice of teaching Health Qigong is an exploration of the objective laws of teaching and the best classroom for mastering teaching methods. It not only imparts techniques, facilitating the rapid popularization of Health Qigong and continuously improving the health level and happiness index of the public, but also allows the instructor to improve and benefit greatly. Health Qigong community sports instructors, when friends ask to learn Health Qigong from you, do not refuse or hesitate; take on the responsibility bravely and start teaching tomorrow. This is both an obligation and a responsibility for Health Qigong community sports instructors. Giving roses leaves a lingering fragrance; providing health leads to longevity. Teaching Health Qigong is undoubtedly a win-win situation.