Becoming an Instructor

 

When I began Isshinryu I had no intention of becoming an instructor. While I had to assist in class at times, in Salisbury with Mr. Lewis and in Scraton with Charles Murray my only desire was to practice and perform Isshinryu.

 

While working for a bank in Scranton, my coworker and I used to walk about town at lunch time. One thing I noticed was how many dance studios were in town. Although I had studied some dance when I was young, I really did not know what they were about. I learned that for the most part most of their students were young women, and apparently one could make a living doing that. And I just filed that away in my brain.

 

When I was a beginner I was training in Sensei Lewis’ Karate Club, for a modest montly fee, and much of that I paid for by cleaning the dojo on Sundays. Then I trained at other clubs of the IKC on occasion. When I relocated to Scranton for work I joined a local Tang Soo Do program. I was realistically what was in the area at that time. It was a professional program, large and with payment books to cover my two year contract. The fee was not huge, but you were also expected to go through testings 4 times a year and those were for additional fee. Apparently the instructor made a living waiting for classes in his school.

 

Then when Charlie Murray moved to the Scranton area, I began training with him. There was no fee between us. In fact he started a small youth program in the basement of his church, and I assisted teaching for him at times. Mostly our time together was my own training.

 

Eventually I became a black belt and quite soon he was gone. I was training on my own. 3 brothers from his church program kept training with me, it was going into  summer and I held those classes for them at McDade park near their home. That summer I began to think on what I needed to do to remain Isshinryu. Practice by myself was not enough.

 

Thinking on all those dance schools, and those 3 brothers, I came up with an idea.

 

I worked for a living and never wanted to teach karate for money. I offered my services as an adult volunteer instructor at the Scranton Boys Club, and they accepted for September.

 

Beginning with those 3 brothers, in a small room (the gym was filled most of the year with basketball), the club got me students. I thought that teenagers would want to learn karate, but found that it was the younger members who joined. (And with exceptions, it remained that way, finding out most teens were too involved in other activities). Very quickly I learned a real lesson. Teaching the way I was trained caused all my students (except those 3 brothers) to leave the program. I was sharing Isshinryu at too intense a level for the other students.

 

My wife, a phys ed instructor herself, shared some ideas how to approach my program. She also showed me her college texts on coaching Jr. High swim teams. They were more advanced than any karate text on how to teach I have ever seen. I re-thought how I was teaching, we got more students and long story short I took off.

 

Now I was teaching 2 nights a week, studying tai chi another evening, traveling most of the other night to train with other instructors who invited me to attend, I had met them at tournaments and I began regularly attending tournaments in Pa, Md, NJ, NY. I was not taking students with me, rather going for myself, and to learn what was out there.

 

What I found was that parents  and families were taking kids to tournaments and than then they were often performing later in the day, And as most of the competitors were adults, the kids often got lost in the crowds.

 

 

Then as people were aware I was teaching young people, often I was placed in Youth rings to judge, I learned a great deal what was out there (at least as far as tournaments).

 

Years passed. My students were remaining in the program, I still was not focused on them competing in those tournaments. Only a few times a year would a few attend a tournament with me.

 

Then I got an idea, I would hold a youth karate tournament, through the Boys and Girls Club. The fee a modest $5,00 for all events, And we had kata, kobudo and kumite divisions. One father made all our trophies, additionally each youth who competed would receive a participation award for doing so.

 

I held 3 of them before I moved away. Each grew larger than the last. It was all focused on the young people. And the parents baked and shared a grand room for the judges comfort (but by the time I got there, none of the incredible Isshinryu cakes were left). Local instructors who also were regional and national champions also demonstrated for the kids and their families. The very modest profits made always went to support the Boys Club.

 

As an aside, while my students always did well, each year the young women won more trophies for kumite.

 

The available space for my program kept the club size about 25 members, and every class was a different composition as none of there were there every night. But all moved forward in Isshinryu. So after 5 years I had an entire mixture of White through Brown Belts, and 2 of them made Black Belt. I was also the first program to have brought young women to join the Boys Club of Scranton for karate lessons.

 

Over those years many, many instructors in the area and the state thought I was crazy.

1.      For teaching youth.

2.      For teaching for free.

But none of their arguments swayed my mind.

 

Then Fate of Serendipity required I move on for work. I closed the program and moved to Derry.

 

In those years while I knew there was Karate on Okinawa and on Japan, I really did not realize that they were often doing different things. For one thing I got a lot of my ideas from the autobiography of Funakoshi Ginchin. His description of his own training as a youth was not in a school, but from private training from an instructor and then one of that instructors friends.

 

The concept of what training might have been before karate became public training fascinated me. In fact realizing the youth in my program might respond better if we had a club name. 

Rather than one like White-Yellow-Green-Blue Animal of choice, I rather liked Funakoshi’s description of earlier Okinawan karate being called Bushi No Te (of hands of the warrior). I was also being sensitized of many programs using the name Karate to mean things other than what I saw Karate a being.

