How like your instructor are you?

[IcemanSK]

When you lead class, how much of the exercises, drills,& general running of the class is like the way your instructor does it? How much is your own (or things you've learned from other places)? Does she/he expect you to be different or is the expectation that you teach the same things the same way? Do you find yourself picking up the mannerisms of your instructor: using phrases or words the he/she uses in class?

 

[Drac]

Nothing like him...He's GREAT ..I'm just OK..

 

[terryl965]

When you lead class, how much of the exercises, drills,& general running of the class is like the way your instructor does it? How much is your own (or things you've learned from other places)? Does she/he expect you to be different or is the expectation that you teach the same things the same way? Do you find yourself picking up the mannerisms of your instructor: using phrases or words the he/she uses in class?

I strive evryday to be as Humble of a man he is and everyday I hope I can have the knowledge he prosess.

He as the strength and compassion I can only dream about in this time of my life and I hope one day I can look him and the eye and say Sabanim, I'm glad you had the time to train me to be like you in every aspect of my life.
Terry

 

[HG1]

When you lead class, how much of the exercises, drills,& general running of the class is like the way your instructor does it? How much is your own (or things you've learned from other places)? Does she/he expect you to be different or is the expectation that you teach the same things the same way? Do you find yourself picking up the mannerisms of your instructor: using phrases or words the he/she uses in class?

The class is run very similar to the way I was taught. I've added a few things to the mix but not much. My Sifu encourages us to use past knowledge & experience to expand the art into the future. Every generation should make the art stronger than the previous one. That's where the challenge lies. Sifu has dedicated his life to promoting the art of Hung-Ga. His talent is exceptional, the real thing - can talk the talk & just as easily walk the walk. Witnessing his skills first hand demonstrates what is possible through dedicated training. This motivates me to keep training hard. Yet overwhelming as well to think of equaling or surpassing his skills.

 

[IcemanSK]

With this question, I'm wondering about teaching style, rather than character or technique. Personally, my technique is a million miles from my 1st instructor, but I picked up a lot of words & phrases that he used to teach kids. For example, if a kid's mind wondered he'd ask, "What are you thinking about? Chocolate?" And I tend to count off kicks in sequences of 8 in Korean, rather than 10. This makes it harder for them to keep track of how many kicks we've done.

 

[matt.m]

When I taught kids judo I kept the warm up pretty much like my dads hapkido class warm up. I mixed in a little more judo/wrestling being that was the nature of the class.

I have led kids in the basic punching and kicking drills, I have also led them in forms. I pattern the exact same as the GM. I try and do him justice.

Afterall we learn how to teach from those who taught us. To redo the whole package is to discredit them.

I do break things down a little for the kids and teens a little more though. It is harder for them to understand pivot and positioning than it does adults.

For example last night we were doing "moves across the floor" we were doing front stance, the newest kids could not get it for anything. So I showed them to take the foot out to shoulder width and step forward in a straight line. Then to put a bend in their front leg.

Making it a two part - step forward did the trick for them.

 

[trueaspirer]

I think that I take everything that my instructor is and sort if make it part of me, with it blending with my natural way of doing things, but I definately use teaching techniques acquired from my instructor(s).

 

[EmperorOfKentukki]

There are pieces of all of them in me. They are treasures I hold and keep in the one place they can never be stolen.....my heart.

The Emperor

 

[exile]

I showed them to take the foot out to shoulder width and step forward in a straight line. Then to put a bend in their front leg.

Matt---so you don't do the two-move as as (i) moving the future-front-leg against (what will be) the rear leg and then (ii) moving out (what becomes) the front leg---the zig-zag front stance pattern?

 

[Kwan Jang]

In regards to my two instructors (partners) for the past 30 years, KJN Tony Thompson and KJN Ernie Reyes, I find my teaching style too much like theirs was when I was coming up and not often enough like what theirs has evolved into. But I'm working on it.

 

[Miles]

I think my teaching style differs from that of my instructors. I was brought through the ranks in the old militaristic hard-core "push-ups for eyes wandering" style. I strive for a relaxed but disciplined atmosphere.

Miles

 

[TraditionalTKD]

I would be honored to be half as good as my Instructor. While I will never be just like him, since we come from different eras and backgrounds, I have been told I have the same type of sternness and type of concentration level. My goal has always been to teach, practice, and approach Tae Kwon Do as he does. He doesn't consider Tae Kwon Do a game and neither do I.

 

[matt.m]

Matt---so you don't do the two-move as as (i) moving the future-front-leg against (what will be) the rear leg and then (ii) moving out (what becomes) the front leg---the zig-zag front stance pattern?

No, It has been my experience that when you glide your future front leg into what will be your back leg you rechannel your power and center of focus taking away from where you intend it to go which is straight forward. Doing what you describe also takes power away from your punch or kick.

I was showing new white belts that way to show distancing, its a neat drill I learn long ago from my dad.

 

[IcemanSK]

My 1st instructor considered standing front of a mirror throwing the same side kick in order to perfect it a good way for him to spend an hour. To this day, I've not seen a better side kick than his.

I wish I had the patience (or impatience w/ my technique) to do things like that. I train hard, but I have a "that's good enough for today" mode.

