A truly talented student

[Lisa]

How many instructors have had one of these? A truly talented student whom you started teaching and were amazed by their remarkable ability to pick up on techniques easily and were a pleasure to teach. How did you keep them interested and challenged in your school and did it involve altering your curriculum and how did it effect the other students in your school?

 

[painstain]

i would say to first never stop crtiquing their technique. none of us are perfect and there is always something they can work to improve.
in our system there is more to learn than whats on the curriculum so maybe without getting to far ahead of them, teach this student something on his level but presents a challenge. maybe take a look at their kicks and add some fighting patterns of your own construction.

with respect,
painstain

 

[Blindside]

Why would you have to alter the curricullum?

We test students when they are ready to be tested. So if you have a gifted student who picks up the physical side rapidly and is competant with the mental side, we test them. If they aren't ready mentally, then you challenge them on that, critique their technique, the "whys" of what they are doing.

The problem with having one of these students is that you will get jealousy from some students. As long as you don't favor the "natural" with special treatment then tell the jealous students to suck it up and keep practicing.

Lamont

 

[still learning]

Hello, We have one young man who trains extra hard,very flexible, speedy and determined to be the best he can be. 10th grader in High school.

It is a pleasure to work with him. We give no extra special attention...everyone is treated the same. Everyone gets lots of encouragement.

He knows he is tatented...but is also humble too... You can see how fast he progress.....Loves to play the Ukulele too,!(Hawaii music instrument).....He's Dad works two FULL TIME JOBS....but supports his son 100%.....and trys to be there to watch him practice when he can.....Aloha

PS: for all our students....they kinda look up to him......a role model!

 

[tradrockrat]

As soon as he's ready, get him statred teaching as an aide. That way he gets in extra learning time himself (we all learn by teaching don't we? ) and you've got a helper for the younger / lower belt classes. This also provides the other students a good example to emulate.

 

[tshadowchaser]

I have had a couple and all but one have found other interests in life except one.
Most got into other sports or started chasing girls.
The one I have now I think can be truly good. He has reached a point where he absorbs things quickly and asks intelligent questions. he also is not afraid to try new things and will ask afterward why we did (whatever) that night or he will say nothing and try to figure it out himself.
I change nothing in the way i handle him. I have tried in the past to gear some of my teaching to the ones that left and it never stopped them from leaving so I see no reason to that again

 

[Fluffy]

I have one now. As a White Belt I took him to a tourney and he watched one Black Belt do a 360 side kick - he came to class the next Monday and preformed a perfect 360 side.

How do I keep him interested? He's only a low yellow now, so I just drill him on basics and sparring therory.....that'll give me about a year or so........

 

[Grenadier]

How many instructors have had one of these? A truly talented student whom you started teaching and were amazed by their remarkable ability to pick up on techniques easily and were a pleasure to teach. How did you keep them interested and challenged in your school and did it involve altering your curriculum and how did it effect the other students in your school?

Heh. These students were pleasant to teach. To be honest, anyone could teach them, and look good as a teacher.

I never really altered the cirriculum for these gifted students, simply because I stuck with the proven programs that had sustained the dojos throughout the years.

However, if those gifted students could perform all of the required techniques to an exemplary level, were mature enough to handle things, and had the required number of hours of training in hand, etc., then I'd push them more than the others when it came to advancing in the ranks.

The way I see it, there's no sense in holding someone back if he is ready for the next level.


I would also count on them to serve as good examples for others, and when they were old enough and advanced enough, would encourage them to assist the teaching aspect, which can provide a new challenge.

If they had proven themselves to be capable assistants, then I'd even allow them to give first day lessons to newcomers. From there, some went on to become assistant instructors, and one even became a chief instructor of a dojo.



All of my instructors in the past and present, have all told me the same thing, and I'm sure almost everyone who is an instructor here has heard this same line (although the percentages may vary from one to another):

The bottom 20% of your students are never going to "get it" no matter how good of a teacher you are.

The top 20% of your students are going to "get it" no matter how bad of a teacher you are.

The middle 60% of your students might "get it," but this will depend on how good of a teacher you are, and this the acid test.

 

[Kenpojujitsu3]

How many instructors have had one of these? A truly talented student whom you started teaching and were amazed by their remarkable ability to pick up on techniques easily and were a pleasure to teach. How did you keep them interested and challenged in your school and did it involve altering your curriculum and how did it effect the other students in your school?

I had a student like this a while ago. Unfortuntely HE KNEW that he was very talented so his ego grew out of control. I eventually had to refuse to teach him and tell him to seek other instruction because of his ego and over-competitiveness with his peers.

 

[Jimi]

Years ago in 1996, I started teaching at a commercial MA school. At the time there was a Jr. BB ( I know I know I know) and another adult BB helping the Head Instructor. I was training on my own one night reviewing a Staff/Long Stick form called The Horsemen. ( Tradrockrat, you know!) The adult BB asked if I would teach it to him. I told him he must learn the Four Winds and the Four Corners Staff/Long Stick forms first, that is the correct progression. He agreed, I began teaching him the first 3 sequences of the Four Winds. I told him to practice and show me next week what he had learned, then I would share more. A week later, he said Mr. James, would you show me more? I said, show me what you got from me last week, after 3 tries he could not remember the sequences correctly. I shook my head, then I hear a voice from over my shoulder, "Mr. James? I believe I can perform those sequences." I looked at him sideways and said " You were watching us last week weren't you?" He lowered his head and said "Yes Sir". I took the staff from the adult BB and gave it to the young Jr. BB. "Show me then" Move for move he went through each sequence correctly, then progressed to the next 3 sequences, he had been watching me for a few weeks remembering all he could. I said to the adult BB, you just lost the Horsemen. I asked the young Jr. BB if he would like to learn the whole thing, he responded "YES SIR!" After that over about 10 months he learned almost everything I threw at him. 4 Staff/Long Stick forms, all the emptyhand forms, 2 Baton/Short Stick forms and even some basic Kukri Drills. He has since moved on tochasing girls as teenagers do etc... , but he was for the time the closest thing to an apprentice I have ever had. I miss teaching him, I miss teaching period. Thanks for hearing me out. PEACE

 

[stickarts]

We have had a student like this. Our biggest challenge was that his parents set the expectations that he was to be a superstar and over time he felt more and more pressure to try and live up to that expectation.
We tried to keep focus on building quality, not worry about belt ranking or being a superstar, and having fun. He was very young. I was more concerned with his building strong fundamentals.
He went fairly far with us but eventually wanted to just have fun as a kid and not have all of the pressure that was put on him.
He was very gifted.
As teachers there is a lot we can do but also a lot we can't do.

While we had him, we constantly challenged him by raising the bar on his quality, taught him extra techniques and tried to keep it fun.