Let us consider some basic concepts of teaching. These are important to the development of the student, and they reflect the competence of the instructor. In the rush to get information to the student, many things are overlooked. In many cases, instructors have never analyzed their approach to teaching. They wouldn't know where to start.
It is important to first examine your priorities. What are you trying to accomplish? As an instructor, you should be attempting to impart knowledge and experience to your student(s). You are trying to help your student(s). to be the best martial artist he/she can be. It ahs been said that a teacher's goal is to make his student better than the teacher himself. If your student is doing something as good or better than you are, then you are doing your job. Many instructors become intimidated when their students do well. If the student is able to perform at or near the level of the instructor, on a given technique, it threatens the dominance [ego] of the instructor. Often, in these situations, the instructor will attempt to reestablish dominance [boost his own ego] by putting the student in his place. This usually involves hurting, injuring or intimidating the student into submitting. For example, if the student is sparring well, and the instructor is intimidated, the instructor will hit or kick the student very hard. By cracking the student's ribs, the instructor thinks he has taught the student a valuable lesson in humility. In reality, the instructor has only demonstrated that his own ego is out of control. He is not regarding priorities. He is not helping the student. If humility is a lesson that the student needs to learn, then there are better ways to teach him/her. Injuring a student is counter-productive. Your job is to teach him to avoid injury. He doesn't need to be taught how to be injured. He was quite capable of being injured before he began studying from you.
The instructor must keep his priorities in mind at all times. A student is studying the martial arts in order to learn how to defend himself/herself. He/she is studying self-preservation. Anything that does not fit into this category is outside of his/her needs. If the instructor is teaching something that does not have a direct bearing on self defense, then the instructor needs to reconsider his priorities.
When teaching a stance, a strike or anything else, the instructor should question its applicability in a real life-and-death encounter. If the stance, strike or whatever is not directly applicable on the street, then it may be at risk to the students life. The instructor must be honest with himself, when he makes these evaluations. He should not teach an unrealistic technique, just because that is the way he was taught. His instructor may have been in error. Whatever the excuse, there is no justification for short-sightedness.
This brings us back to priorities. An instructor's forest priority should be the well-being of his student. If loyalties to tradition, style or one's own instructor interfere with the well-being of the student, then perhaps the instructor is not mature enough to have students. It would be better not to have students at all, than to jeopardize their well-being by being a closed-minded slave to tradition. The key is common sense. an instructor should practice common sense more than any technique.
There is a common misconception that a black belt is a teacher. This is not necessarily true. A black belt is merely a student. A black belt is not the end of a journey, but rather it is just barely the beginning. At black belt level, a student doesn't even fully understand his/her own style. He may not even fully understand the basics. He may think he does, but that doesn't make it true.
It is also a misconception that any good martial artist can be a teacher. To be an effective teacher, you must be a good communicator. A good martial artist may be able to fight wit extraordinary ferocity, but this doesn't guarantee that he can pass it on to a student
Teaching is a great responsibility. Many black Belts not only lack the knowledge to teach, they also lack the maturity. A black belt should concentrate on his/her self improvement. This is not selfish. By improving himself, thoroughly, he is preparing for students he may have in the future.
If an instructor is concerned about what to teach, or if he is worried that he will run out oa material to teach, he should evaluate himself honestly. Rather than be embarrassed by his lack of knowledge, he should seek information elsewhere. It isn't important what style he studies, he should make use of any means available. There are books, video tapes and other instructors that can help a teacher to better himself. Don't limit yourself. No instructor knows everything. It takes decades to master one style, and no one style is complete in itself. For this reason, the instructor, in an exercise of common sense, should seek knowledge from many sources. This does not mean he should accept everything he sees. He should put everything to the applicability test. But if a technique or concept is applicable in real-life situations, what difference does it make where that techniques or concept originated?
Any instructor who is teaching for the right reasons [not to prop up his own ego], owes it to himself and his students to keep a watch on his priorities. He must constantly examine himself and be honest in his assessments. By striving to improve his communication skills, as well as his martial arts skills, he is a benefit to his students. His students' lives are on the line, and there is no room for ego. When these priorities are pursued, respect and admiration occur spontaneously. Moreover, it is easy to live with yourself, knowing that you have given your students your best effort.
Back to American Kenpo Bu-Jutsu homepage
This Web page created in Web Factory.