When you begin
you learn your art according to the paradigm your instructor follows. And
likely it was a good paradigm to follow, for the dojo he ran.
You follow it,
believe in it, and then you begin to instruct it. Perhaps not with the same
group of students, but adapt it to those you teach.
Then you have
time, a lack of proximity to others in your system, so you begin to train with
a lot of other people and see what they are teaching.
You focus on
several of those instructors, training deeply in what they offer.
Not changing what
you are teaching, but at the same time observing and thinking.
You come to
realize you are addressing a different student population, than your
instructors, An entire group of young people, who prove they can learn that
paradigm well. But you become sensitive that the needs of the young are
different than adults, and after 5 years of thinking, choose to teach the
original art within a different paradigm using supplementary form studies,
mostly to slow down the pace of instruction, giving more time for them to
develop stronger cores for your arts use.
You further come
to realize you won’t keep most of the students, and the most valuable lesson
you can share is that they can learn through their own efforts.
Another lesson,
those students who spend the 7 to 9 years to develop into strong shodans,
almost 100% of them will leave you for their own life needs. Such as College,
Military Service, Work, Marriage etc. Other instructors with extremely strong
youth programs share they find the same with their students, even the most
gifted who have been international competitors.
You contribute
to the Warp and Woof of their lives but move on they will.
Then beginning
an adult program I found I was working with a very different class of students.
Teaching for no compensation, I was not
dependant on continuing student enrollment to provide for cash flow.
These were
adults in every sense of the word. Responsible for their family’s finances,
they would not be able to attend every class. They often had more important
things to do, and should do them. At the same time they were committed to their
own training, staying for decades. They could learn very well, but the regular absences
did not make the old paradigm fit them very well.
I came to
realize that I was probably trying to juggle multiple paradigms at the same
time.
1. A youth
program 7 to 12
2. A older
beginning youth program 13-17
3. A much
stronger advancing teen program 13-17
4. A young adult
program 19-30
5. An adult
program 25-55
6. A mature
adult program 45-75
7. Advancing dan
studies 25-75
I might have
looked like the same program, but really each group had very different needs to
make them work.
I should add I
had another program, probably my most important program.
8. My personal
development studies, never ending, no limitations
All of this
required continuing effort on my part.
One of the
choices I made was all would study the same fort template. The initial subsidiary
form studies for youth development, were covered for the adults as well.
The advancing subsidiary
studies in Goju, Shotokan, Pai Lum. Really for use at dan study would be begun as
advancing kyu’s for use decades later, Skilled execution use.
Sparring was
another item that fit some groups and was not possible for others.
For the new
youth I came to realize the stronger their base ability was the stronger use of
sparring would be. So I choose to wait 2 years focusing on their core movement
development before allowing sparring.
The adult were
another matter, not having the ability to make every class, trying to teach
strong sparring episodically as they had the time did not make sense. And my
own studies into kata application potential and realization, provided another
alternative.
I never found I
had all these groups operating at the same time. The actual mixture changed as
time progressed. Keeping everything focused became another requirement for my
own study.
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