- Hi, y'all and welcome back to the
Scuba Diver Magazine YouTube channel.
My name is Marcel van den Berg,
and I'm a PADI Platinum Course Director.
Today, we're gonna be talking about being a caring person
and really caring about your students
is one of the greatest attributes you can have
to become a really, really good diving instructor.
All right, this is part of the series,
so now we are focusing on number four.
Caring is one of the best attributes
to become a successful diving instructor.
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All right, if you really wanna become
a diving instructor yourself,
and you don't know where to look for,
have a look in the description also
because you will find my personal website.
And I'm still teaching IDCs every single month,
and I would love to chat about how you
can become a very successful diving instructor yourself.
Also, I have two YouTube channels myself,
you can find the links below.
I focus on tons of training tips for scuba divers,
so don't forget to subscribe to that also.
Now, that was a lot of talking about all these channels
and links and stuff like that.
Right now, let's just focus on this video,
and let's focus on how you can care more about your students
to even become a more successful diving instructor.
(upbeat music)
All right, so tip number four,
which is also a very important one
to become a more successful diving instructor,
is to care about others, you know.
Be a caring diving instructor.
And this is so important because,
what, you know,
a lot of us don't always realize is how nervous
some of the students really are to do this, you know.
And there's so many people that feel ashamed,
and they're trying to hold themselves up.
And they won't admit it so they're walking around
even a little bit sometimes with an arrogant attitude going,
Oh, I'm gonna go scuba diving.
This is not gonna be difficult, whatever.
But deep down inside, they are really really nervous
or even scared.
And not just for the open water, you know,
a lot of people are scared to just go into the pool,
even into the shallow end of the pool.
So understanding this makes you
a much more caring diving instructor
and that's what those nervous people want.
Can you imagine if you were the student
that's a little bit nervous,
what's the number one thing you want?
Do you really wanna have
the most funniest instructor right now?
Do you wanna have the one that's super passionate?
Of course you do, but down the road, during the course
when you get less nervous, when you get better,
when you did more skills,
then they're opening up for humor and passion.
But in the beginning, the ones that are nervous,
they don't care about anything, they just wanna stay alive,
and they want you to keep them alive.
And that's why it's so important to care
because if you fakely try to care about people like,
ooh, it's gonna be okay and ooh don't worry about it,
I'll put an arm around and it's gonna be follow me,
you know, then they're gonna go, okay, okay, okay.
And they, still thinking about all these scenarios
that might go wrong and how to solve them by themselves.
But, if you recognize that people are a little bit nervous
or scared, and a lot of times, you know,
with a bit of experience, you can see it
deep down in their eyes or
you just feel something is off, you know,
just pull them aside,
never in front of the group of course,
but pull them aside and sit them down
and have a cup of coffee.
Put an arm around him and say, hey, what's up?
You know, like is there anything you wanna tell me?
is there anything, you know, that you're worried about?
And most of them, they do really open up then
and they kinda go like,
Oh, you know, it went well yesterday in the pool but
I mean, now we're going into real stuff.
And I know you told me it's shallow
but I'm actually a bit worried about the fish.
And you know, I've always been scared about fish
and scary shark movies and you know.
And then, yeah you can then laugh about them or say,
ah, it's gonna be fine, it's just fish, whatever.
But, that's gonna make me even more nervous
or definitely don't wanna trust you or
even wanna cancel, you know like.
Just put yourself into their shoes
and once, but maybe fins.
Yeah, put yourself in their fins.
Ah, a little stupid instructor joke right there.
Anyway, put yourself into their fins
and try to feel what they're nervous about.
And if they say they're nervous about fish,
then maybe you can relate to that.
That's really important, relate to them,
you know, say, ah, that's just okay,
you know, you're not alone.
There's a lot of people that are nervous about fish.
Not in a way that, you know it's not about them anymore,
but just let them know that they're not alone.
And to be honest, I grew up in the scary, you know,
jells, sharks eat people generation.
And of course I thought, you know
I was worried about sharks also.
And now I learned that it's pretty much the opposite around.
And the sharks are in real trouble because of us and
they're incredible creatures.
And that, of course in the end instead of shark.
You know, it's not, it can hurt you, it wants you
but most of them doesn't want it.
And if you don't provoke it,
and take some distance, and stuff like that,
it will be a life-changing experience to see some
of the most beautiful creatures down there.
