Tell me about your first day of training..

[HighKick]

So you tell your students not to practise between classes in case they somehow ingrained ‘imperfection’? They should only practise before a teacher who can correct them? Have you heard of homework set be teachers and lecturers throughout the world?

Of course not. But have you ever had to help someone 'unlearn' something they were taught/learned wrong? It is usually quite a process. Like putting a lefthand bolt in a righthand thread.
I expect students to practice on their own but stress great caution about working on the techniques they are at least familiar with. Who expects a white belt to ever do their first form 'perfect'?
How many people have you seen go full strength/speed from day one?

 

[Gyakuto]

This dilemma can easily be solved; take two students, Agnes and Nigel, ask Agnes to practise several times a week at home and forbid Nigel from training anywhere other than the dojo.

Would you take a bet on whether Agnes or Nigel will make greater, more rapid, deep progress?

 

[HighKick]

This dilemma can easily be solved; take two students, Agnes and Nigel, ask Agnes to practise several times a week at home and forbid Nigel from training anywhere other than the dojo.

Would you take a bet on whether Agnes or Nigel will make greater, more rapid, deep progress?

Not enough information to answer the question. People are just too different and progress at different rates, no matter how much they practice.

 

[Gyakuto]

Not enough information to answer the question. People are just too different and progress at different rates, no matter how much they practice.

I think this is an unconscious attempt to make the idea of the benefits of home study between classes unfalsifiable.

I would encourage my martial arts students to practise between lessons, much as I’d encourage my academic students to study and attempt problems between tutorials.

 

[Xue Sheng]

I am not sure I put this in this thread or not.

But my first day of training, when I returned to training wing Chun, I was, and still am, very impressed with the sifu. As for me on my first day of returning to serious training, I felt like an uncoordinated goofball.... and to be honest, I still do, but something are starting to click

 

[HighKick]

I think this is an unconscious attempt to make the idea of the benefits of home study between classes unfalsifiable.

I would encourage my martial arts students to practise between lessons, much as I’d encourage my academic students to study and attempt problems between tutorials.

Not an "unconscious attempt" but instead an empirical fact based on my 38-years of teaching and thousands of years of confirmation from other instructors.
If you go back through the posts, you will see I do Not discourage practicing at home, quite the opposite. But I do strongly warn about practicing techniques a person does not know well so that they do not start a bad habit.
A you sure this is not an unconscious attempt by you to create a false narrative?

As to your academic students, more often than not the answer to their questions is absolute. There is only one correct answer. Learning a martial art could not be much farther from the opposite.

 

[NTXmma]

Awkward to say the least but it has become progressively smoother.

 

[elwood6]

I will never forget my first day of training. I was nervous and didn't think, after watching my children's class, that it was going to be all that hard. I was very wrong, but I was very hooked at the end of it. I enjoyed learning the new kicks and how to properly fall. The school was not a real "serious" place so there was lots of smiling and lots of laughter.

How about you? What brought you there and what kept you?

Sounds like an awesome start what brought me was curiosity, but what kept me was the fun, challenge, and great people!

 

[HighKick]

Sounds like an awesome start what brought me was curiosity, but what kept me was the fun, challenge, and great people!

A good friend of mine said something to the effect of "I am going to go try this Karate class, why don't you go with me"? About 3-months later he was in a bad car accident and had to stop.
That was in 1984 and I am still at it and a multi-school owner.

Turns out the 'Karate' class was a MDK & WT TKD school. Since there had never been a martial arts school in our area, the owner knew Karate would have much more name recognition. It stuck for five years or so and then the name was slowly transitioned to Tae Kwon Do. Any derivation without the hyphen but we usually the more formal notation.