How does your school opening and close class

[dragonswordkata]

I was curious how other schools, and arts, open and close thier classes.

I teach Kempo Karate and we bow in and out to the Korean, Japanese, Chinese and US flags to show respect for where our different styles come from. Then we bow to the masters of all the styles and then I bow to my students and they bow to me inturn. I then have them kneel and meditate for a few moments to help ground themselfs in the place and moment they are.

I'd love to hear others traditions.

 

[Jai]

We start and end classes and testings much the same way as you do.

Bow to the Korean and American flags.
Bow to any masters.
Bow to the ranking instructor.
Bow to any other black belts.
Bow to and assistant upper ranking helpers.

 

[Andrew Green]

We warm up to start, oftening beginning with a game of the kids class vs the adult class.

We end when everyone is exhausted, time has passed and no one wants to fight another round

I do get the kids class to bow in / out. Not too anything or anyone, in a circle, too the circle.

 

[Blindside]

Line up, everybody does the kenpo salutation (instructors to students, students to instructors, all simultaneous). We start class.

To end class:
Line up, everybody does the kenpo salutation. We all shake hands.

 

[jks9199]

Formal training begins and ends in formation, lined up by rank with the instructors in the front of the class, and a bow. Usually, before the closing bow, the instructor will wrap up the night briefly. If there's a lecture period for the night (discussion of recent clinics, history, etc), we'll generally do that before warm-ups. Occasionally, for some types of training, we will start with a moment of silence, honoring the warrior dead. And we'll begin tournaments with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, or the National Anthem (if we have either a decent recording & something to play it on, or a musician or singer).

 

[MarkBarlow]

Everyone lines up, we bow in (Sensei to Students)
End of class, we line up, we bow out (again, Sensei to Students)
Nothing fancy, simple show of respect for everyone involved.

 

[tellner]

To start:

• The teacher says "Alright, let's start class"
• We gather in a circle and do his teacher's salutation
• He says "Djurus" which is the signal to start practicing basics

To end:

• The teacher asks "OK. Are there any questions about what we covered tonight?"
• We gather in a circle and do his teacher's salutation
• Everyone shakes hands
• People leave or hang out for a while

 

[agemechanic03]

I know it's a lil over a month old now, but I just ran across it and wanted to throw in how we do it here in my dojang in Korea.
- We all line up according to rank with the head student forward about 1 step and 45dg to the instructor and say, "Cha Ryut, Sa Bum Nim, Tea Eh, Kyung Ret." and then we all bow to the instructor.

- End of class we do the same thing, except we add in "Sugol, Hashasumida, TANG SOO!" with a fist from our hearts to the sky when we yell out TANG SOO. And then the highest ranking student meets the instructo halfway and shakes his hand with a bow saying thank you and then he goes down the line with each student following behind him, so we all end up shaking each others hand.
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[Brian R. VanCise]

We warm up to start. We do a little breathing exercises to close. In the middle we rock and roll!

 

[AJPerry]

We do the normal Bow in, full salutation for the kids that know it (which is most)

At the end of the night we normally finish with something the kids love like flying side kicks into a bag or a short game that rinforces what has been taught in the lesson. It is always good to finish the class on a high and leave them wanting more and looking forward to the next lesson.

then we bow out and do high fives all around... hold your hand up high so the kids have to jump fo it.

You can teach and have fun at the same time.

Cheers
AJ
www.martialgames4kids.com

 

[Twin Fist]

line up in order of rank, teachers and students bow to each other

turn and face the flags, teachers and students bow to the flags

start warm ups

end of class

line up in order of rank, teacher and students bow to each other
turn and face the flags
recite the tenants of TKD
teachers and students bow to flags
face front, dismissed

 

[OnlyAnEgg]

We bow in, sit in seiza, meditate a moment, respectfully bow twice: once to sensei's teacher, once to sensei and then begin class.

Same at the end

 

[Xue Sheng]

First let me preface this with I am talking traditional Internal CMA in the first two and Police/Military CMA in the last one

Taiji: Sifu shows up, unlocks the door, students enter, talk a bit, warm up if they want, first class starts goes for a while meanwhile the second class starts to come in, first class ends some leave some stay and talk a bit second class can do warm ups if they want and then the second class begins and goes for a while. Second class ends some stay and talk some (eventually all) leave I stay (generally) and get the living daylights beat out of me :EG: in a bit of push hands with my sifu and the we leave and he locks up.

There are a few students who are trying to make things MUCH more formal, bowing calling Sifu grandmaster, rank and such and so far Sifu has said he is not a grandmaster so don't call him that, do not bow to him he does not see the reason why, and rank in Taiji is just silly.

Xingyi: show up, shut up stand in santi and then do forms, applications and then leave and limp home :EG:

Sanda: show up and then the painful fun begins. :EG:

Nothing formal, not even a uniform but then I have not come across anything formal in any of the CMA schools I have trained.

 

[JustAVisitor]

Beginning of the class:
Line up everyone in order of rank (from front right to back left). Students stand up straight facing the shrine (If we are in a permanent training area. We don't carry around a shrine when we train outdoors...). Legs spread shoulders wide, hands behind their back). The instructor salutes the shrine... well he salutes the entities/spirits that supposedly live in the shrine. Then the instructor takes incense sticks, lights them then goes back in front the shrine facing the shrine and presenting his back to the class. He sends positive thoughts to the spirits, like a little prayer for the class to begin. Then the sticks are put in little cups on the different levels of the shrine. Then bing bing bing with the gong.
Back in front of the class, the instructor commands the salutes to the Founder, then to the Grand-Master. Everyone does it (but if someone does not want to do it for personal reasons, it is accepted as long as it does not mess up with the class). Then the instructor turns around and depending on his rank is saluted by the whole class or just by the first rank. The first rank turns around and the next rank salutes it, down to the last rank or to the assistant instructor. The general rule is that the youngest salute their elders and then the elders return the salute. Then everyone meditates for few minutes in order to become present to the moment.

Closing:
Everyone lines up on the instructor command. Same order. Meditation. No incense and no gong, but the whole set of salutes.

I do Wing Chun in a very traditional school. All the fuzz means something. It is explained to the students as they evolve. The philosophy behind the formalities is interesting, it does bring a different perspective to the training.

 

[AMP-RYU]

We always start with meditaton...about 2 min. then bow and stand up. Then I have the ranking student bow in class. "Face the flags attention bow, face your instructor attention bow". We end class the same way, except after bowing to the instructor the ranking student dismisses class.

 

[terryl965]

Instructor in front and students line up ny belt order , then they bow to the instructor and then to the flags. We beat the crap out of each other and then line back up and bow out. The middle is the best part by the way.