And if you explain it to your students, you know, they're
they're gonna understand or its gonna be less scary
but they're gonna understand that you care about them.
You took the time to talk to them about their fears.
You know, when you are in the pool
or cool fine open water, you know, and somebody, you know
a lot of people that have issues
with clearing a mask at a brief, a little bit water
in the nose, and, you know, they might cough a bit
and might stand up, you know, in the shallow end.
And they might not wanna do it anymore
or start to overthink everything.
And you know, it only takes that one hand
on their shoulder sometimes, and say, hey, you know
don't worry about it.
Get some time when it kind of look up, you know
like look them in the eyes and have those nice eyes
you know, not those squeezing or trolling like,
hey what's wrong with you, you know, get a grip.
(indiscreet)
You know how difficult its gonna be.
I, yeah, I know that sounds harsh
but I've seen instructors do that.
And of course, you're gonna lose your students
or some of them might make it
but they're gonna be instructors or divers
and then instructors maybe one day with that attitude also.
So you really wanna be nice.
You wanna give them time.
Not too long that they start to overthink these skills
I guess but those are tips for another video
but you wanna care about them,
understand the stress that they're going through.
It does help if you had a bit of stress yourself
when you were a beginner diver.
Me for example I had a couple of moments
in my open water course that I wasn't that good.
And I know a lot of some of my friends that are watching
this right now you've probably go like,
you're still not good hahhah
but those days were different.
And yeah, it was, I was definitely nervous
for a couple of things, but I had a great instructor.
Instructor took care of me and, and really cared about me.
And that was the reason for me not to quit and keep going.
And now not only did I became an instructor
did it got that far because I've kept going
but I understand completely how it feels to be nervous
and how incredible it feels to have a fantastic
instructor that takes care of you, that cares about you.
And that inspired me to do that to my future students.
And that helped me to become more successful, right?
So, yeah, so caring is really important
and there's no really course you can follow how
to be more caring.
So I guess just being a nice person
and just try to understand the nervousness,
the fear that they're going through
and give him some great time.
I've once had to sit for an extra two hours in the end of
the day after a swimming pool session
to talk with one of my students, to get them inspired
to go into the next dive.
And those two extra hours, I was tired.
It was a long day, and I really wanted to go home
but I was more happy sitting there talking to my students
and trying to convince that person to keep going
than to just be at home, I guess and
playing PlayStation, that I do also like
but caring about students, I like more, right?
And I think that's important as well.
Now, remember, if you like these videos and these tips
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So that's really cool, but even more important to me
like I said, I love to be around students
and teach students and improve on things myself.
And I know to you guys have fantastic tips yourself
that really work well for you to become more successful.
So there is a comment section down here.
So please leave a little comment, you know
if you liked it, say I loved it.
If you didn't like it, say oh I didn't like, a certain,
you know, tip, that's okay too.
And maybe I can reply on that
and we can see if we can learn from each other,
but even more important is
if you know something really cool then please put it
in the comments below
because not only other people can learn from that
but I can learn from that as well.
And I love to always improve my skills
as a diving instructor also, that will be also.
Now to finalize this
I know it's a lot of information, but
if you wanna become a diving instructor yourself
so you, you're watching this thinking
should I become a diving instructor.
Then again, I teach monthly IDC courses.
So in the description below,
I have a link of my website, please check it out.
Lots of, lots of cool information
on how to sign up for the course.
And then please get in contact with me through the website
by you know, sending me an email, but you can contact me
also by, you know, things like WhatsApp, Messenger,
we can call each other, you know, send a postal pitching
or do some smoke signals.
I don't care.
I am ready to chat with you and to discuss your future
becoming a diving instructor.
So don't forget to check out that link.
And then last but not least, don't forget
I have my own private YouTube channel as well
which is Marcel van den Berg
for the professional videos and Scuba Diving Tips
for recreational videos.
So those links are down there too.
So please check them out and please hit that subscribe
button on those channels as well.
Anyway, thank you so much.
Thank you Scuba Diver Magazine as well for allowing me to
use your channel, to share these tips with everybody
and guys by far one of the best scuba diving magazines
out there.
So if you haven't checked out Scuba Diver Magazine,
please do so you can do it online or a paper version.
And of course you can find those links down here also.
All right, everybody enjoy diving, enjoy teaching,
enjoy your students and become more successful.
All right.
Bye-bye.
(upbeat music)