I just recently finished a bunch of classes at this place called FrontSight. FrontSight is primarily where you go to learn to shoot, you learn shooting skills and all sorts of defensive tactics and that is what I was learning when I was taking the classes there, but they do also teach knife fighting and unarmed self defense so although its not their primary field of study, they do teach some unarmed martial arts and lots of the instructors there do have backgrounds in unarmed fighting. Furthermore, as its been stated in the firearms board that a gun is a martial arts weapon albeit a modern one, to train with guns is the same thing as training with any other martial arts weapon such as a sword, bo staff, ect. We were taught stances to use while shooting and proper technique so shooting is by all means a martial art.
But aside from all that, the training and instruction was really good. We were encouraged to ask questions and one instructor even said that if we've taken shooting classes at other places to feel free to share what we learned there with the instructors as FrontSight could learn from us as well. When we were on the line doing drills we would shut up and train, but in between drills and before breaks we were free to discuss stuff with instructors and this one instructor even wanted us to ask at least two questions before we took our lunch break.
All that being said, this is one of the things that differentiates a good martial arts school from a bad martial arts school and this certainly includes dojos that teach unarmed martial arts. A sensei teaches the students but a sensei also learns from the students. As a matter of fact, you learn the most from teaching. There was this one sensei who said he was forever grateful to all his students, white belt through black belt, because they were also his teachers. A good sensei will know that they can always learn more and that includes learning from their students. A sensei who says students should just "shut up and train," and doesn't want to be asked questions is a poor teacher who probably won't produce students that learn much and furthermore such a sensei is very arrogant. Any sensei who thinks they know it all and they know the best method of teaching and they won't try to learn from or even accept questions from their students is more or less like Sensei Kreese from The Karate Kid and not somebody I would train under.
But aside from all that, the training and instruction was really good. We were encouraged to ask questions and one instructor even said that if we've taken shooting classes at other places to feel free to share what we learned there with the instructors as FrontSight could learn from us as well. When we were on the line doing drills we would shut up and train, but in between drills and before breaks we were free to discuss stuff with instructors and this one instructor even wanted us to ask at least two questions before we took our lunch break.
All that being said, this is one of the things that differentiates a good martial arts school from a bad martial arts school and this certainly includes dojos that teach unarmed martial arts. A sensei teaches the students but a sensei also learns from the students. As a matter of fact, you learn the most from teaching. There was this one sensei who said he was forever grateful to all his students, white belt through black belt, because they were also his teachers. A good sensei will know that they can always learn more and that includes learning from their students. A sensei who says students should just "shut up and train," and doesn't want to be asked questions is a poor teacher who probably won't produce students that learn much and furthermore such a sensei is very arrogant. Any sensei who thinks they know it all and they know the best method of teaching and they won't try to learn from or even accept questions from their students is more or less like Sensei Kreese from The Karate Kid and not somebody I would train under.