5 Things I learned from teaching a seminar

Written by Kento Kamiyama PT, DPT

This past weekend, I had the honor of teaching a group of physical therapists and physical therapy assistants my course “Movement Assessment and Corrective of the Spine” through Medical Minds in Motion, LLC.

The experience…. was surreal.

I’ve always dreamed of teaching a professioanl course since I was in PT school and the fact that it became a reality was a feeling I couldn’t explain.  As surreal the experience was, there were some challenges and struggles .  Hence I thought it was appropriate to write a blog post on what I’ve learned.  Without further ado, here are the top 5 things I learned.

1.  When you are able to teach, the material becomes more solidified and have deeper meaning.

Benjamin Franklin once said “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn”.  Although this quote seems more appropriate to the students, it also applies to me as an instructor.  As I taught about pain science, movement assessment/corrective and breathing, the information became even more enlightening and deep .  Either it was re-inforcing what I already knew or I found a different way to explain concepts, it really help me solidify the information.  All the information that seems irrelevant was forming into ‘one’ big story.  Things started to connect more and I believe my attendees felt the same.

2.  We learn better by doing.

When I was a child, I remember going to a summer camp counselor training and hearing the phrase “learning by doing” is the best way to learn.  Repeating again Benjamin Franklin’s quotes “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn”, I strongly believe this to be true.  My course is a one day 8 hour course that includes lecture and a large lab component since I believe ‘feeling’ and ‘doing’ the assessment and correctives is a large componenet to learning.  To be honest, since my lecture material wasn’t that long, I was worried I would breeze through the course.  However, with a strong lab component, it turned out to be perfect timing AND many students were interacting and asked thought provoking questions.

3.  You can’t win them all

As a seminar that was the first time around,  I believe it was a great turn out.  Mostly everyone felt some sort of change and how a simple corrective with good technique and breathing can have a profound effect on movement.  However, for each day there was 1 or 2 students that you can tell they weren’t interested, resonated or just didn’t buy into what I did.  I realized this is what I will encounter often but the important part is to not take it personally and do your best

4.   I have much to improve

Teaching is interesting.  No matter how many times I practiced the lecture, when you see and feel the reactions from the audience you receive different signals.  Some information you can tell they were interested and understood.  Some information, they would tilt their heads and question.  At those moments, I realized that my information can be organized with a better flow and there are many other ways that I could make an information come to life.  I have plenty of learning to do myself.

5.  More appreciation to the people that have influenced you

I know for a fact that I will not be where I am today without the inspiration, education and courage from my family, friends and colleague.  I gave a lot of acknowledgement in the lecture but I do want to give special acknowledgement to Dr. Kathy Dooley for giving me the inspiration to take the leap towards my goal.  She has been a huge mentor and inspiration to further my studies but to improve as a overall practitioner and person.  Thanks Kathy :).  If you haven’t checked her out, check her blog at http://www.drdooleynoted.com.  Also if you want anatomy come to life through movement, check out her anatomy and movement course called Immaculate Dissection.

Honorable Mention

–  Breathing drills are still awesome

As a movement assessment and corrective course, I emphasized a lot about breathing and how it correlates to movement.  When students didn’t have good results with some correctives, often they weren’t breathing as well with their diaphragm which created too much tension or too little depending on the intention of the corrective.  When breathing was improved, they saw more improvements after

– Traveling is tiring

I’ve heard from instructors that the teaching aspect is great but the traveling aspect can be draining.  Even though my seminars were super close, it still drained me!  I have some preparation and learning to do for my next teaching in August in Florida.

Regardless, it was an amazing time.  Excited for our future dates.  Hope to meet some of you in the near future!  For more information on future seminars click go to:

http://medicalmindsinmotion.com/Seminars/Movementandmodernpainscience.aspx