GJEC
Member
LOUGHBOROUGH ENSHIN
Posts: 3,218
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Post by GJEC on Apr 14, 2012 5:10:03 GMT -5
I saw this on another forum and my immediate reaction was "You've got to be joking"
It could only be asked in Martial Arts. In all other activities the teacher / coach / mentor is in the background. They never stand on the rostrum with a medal. They're often the last to get thanked and the first to get blamed.
Does anybody really care who they get their coaching skills from? Does it matter? If a boxer wins a world title, would anybody think less of them if their coach hasn't got a direct lineage to James Figg?
Until coaches believe in themselves they have no right to expect their students to have faith in what they teach them. If you believe in yourself you don't need to be hamstrung by waiting until the 'latest' skills are handed down like sweets. You use your brain and experience to find any advantage you can in the quest to train students with the right skills and mindset.
Gary
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Post by hokuto12 on Apr 14, 2012 6:19:14 GMT -5
Saw it too Gary. Read a couple then couldn't stomach anymore. Maybe they are just being to spiritual or something.
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Post by powerof0ne on Apr 15, 2012 11:17:40 GMT -5
I haven't seen the thread but I have mixed feelings on the subject. I believe there are those that really shouldn't be teaching but there are so many different paths somebody could take to become a capable instructor...in other words, no direct and clear "blue print" for being a martial art instructor.
About the only guideline I would give is that I personally believe an instructor should have competition and/or real life experience. However, not all agree and I will admit I have seen a few exceptions to this BUT those are rare.
It is a complicated and definitely not a direct path on how to become a capable instructor. The only other bit of advice I would give is to seek out and train under those that are as much a possible. I was fortunate enough to train under quite a few different ones, and ones that all had different ways how they operated their schools.
I still have a lot to work on personally, but not for a second do I think I'm done learning.
Osu!
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Post by senshido on Apr 15, 2012 12:51:53 GMT -5
To answer the question...
I personally try to improve what I already have, I've stopped looking for new things as I'm comfortable with what I do
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Post by powerof0ne on Apr 15, 2012 13:18:42 GMT -5
To answer the question... I personally try to improve what I already have, I've stopped looking for new things as I'm comfortable with what I do I'm starting to lean more towards this myself, but I'm not opposed to being shown some other way that works. However, I have so much more I know that I need to improve on  . Osu! |
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Post by Ros on Apr 16, 2012 7:59:45 GMT -5
Just to play devil's advocate here, maybe the question 'who teaches the teacher?' would be better worded as 'how does the teacher still learn?'
For example, as the module leader of the microbiology component of a local university's MSc course, no-one 'teaches' me as such but I still have to keep up-to-date with new technology, research etc. by reading journals, networking and t'interwebz. In that respect I would say that I am still learning but that no-one is necessarily teaching me.
I know you do a lot of reading around various aspects of martial arts, Gary and I know you incorporate methods that you think are relevant into our training - maybe even participating in forums could be classed as a learning activity?
So I would say that there may not be cause for concern if no-one is teaching the teacher, but that there may be if the teacher is not still learning.
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GJEC
Member
LOUGHBOROUGH ENSHIN
Posts: 3,218
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Post by GJEC on Apr 16, 2012 8:17:46 GMT -5
My brain's far too active to stand still and I constantly think "How can we make this better?"
But I grew tired years ago of going to instructors courses and being told how to teach and what new tricks we had to incorporate.
I've thought for years the unifying factor should be the competition rules and every club should be free to look for an advantage and train in it's own unique way. Every instructor has different methods and levels of experience, so a forced compliance and "we all have to do the same" approach just stifles ideas.
Gary
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Post by powerof0ne on Apr 17, 2012 0:44:41 GMT -5
I try different coaching methods and the short answer is the more experience I gain, the better I am at "custom fitting" a fighting style for each fighter I train. I was first shown this by others, though, so I can't just say I came up with it on myself.
I wish I could say I did this for all of my students, but I don't, I only do it for those that really put in the work and show they want it. Probably counterproductive to making lots of money in teaching, though.
I've experimented a bit on my own over the years to find out what works but that depends on so many different factors of what you have to work with (many different variables).
In a nut shell, I stress kihon, and keep it simple, and don't show much until after kihon is really ingrained into somebody. What I'm finding for me is, this is happening around yellow belt (after blue, blue is after white for me).
Now you're asking, but who do I learn from? I learn if what I do works by watching the progress of my students.
Osu!
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Post by senshido on Apr 17, 2012 4:04:39 GMT -5
I too constantly try to find better ways of doing things... perhaps this is the reason we have left what we were doing before and moved on?
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Post by meguro on Apr 17, 2012 7:52:51 GMT -5
Well put, Ros. I did participate in a similar thread on another forum. My observation is that we all, students and teachers, have the responsibility to keep on learning.
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