 

I solved it by choosing to name my program Bushi No Te Isshinryu. It has been that ever since that time.

 

My program for the young when I taught in Scranton was entirely focused on the  Isshinryu as I had been taught it. At the same time I was learning so much from many different individuals. Some of those studies I attempted with my students as one off class diversions.

 

While I had to relocate it was very hard to leave a very dynamic program behind. But life is all about making choices and learning from those choices.

 

In 1985 starting my program anew in Derry NH I began to put some things I worked on in PA into my program. I believed students spending a longer time to develop power and technique before starting Seisan kata could make for a better Isshinryu for them. So I began new students on a new karate orientation program first.Then their kata studieds began with a  version of Fyugata Sho (called Kata Sho) then onto kata Ananku before beginning Seisan kata. Eventually I also added a kata developed on Okinawa for school phys ed classes. Kata Kyozai. I found this ever better prepared my students for later studies.

 

But the basic structure of class warm up, different drills for the night, kata and kumite remained my standard. Class size remained about 20 members, by my discretion. I wanted to hold to the older idea of a very personal program.

 

As time passed I also became more aware that tournament karate and kumite alone were not where I felt the strongest karate could go. I consciously began to de-emphasize kumite spending more time on other things. I also most unhappy with what was occurring at tournaments moved completely away from the tournament scene. There were infinitely more things to occupy the students with.

 

I also was able to start a small adult program, eventually it grew larger but never more than 10 students. Very long term students.

 

 

As that program, and I used the same curricula for the adults as the kids, I began to explore additional possibilities. I wanted to honor those who shared with me. I also honestly believed the more students intimately were aware of what other systems did, that became another weapon at their disposal. Most selfishly I also wanted people trained in other techniques to work against for Isshinryu kata application studies I had planned.

So I began to do all of that at the same time.

 

With all of my students having a bit of exposure to some Shorin Ryu studies, I incorporated other subsidiary kata studies. Saifa from Goju Ryu, Supple Dragon from Pai Lum and Nijushiho from Sutrisno Shotokan.  I ever had several of those instructors teach those forms to them. There were in addition to the full Isshinryu studies.

 

I also made a decision to move the Isshinryu kubudo into Dan studies. Wanting students to concentrate more on the empty hand studies. But I did include at least one Bando weapon at brown belt (either staff or stick, on my decision what was most appropriate for the student.)

 

 

In Scranton the full responsibility of teaching fell on my shoulders.

 

In Derry, the first 7 years, while I was the instructor, Maureen, my wife, assisted me many of the classes. Still I managed many of the classes on my own, able to work with each of the kids at the same time. A full range of white belt through black belt in time. It was challenging.

 

The adult program always fell on my shoulder’s.

 

 

Somehow I made things work, even when I was away for business travel.

 

Then Maureen moved on, wanting to spend time with our kids in their other activities. I was back to shouldering to shouldering the full load again. I was also teaching an intimate Tai Chi program on Sundays (that did not have anything to do with karate, but the students were black belts in my program too.)

 

A number of years later I selected my senior students to become instructors. They had a long time with me, even went through the youth program. And I patiently worked with them an a very different skill set, how to recognize what each student individually needed to move forward , then to assist them in that process.

 

I had developed my own idea what an instructor should be. First and foremost, having spent at least 15 years with us to intimately understand the program. Second to undergo a mentorship where one developed students from white belt through black belt, Feeling the necessity of the instructors responsibility. Only then were they instructors.

 

And of course the ongoing study never stopped for the instructor. It just took oa a different dimension.

 

 

The first responsibility of the instructor burden was always the student’s needs came first. That was foremost. Then and only then, could you address your own needs.

 

The youth program was not just about developing black belts. It did that and the average time to do so was 7 to 9 years (my own son took 9 years). But far more important to the youth was that it taught everyone of them that they could learn by their own efforts. Most did not stay past 2 or 3 years, but every one of them experienced that. And that would stick with them for like. They came to understand what they could do.

 

The adult program was the same karate but on a different level. Most adults reaching Black Belt stayed over 17 years before feeling the need to move on. Which of course most of them did. But staying so long, working on developing skill, also gave me stilled people to work with a bit. Allowing me time to progress on my own studies, which is also important.

 

Adult class size over the decades, increases, decreases time and time again. But my senior students staying, learning and progressing with me for decades cannot be adequately described. Their presence enabled so many things.

 

So what I did was select a far more intimate program than any commercial program could ever be. I worked out an approach to develop instructors and held to that plan. I was able to develop skilled students to be able to work with them and pursue my own interests.

 

And of course this is just a part of my studies. There was ever so much else that there was no time to share with anybody.

 

Being an instructor is ever so much more than standing before a class. Anyone can do that.