skribs
Grandmaster
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2013
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When I open my own school, one thing I want to look at is the right type of teaching for the right skill level. I feel my experience in TKD has excelled at the beginner level and waned at the advanced level. A TKD white belt will learn 5 punches, 5 kicks, and 5 blocks. A yellow belt will learn 5 combos involving punches, 5 combos involving kicks, and 5 combos involving blocks. A black belt will learn 5 combos involving punches, 5 combos involving kicks, and 5 combos involving blocks. It never steps up from the foundational level to the conceptual level, and thus progress is linear. In BJJ, I've seen the opposite. It's very much "move of the day" which I find valuable over a year in, but found incredibly frustrating to try and build any level of competence in when I first started. By the time I finally "get" something, we move on.
Thus, I'm looking at a phased approach.
Thus, I'm looking at a phased approach.
- Beginner level - do the same things the same way every class, in order to build up lots of muscle memory. Instructor focus is on consistency and repetition. Details and variations are saved for later, as they tend to get in the way of consistent repetition.
- Intermediate level - the "and then" level. Do the same basic drills. Sometimes zip through them for warmup. Sometimes focus on improving the details. Sometimes add in new techniques on the end as an "and then" idea. Still very structured, but starts to open up.
- Advanced level - the "steps away from intermediate" level. Start to focus on different concepts each day, week, or month. Goal is not to teach everything every month, or even every belt, but that by black belt a student will have learned the required material and picked up some extra knowledge along the way. There's a list of techniques and concepts that are reserved for black belt (either due to difficult or risk, or as a reward for getting your black belt), but other than that, instructors can teach what they know instead of always doing what I dictate. This is to encourage folks to come in from other schools with other experiences and bring value to my school and my students, instead of to make them feel useless for not knowing my curriculum. (And because memorizing the beginner class and the intermediate additions is quite enough for most folks to keep track of).
- Black Belt level - the "pool of knowledge" level. Black belts can focus on the aspects of Taekwondo that they find most interesting, whether that's showmanship, sport, or self-defense. Some items open up for students to learn which were previously "locked". (This isn't anything big, it's things like doing double nunchaku instead of single, finishing certain submissions that we didn't in advanced level, scenario sparring for self-defense, 540 kicks, etc.). Some of class is done together, some of class is done more as an open mat.