As I move on in years, I've lost all my original teachers. They've all either died, retired, or moved on and I've been unable to reach them. So, recently, I've been reflecting a lot on my own personal journey in the martial arts, and how I was affected by my contact with various instructors. All taught martial arts, but the relationship they had with their students was very different. Some I would call coaches or mentors, others were martial-arts celebrities with champion-level physical skills, another was a "Grandmaster" of some renown in his day, and finally some were simply skilled individuals willing to share their craft.
What kind of instructors have you all had? How would you characterize your experience with them? And, finally, what do you value and look for most for in a martial-arts instructor?
Great post.
Like most others, I have trained with instructors/teachers up and down the scale of title and have competed at international levels. Using you descriptives:
Coaches: Specialist within their given style and competition rules and requirements. They may or may not have much of a personality or be 'caring'. They have a very specific task (to make you a better fighter) and don't care about much else. No philosophy and such.
I had a great Korean/American coach back in the day who was fun but hard. He was not the best at seeing your limitations simply because they did not matter to him. It was your job to reach his expectations. Simple as that.
Mentors: From my experience, this is synonymous with GM. My longest and one of my current teachers is pushing 80-years old now, has a PhD in psychology and theology and can get deep as **** when it comes to tying martial arts to daily life. He can really, really get in your head, in a good way. We have been together for nearly 40-years, and he has been my confidant on many 'life events'. He doesn't act as such for many people. Full Korean and still very much has many of their personality traits. Old school in many ways but actively uses current training methods.
Martial arts celebrities: I have only worked with them in training camps and at seminars. Never for more than a few weeks at a time so I can't say I have much experience nor influence beyond the impression and desire to perform at their level. In this respect, they left a great impression on me. Some were sincere, focused competitors who had the same mindset of improvement as me, others were egotistical a**holes. They just don't move my meter very much in the bigger picture.
"Regular Joes": I have trained with many guys who were just avid practitioners and very good at their craft. I am not in an area that has a lot of different style schools. Most are small groups that train at someone's house or a local school gym. They come and go, but for the most part, there have been some good people to work out with. Some were able to express and teach what they knew, some could not. To me teaching is a skill set all its own, regardless of the subject.
I would have to say my most peculiar instructor was my Kali Tuhan Bill McGrath. He had no concept of title, but you damn well knew he was in charge. Truly an infectious personality, and always fun to be around. He had several titles and was a champion fighter in Malaysia and the States but never used it or talked much about it. He had spent several years on the west coast in law enforcement and spoke near perfect English. When you came to train with him there was no casual encounters, and it was full on work. Good times.