 

[exile]

No, It has been my experience that when you glide your future front leg into what will be your back leg you rechannel your power and center of focus taking away from where you intend it to go which is straight forward. Doing what you describe also takes power away from your punch or kick.

I was showing new white belts that way to show distancing, its a neat drill I learn long ago from my dad.

That's interesting. Our instructor has us do the in/out step---and I think I know why: it's because he wants students' front stances to have a nice big two-shoulder diagonal length between the back foot heel and the front leg heel. Your explanation makes a lot of sense. But by this point, if I did it the other way that you describe, I'd probably finish every step into a front stance by falling over!

 

[exile]

My 1st instructor considered standing front of a mirror throwing the same side kick in order to perfect it a good way for him to spend an hour. To this day, I've not seen a better side kick than his.

I wish I had the patience (or impatience w/ my technique) to do things like that. I train hard, but I have a "that's good enough for today" mode.

The sad truth is, mostly we don't have enough time to do everything, or to do anything. I can barely find an hour a day for my whole TKD routine. An hour a day just on the side kick... nothing else would get done.

 

[IcemanSK]

The sad truth is, mostly we don't have enough time to do everything, or to do anything. I can barely find an hour a day for my whole TKD routine. An hour a day just on the side kick... nothing else would get done.

He did that maybe once a week or less. I think it was a stress reliever for him, actually. Sorry, my bringing this up was off track of my original topic.

So what idea, way of teaching, drill, etc. did you pick up from your instructor that you use, Exile?

 

[exile]

So what idea, way of teaching, drill, etc. did you pick up from your instructor that you use, Exile?

Well, he is very, very big on a few things that I've found very helpful:

(i) both set and `free' kick combinations to build flow into your movements and smooth weight shifting from move to move. He has us do, e.g., a rear leg sidekick coming down on and shifting weight to the kicking leg, followed by a slide side kick executed by that same leg, followed by a rear leg sidekick using the other leg, followed by a back kick. On this cycle, one of the legs kicks three times and the other one only once, but the back kick `resets' the order so on the next cycle rear-leg-sk/slide-sk/rear-leg-sk/bk, the leg that got off easy on the previous cycle now has does most of the work, and so on. We do chains of these up and down the floor, and other combinations too. After a bit of this, we have to come up with own `freestyle' versions, with smooth flow and good balance, and minimal repretion. This is, I've found, a great drill for learning balance in weight shift.

(ii) He's also very big on slow, realistic-style kicks for balance---a full six-count on, say, side and turning kicks: from fighting stance, lift into chamber, pivot, strike, return to chamber, pivot back and lower into
fighting stance, reassuming as near as you can you initial position. And on the strike part especially, go slow, and `freeze' if you can for as long as you can (in this as in all parts of his teaching, he demonstrates very carefully before he asks you to do it yourself). Ideally, you should be in balance at every point in the kick and capable of holding any position for several seconds at least. This is a wonderfully hellish exercise: it really hurts, builds good balance and great leg strength---I'm really bad at it on my left-side rear leg side-kick, reasonably OK on the other side. One of the great things about this exercise is that students who do it carefully begin to realize just what it is that they're doing wrong with their kicks---they can see, in the most literal way, when they're not getting the striking surface right. With a lot of students, a front kick, a turning kick and a side kick don't look that different, and the striking surfaces are all in the same part of the foot. Doing this exercise, they begin to realize just how different a snap roundhouse and a side thrust kick really are in terms of body dynamics and point of impact. He's a pretty relaxed guy with the white and lower-color belts, but he makes it clear that all these kicks are different, and have different applications, and you had better become very aware of the differences and execute them accordingly.

(iii) we do air kicks for balance, pad/mitt work for accuracy and bag kicks for power and impact. He emphases a lot of reps and the value of alternating sides in bag work---left-right-left-... attacks for turning kicks---and also alternating sets of rear-leg kicks and front leg kicks of the same kind, e.g. turning kicks with the rear leg for a set of 10, then with the front leg for a set of ten, then...

I don't want to give the misimpression that kicking is all or even most of what we do, but training kicks seems harder and less intuitive than training blocks and punches for people. Last time, though, we spent quite a bit of time training for accurate and hard backhand fist strikes. We do quite a bit of SD, with knee strikes and elbow strikes, and a lot of emphasis on closing the distance and counterattacking as a `defensive' strategy.

And on another point, one thing my instructor does which I try to emulate is
try to push people a bit outside their comfort envelope in terms of effort without demanding more of them than they can give. He manages to coax a huge amount of effort out of people in class this way. It's a subtle ability to push people just enough more than they want to go, but not so much more that they give up... he knows exactly how to do this; I think it takes years and years to develop that teaching ability.

But heaven help you if he thinks you've been slacking off working on your poomsae!

 

[Sirius]

I hope that personally I'm nothing like either my former instructor, and I hope that professionally I'm nothing like my current one-there are serious deficiencies in both areas.

Actually, my teaching style tends to be the same whether I'm working in TKD, tutoring, or running an activity at summer camp, and I'm much more influenced by my own parents and my sisters than any instructors. As far as actual instruction, my view of TKD is rather intellectual and that's something I picked up from two people I train with (who are awesome), but certainly not something from my former instructor, because he's a long way from intellectual.