First Lesson

[Wing Woo Gar]

Couple of funny moments about this from helping out with the kids in BJJ.

First one, I was coaching a girl through a sweep. She had her grips. I told her to grab her partner's leg with her left hand. She lets go of both grips, makes an L with both hands (to determine right from Left), re-grabs her right grip, and grabs the leg with her left hand.

Second one, similar situation. Told a kid to grab his opponent with his left hand. He grabs with his right.
Me: "Your other left hand."
Him: "I ONLY HAVE ONE LEFT HAND!"

I always say “your other left!” Then I say, “you have a 50/50 chance”.

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

When people come to my class the first time, I keep it light. I say, “get in the middle so you can see people no matter which way we face”. Then, “ don’t do anything you don’t want to do, don’t do anything that hurts, if you need water or to sit down, do that.” I just have them follow along that first time, with no expectations. After that, I will assign a student to them to teach them the formal salutation. All my students train together, my training brothers often show up to train in the group and help teach as necessary. I want everyone to help one another, so I foster that cooperative attitude. I don’t start front loading the teaching until they show up for a month consistently. I tell them just show up and try to follow along to get the general feel of the class and not worry about anything else at first.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

I always say “your other left!” Then I say, “you have a 50/50 chance”.

It's amazing how bad the body coordination a beginner can have. If you ask a beginner to

- rotate his right arm forward and his left arm backward at the same time,
- kick right leg and punch left hand at the same time.

Most beginners won't be able to do at the first time.

Also, most beginners may have flexibility problem to stand in low empty stance.

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

It's amazing how bad the body coordination a beginner can have. If you ask a beginner to

- rotate his right arm forward and his left arm backward at the same time,
- kick right leg and punch left hand at the same time.

Most beginners won't be able to do at the first time.

Also, most beginners may have flexibility problem to stand in low empty stance.

View attachment 33101

I teach both those things to beginners and you are correct, most can’t even stand on one leg for 30 seconds.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

I teach both those things to beginners and you are correct, most can’t even stand on one leg for 30 seconds.

Can Mike Tyson when he was at his prime time be able to do this low empty stance with butt touch on the lower leg for 60 seconds?

A guy who knows how to fight may not have the flexibility in some MA training.

If you have good foundation, you can be a good fighter. But a good fighter may not always have the proper foundation. What does that mean?

- My teacher's teacher could sit in a horse stance to finish his dinner.
- My teacher could sit in horse stance to finish watching Bejing opera.
- I could stand in horse stance and finish a can of beer.

Are we getting weaker and weaker through each generation?

 

[Flying Crane]

Can Mike Tyson when he was at his prime time be able to do this low empty stance with butt touch on the lower leg for 60 seconds?

A guy who knows how to fight may not have the flexibility in some MA training.

If you have good foundation, you can be a good fighter. But a good fighter may not always have the proper foundation. What does that mean?

- My teacher's teacher could sit in a horse stance to finish his dinner.
- My teacher could sit in horse stance to finish watching Bejing opera.
- I could stand in horse stance and finish a can of beer.

Are we getting weaker and weaker through each generation?

View attachment 33102

Perhaps the claims of prior generations are getting more and more exaggerated.

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

Can Mike Tyson when he was at his prime time be able to do this low empty stance with butt touch on the lower leg for 60 seconds?

A guy who knows how to fight may not have the flexibility in some MA training.

If you have good foundation, you can be a good fighter. But a good fighter may not always have the proper foundation. What does that mean?

- My teacher's teacher could sit in a horse stance to finish his dinner.
- My teacher could sit in horse stance to finish watching Bejing opera.
- I could stand in horse stance and finish a can of beer.

Are we getting weaker and weaker through each generation?

View attachment 33102

I cannot say what these, or other generations may, or may not do. I can only say that in my opinion I have not exceeded my Sifu or my Sigung in any way. I suppose that is a shame.

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

Perhaps the claims of prior generations are getting more and more exaggerated.

Perhaps, but I would insult their memory from a place of ego to think I have more, or even equal ability.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

I cannot say what these, or other generations may, or may not do. I can only say that in my opinion I have not exceeded my Sifu or my Sigung in any way. I suppose that is a shame.

Our previous generation may spend more time in foundation building than we do.

I do know someone in our previous generation could repeat this solo drill 200 times non-stop.

Today, if we ask a new student to drill this 200 times non-stop, we may get lawsuit.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

There's a lot of good information here, and what I'm currently planning to do for the first week (maybe two) is let anyone who shows up know that we're not going to follow the general class plan. Then check with them as they come in and see what they're interested in, and go over a couple specific 'tricks' that help self-defense, along with basic blocks from a neutral stance, and how to set up a 'fence'.

I've got a good basis for the first session, and an idea for future sessions based on how that one goes. And I'm shortening the time for bowing in/out since I don't want it to be overly formal, like has been mentioned here.

 

[Prince_Alarming]

Cool! Let us know how it goes...

 

[Stuarto]

Congratulations! That's brilliant.

An hour is going to fly by. When I was teaching, I emphasised stretching on your own before class, so we had that time for practice. But I was teaching students who were coming from a taekwondo class, so they knew their stretching routine. With genuine new recruits, that may not be feasible.

I'd be tempted to keep a narrow focus at first. In both my FMA and (brief) fencing experience, much of our time on the front end was devoted to FOOTWORK. A system lives and dies on its footwork in my view. (Substitute "positioning" if you're thinking about grappling and perhaps add "stance" for different systems than mine.) Where to be and how to get there.

I know you're coming, at least partially, from an FMA background. The footwork is genius in those systems. And the presence of a weapon really drives home the importance of controlling angles, distance, timing, etc.

The key is to make learning the footwork fun when someone enters the school envisioning themselves spinning sticks around and so on. My first teachers in eskrima had the training sword they'd swing at us for footwork, things swinging from the ceiling for us to evade, and all sorts. Don't necessarily need all that infrastructure. But perhaps think about interesting ways to train and internalise the footwork.

If I'm remembering correctly, I taught a class where I tucked bandanas in the back of the belts for a bunch of students, and the goal was to snatch your opponent's bandana while keeping yours. So you had to use your footwork to get to your opponent's side and reach the bandana, while also zoning out of your opponent's reach and keeping yours.

I've also done footwork training by getting a padded stick and a boxing glove and (with control of course) gone after students with the stick, able to tap them with the boxing glove lest they forget there's a second weapon in play. Requires a lot of footwork to evade the one without walking straight into the other.

Footwork is crucial. Conveying it in a way that's engaging and helps people onboard the concepts involved, that's where your teaching chops will come in.

Just a thought. Now go enjoy yourself!


Stuart

That's interesting that you mentioned stretching before class. I always stretch before I stretch. Typically, I will do a few stretches before I leave the house to go to the dojo. We don't ever skip out on stretching and warmups before training, but I find doing a few stretches before I go to the dojo helpful in getting me a little loose.

 

[Stuarto]

There's a lot of good information here, and what I'm currently planning to do for the first week (maybe two) is let anyone who shows up know that we're not going to follow the general class plan. Then check with them as they come in and see what they're interested in, and go over a couple specific 'tricks' that help self-defense, along with basic blocks from a neutral stance, and how to set up a 'fence'.

I've got a good basis for the first session, and an idea for future sessions based on how that one goes. And I'm shortening the time for bowing in/out since I don't want it to be overly formal, like has been mentioned here.

Best of luck, hope everything goes great!