Students with instructors living out of state/town

Emptyhand

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I am, or most likely will sound ignorant, but I have always wondered how students that say "their" instructor lives out of state/town, continue to progress at their art? I realize martial arts is a life long practice and most don't chase rank but how do they improve themselves? How are they instructed from distance? Are they just taught a technique, practice and at the next instruction, assessed as to their progression? Or do they learn all of that specific belt requirements, practice and get assessed?

For instance if the student is an instructor themselves, how do they make next rank when the actual instruction they receive is inconsistent.

Hope I made some sense in this post??
 

jks9199

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I am, or most likely will sound ignorant, but I have always wondered how students that say "their" instructor lives out of state/town, continue to progress at their art? I realize martial arts is a life long practice and most don't chase rank but how do they improve themselves? How are they instructed from distance? Are they just taught a technique, practice and at the next instruction, assessed as to their progression? Or do they learn all of that specific belt requirements, practice and get assessed?

For instance if the student is an instructor themselves, how do they make next rank when the actual instruction they receive is inconsistent.

Hope I made some sense in this post??
It all depends. Beginners need frequent correction and guidance, and so need to see their instructors often. Sometimes, this can be accomplished by having a training group that meets and practices together, bringing an instructor in or going to the instructor on a regular basis. The training group gives you several sets of eyes and experiences on how a technique works, and can often "self correct" to some extent. In other cases, careful notes, even videos, as references can allow a student to train and advance in between visits to their instructor.

For a more advanced student, you learn to maximize the time with the instructor, and spend the time in between visits taking apart and understanding what was taught. So, for example, you might learn an entire form or a set of techniques in a weekend visit -- then spend several months understanding it better, before returning for more correction and guidance.

Realistically, most of us will eventually reach a point in our training where we can't see "our" teacher regularly, and really, don't need their day-to-day instruction the same way as when we first started. Instead, we go to our teacher to develop further skill, or to refine things we learned and have practiced.
 

hkfuie

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I don't know your purpose in asking this question, so forgive me if this is not what you were looking for.

I moved away literally the day after I got my first dan. When I got to my new town, I joined a couple other schools and later started teaching. But my first instructor is still my instructor because I have continued that relationship. My school has a strong tradition of encouraging black belts to train in other arts and add to the art. What I teach students is TKD as my first instructor taught me. I think he is a great instructor and what he taught me was a great base for the other arts I have learned. For me his style is like my "native language."

I still test with him. I learn the forms from paper/video and when we get together once or twice a year, he will give me feedback on the forms. In this way I maximize the time we spend together (as jks9199 said). But my self-defense and sparring have grown only from actually training with people in the classes I take.

Everything I learn in the classes I take I use to look for new depth in my original art. And I teach my original art. So that is how I continue to attain rank in my original art while not living in the same state as my instructor.
 

terryl965

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My GM lives in California and I visit him three times a year for a week at a time for training, plus he comes and visit me another two times a year. I have been training for over forty years and twenty with him. I also attend alot of seminars and have people come to my school for them as well. Training and learning can be done if you really want it, the journey for a Martial Artist is forever growing so we have to find ways for it to happen if you choose to.
 
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Emptyhand

Emptyhand

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hkfuie,

My purpose in asking the question was one of curiousity, that is all.

Sometimes I read posts in various MA forums where I sometimes see references by students who indicate that their instructor is living out of state or a long way from where they live.

BTW, you did answer my question informatively actually, thanks.
 

bluemtn

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In my case, I live in a tri- state area where the longest my current instructor travels is about 30 minutes. The farthest I've seen yet (from my old gm) traveled, is one hour. The only time he'd travel down is for testing.
 

IcemanSK

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In my case, my instructor is on the other side of the country. I run a school under his banner. I send him video of me & my students, talk by phone regularly, email often, & hopefully visit yearly. I also communicate with other instructors in our organization. I'm a 3rd Dan with 26+ years under my belt. I'm not new, so I don't need direct supervision.

I do miss being able to connect directly more often. But it still works well.
 

JadecloudAlchemist

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For me slower than most who have access to a school down the street faster than those who have no teacher.
Improving for me is doing what my teacher tells me and working on that until he says ok moving on. I can always contact my teacher with any questions and usually I have tons of questions from my own self discovery. For me with my teacher I don't think it is so much a technique but a concept which allows technique to unfold. Of course technique is shown to better illustrate the concept going on.
 

Kacey

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My instructor stopped teaching a formal class for about 4 years at one point while he was working full-time and in college full-time; for that period, I worked out with him in his backyard, whenever he was able to hold classes. His instructor lives an 8-hour drive away, and he travels there monthly to work out with him.
 

harlan

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It's a two hour round trip to train, twice a week. Because of that, I'd guess that most folks that have to do that are probably already 'marching to a different drummer', so to speak. Good for the independant person and the long haul, not so good for beginners or those interested in the 'extras' (ranking, tournements, etc.).
 

hkfuie

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Thanks, Emptyhand. The reason I asked is self-protection. I have visited on other boards where people are not so friendly. I half-expected that question to be a bait for someone ready to pounce and tell me I am wrong. I guess this place really is different.

When I answered you the first time, I forgot that I currently train with a different instructor (kenpo) who I drive an hour to visit 2x/month.

This is true insanity. When martial arts gets into your blood, be prepared to make a big budget for gasoline!!

This instructor thought I was kind of crazy, until I pointed out to him he travels 1,000 miles to train with his instructor 3-4x/year.

It's all about the instructor. This guy is excited when he teaches, he has the technique that I want and people that I can train with and actually hit and be hit. That's how I like to train and I am willing to travel for it. :)
The best thing about martial arts is the great people I have met.

Thanks to you all for contributing to this forum!
 

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