03/08/2022
Some good advice!
Just because you didn't progress, it doesn't mean your instructor is rubbish.
When I first started teaching it was not uncommon for people to use our initial lessons to do a lot of complaining about and denigrating of previous trainers for their perceived lack of progress. At that stage in my career I would be super optimistic that I could help. These days I tend to stop these tales, and suggest we just see how things go....
Now don't get me wrong, some people have had really crappy times with previous instructors and have had very poor quality tuition.
You may also end up with someone you just don't get on with (and that's OK. As my friend Jane reminds me, we are not for everyone ). You may also discover that the training approach your instructor is sharing is not for you .
It can take a while to really discover someone who both teaches in a way you appreciate and who teaches the kind of thing you really want to learn.
HOWEVER.
The other reason you might not have progressed with your previous instructor - and also may not progress with me - might be for other reasons.
It is not uncommon to meet students who have gone from one trainer to the next, initially taking on board with great enthusiam what they are doing (even if it goes against everything they have previously been taught - again and again and again). And then after a while, when things don't improve as they would like, they move on to the next trainer, then the next.
Because let's be clear; learning is really hard. I am a lifelong student, and I am now confident that large parts of that learning journey involves plateauing for ages; appearing to make the same mistakes over and over, and having to dig so deep yourself that it hurts.
To progress there are a few things you cannot avoid:
1. You will have to practice - a lot.
2. You will have to look to yourself, again and again
3. You will have to be responsible for that practice - by this I mean, really considering what you're doing and why, observing, comparing, reflecting, trying again. This is not for your instructor to do, this is only for you. If you're contacting your instructor after lessons and asking them to send you notes about your session, you may have to rethink where the responsibility lies.
4. When it feels tricky and hard and messy, this is not the time to give up.
5. You will have to practice even when you can think of every reason not to.
6. You will have to look to yourself.
At some stage - I promise - the act of practicing becomes a wonderful and addictive act that you cannot exist without. But it does not start this way. Motivation tends to follow action, not the other way around.
Beginnings are wonderful, but at some stage the glitter wears off, and then there is the work. And no one else can do this bit for us.