Cthulhu made me think ...

K

Kirk

Guest
Originally stated by Cthulhu:
After only a couple of months or so in the FMA, I'm not going to be foolish enough to try to teach others. I don't know it, I ain't gonna teach it.

This has been something on my mind for awhile, and I think you
Cthulhu for involuntarily helping me remember.

I'm VERY new to Kenpo training, 6 months now, and I'm a
yellow belt. My instructor, to me, is a GREAT instructor. He
teaches in a way that's very easy for ME to understand. Often
he's short assistant instructors, and if it happens repetitively
he breaks us down into groups by belt color, and has each
group form a circle and perform techs on each other. He'll
go from group to group, fine tuning us on techniques, or
teaching us new ones, then will go to another group, as we
practice again.

Now I said that he teaches in a way that seems customized
just for me. Like he knows exactly the way I learn or something.
That's not the case for others in my belt group. In happens
QUITE often, where they misunderstood his instructions on the
technique. I've corrected them when that happens. I have
paid attention to whether or not I was wrong in MY perception
of it, but so far, this hasn't happened. I consciously try not
to be anal, or be a dick about it, but if a tech is a defense against
a right hand hooking punch, and they're attacking with a left
jab, well that's wrong. Of if it's a right back fist followed by
a right horizontal elbow, and they're doing a right backfist
followed by a left horizontal elbow ...I mention it. The guys
have welcomed this from me. In no way do I consider myself
a teacher/instructor or anything of the sort! And I don't know
whether or not my instructor has seen me doing this.

I know if the shoe were on the other foot, I would want them to
correct me. Also, if I correct someone, I'll say "He said to do it
this way", not "no, you're doing it wrong" or "I know better" or
anything like that. I just tell them what they're doing that isn't
how we were showed it. Am I wrong in doing this?
 
If no one is complaining about it, then keep doing it.

If I were just taught something by the instructor and was working it with other students, I would probably correct them the same way. However, if the other students had problems with the corrections, I'd simply tell them we'll wait for the instructor to be free and ask him/her. This way, everything is cleared up. If you turn out to be right most of the time, then they'll probably stop questioning your corrections.

This could be a problem with brand-spanking-new beginners. They may follow everything you say without question simply because you have rank on them and they don't know better. So, if your correction is actually incorrect, they will keep training the wrong technique until corrected by someone else. Then, the dreaded question will come from the instructor: "Who told you to do it this way?!" :D

Cthulhu
 
Then, the dreaded question will come from the instructor: "Who told you to do it this way?!"

ROFL, so noted. I haven't done that with lower ranking belts,
but had you not mentioned it, it might have happened, so
thanks for the heads up.


However, if the other students had problems with the corrections, I'd simply tell them we'll wait for the instructor to be free and ask him/her. This way, everything is cleared up. If you turn out to be right most of the time, then they'll probably stop questioning your corrections.

There have been times. If they're so adamant that I was the
one that learned it incorrectly, then I'm all for asking the
instructor, and so are they. The last thing I want to come
across as, is cocky.
 
This is a sticky wicket. On the one hand one wants to be helpful, but how do you know what you don't know?

I was at a FMA seminar this weekend being "corrected" by my temporary training partner who had absolutely no martial arts experience of any kind and came because he was a friend of a friend of the host. He was, of course, either mis-correcting me or else telling me how to do it that style's way when I was, due to years of training, doing it the Modern Arnis way and trying to stop myself from doing that for that day. He was no help.

On the other hand when it came to helping people myself I had to tread carefully--it was a different though similar art and I was not the instructor's helper. It would have been rude and I also knew by then that they did some things differently. I sparingly said "I think it's like this, maybe" and the like to help. I would have been happy to help more--if asked.

This issue is never easy but be assured it's part of your instructor's plan to turn you from student to teacher over the long run. The trick is to not stop being a student as you start to become a teacher. Good luck! You'll trip quite often along the way--I know I still do.
 
I would agree with arnisador with helping and saying "I think it's like this, maybe..." But I would suggest that after they get the whole part down, to show it to the instructor just to make sure... and this way you can also re-learn or maybe learn something new. Better to correct something at the beginning rather than after being practiced incorrectly for some time

salute
:asian:
 
I understand the problems being discussed. I'd imagine something like this is not uncommon. Personally, I don't learn especially well by "copy what I do" methods and it often takes me a bit longer to get things because that's the primary way our teacher teaches us. But when I do, I write them down so I don't forget. A lot of times when we see each other doing something differently from that way we ourselves do it, we talk about it and try to figure out why we're not doing it the same way. Sometimes it is easy to resolve like Kirk said when someone's using the wrong hand or something very clearly wrong like that. Other things are much harder to understand, say the motion of a hand during a transition. In that case we'll often go "I thought it was like this" or "Didn't the master do it this way?", stuff like that. Basically everyone expresses their own opinion, but leaves open the possibility that they're wrong. It's also not unusual for things to end with, "we'll watch (or ask) the master when he comes back later". We're all beginners and in the same boat. We know that our understanding is limited and we're not in a position to teach one another. We try to help out like that when we can, but often it will come back to asking our teacher for an explanation or demonstration again to help make sure we did get things right. I think that helping out like that is OK as long as you can get a check from your teacher if desired before long. As noted, if you train the wrong way for too long, correcting becomes even harder. If you can check with your teacher before that happens, I don't think it should be too much of a problem though.
 
Sometimes we think too much. Just do it.
 
Originally posted by GouRonin
Sometimes we think too much. Just do it.

That's what I told her yesterday.......... :rofl:

/Yari

Sorry couldn't help myself :cool:
 
I'm sure I'll be passing out the woolen socks. I'll see you there.
:rolleyes:
 
Originally posted by GouRonin
Sometimes we think too much. Just do it.

I think for beginners, me included, especially for someone who has no background in any MA, it's not as easy as "Just Do It - Nike". :cuss: :confused: Of course for you, that's a different story. :ninja: <- Gou :D

salute
:asian:
 

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