ironsifu

I think that you have to look at this on a per-style basis; not all styles are going to have the same goal. That said, here goes.... 1. Knowledge of curriculum of the system. You have to know math, to teach math. At the same time, you need to know the forms, self-defense techniques, etc., and what makes them work, to be able to relay them to students. 2. Teaching ability. This may seem like a no-brainer, but one can have the knowledge listed above, but not know how to relate that knowledge to others in a way conducive to teaching. The "school of hard knocks" is not always the best school to attend. 3. Good technique. Having good technique makes teaching easier, especially when you can physcially demonstrate what you are talking about. It doesn't have to be the best technique in the world, but it should meet a standard of what is considered acceptable. Now, this has nothing to do with being a superior athlete, although being in good physical condition will help. 4. Be an adult. This should probably be farther up the list, but I am not necessarily going by order of importance here. An adult will have a higher level of understanding, and can better demonstrate the authority needed to teach. I've been offline a few days, and haven't read the other posts here yet. So, the above was typed straight from my mind. Now, I'll enjoy everyone elses posts. oops, yes, this is right. very basic and very true. i think to add experience (fighting experience). if we are teaching self defense, we are actually teaching a life-or-death skill, that, someone can loose his life, if i am not teaching the real thing. so a qualified teacher has to have his own experiences. so my example, would be, would you have heart surgery from a doctor who learned online? or if he learned from a teacher who never done the surgery himself? everyone has very good answers here.

this is very true. i think anybody who can make a weak student strong, and teach a strong student control and make him better is qualified. there's a lot who will disagree and talk about certificates, exams, blah blah blah. but lets look at boxing. who certifies boxing teachers, besides the money making organization? no one. you open a place, no matter if you was a good fighter when you were young, and if your guys go to a competition and they suck, you will probably go out of business (or switch to LA boxing or something). but if your guys are the beast in the ring, you are celebrated as a great fighter. look at many fighters who were so-so in the ring, who became great GREAT teachers. cus d'amato, teddy atlas, and some other ones. but then you have ex-champion fighters who never made another champ from the ground up, like sugar ray leonard (i use to box in his gym in maryland) and joe fraizer (any body remember his son? embarassing). then, you have some guys who never fought in the ring, i think lou duva maybe?, but had some champions. some of the best teachers around today, where good but not great fighters when they were young. look at roger maywether, buddy migurt, freddy roach. i think the old days, many of the people we know today as "grandmasters" and "founder", would not be considered "qualified" today. they study with their teachers only a few years. they had no black belt or certificates. many of them only had a little of this and a little of that. but the reputation of the art, stands on the performance of the students and the quality they can create, and if another teacher questions if this style is good, there is a way for him to find out. today, they call this a tournament but now a days, anyone can open a school and teach people. if he is good and his art is real, he will hang around, if not good, he will teach "tiny tigers" and have afterschool karate lol.

i dont think its a good idea to teach yourself, but in your school theres probably classmates who been with this teacher for a few years. the senior one should do the training, as long as he is teaching what he learned from your master. as long as everyone trained hard, you can probably develop good skill there, especially if the teaching you received was good training in the first place. its a good idea, somebody said, to invite a travelling master to come and teach, and best if its the same style, same family and lineage. like classmates of your master, or even to bring your old master back every now and then. where i am from, i use to travel once a week, for almost 100 miles on a bus to train with my master for 2 or 3 days a week. guess what, when he was a young man, he saw his masters only a few months a year because he travelled farther than that! the best learning of course is to study full time. but next to that is full time practice with part time learning. another suggestions, is that some of your should travel to study with a master, and then come home to teach your brothers.

YES! i dont know why they dont separate it. i use to say, that a lot of teachers have shallow knowledge, and they run out of things for the students to learn, so for them, "advanced" martial arts is learn a new style, or worse, gymnastics. i like tournaments where the promoter is picky about who is a judge, instead of calling any black belters to the ring because "ring 10 needs a judge". who is to say the judge is qualified? so then, we have some 19 years old kid, who been only in his hometown and never seen any martial arts around the world, and he's going to give a score to the form that excites him the most. its been many tournaments where the best lost to the flashy guys, because the judge doesnt know between good martial arts and bad martial arts. i really dont like XMA, but they have there place, theres people who dont like point fighting, theres people who dont like kickboxing and theres people who dont like MMA... something for everyone. but there should be a difference and each style has its own place. i remember seeing strong hung gar guys lost to a wu shu.

remember when the best performance of form use to win? now, all i see is breakdance/gymnastics. very little skill in martial arts form. my students dont compete in form, but i still enjoy watching a good one, when i see one, but there's not a lot of attention to this kind of skill now a days. i found this clip, which, i dont know if she won, she should have, but its very impressive to see a kid so young with this kind of skill. lots of patience, discipline and strength here. hope you like it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdZlh6OWqLI

yeah if someone is only staying a few months i dont mind. but my school is now at a size where i dont have to take just any student who walks through my door, and after 16 years i have learn to be picky. one thing i dont like is wasting my time. but every ad i put says "serious students only". and i mean it. our beginners course is a 6 month program, and you sign up for it. if the student does not finish it, then they are just a drop out. like the example i used earlier, try going to a university and saying "i want to sign up for classes, but in case i dont like it/its not for me/classes are too hard/etc.--i dont want to pay for the rest of the semester", its not going to work. the commercial part of martial arts has really taken commitment and dedication out of the schools and made it a business, thats why people will say i wont stay unless it is exactly the way i want it. and that can mean easy enough, promote me fast enough, when do i get learn all that neat stuff i saw in ong bak, can i have my birthday party here, lol. martial arts relationship with our customers is different than any other business. in business, the customer is the boss, they flex their pocketbooks to get what they want. in the martial arts business, they are paying to basically please the teacher to get what the teacher has to offer... well at least in some schools. i have found that people who school hop, end up 10 years into the art with beginner skill, and often no rank. of course there are the times that you just end up in a school with poor quality, but mostly the student just does not have what it takes to make it in a real school. i think its the job of the teacher to do everything he can to make sure the student is given the right tools to succeed in the martial arts, besides just punching kicking and holds, but the philosophy of how to be a student. and the first rule of being a student is bringing your behind to class haha

when you go to college, you pay by the semester, even if you endup paying by the month, you owe for the semester. it doesnt make sense month to month because the semester doesnt do any good if you dont finish. martial arts school is the same way. if you do this one month (or one week) and quit, you just wasted your time, mostly. that's like going to mcdonalds, and saying, give me one french fry i'm not that hungry, or three bites from a cheeseburger. in my school i charge by the month for the beginner class, so even if you dont come every class, the fee is for the month not by the class. after beginner level one, you can only sign up 6 months at a time. i tell the students, if they are not willing to dedicate at least 6 months to the training, we are not the right school for them. now they dont have to pay 6 months at one time, but they are signing up for 6 months and will commit to training for 6 months. its better than that way, and if a guy goes, i might not want to do this in two months, they should find a school less serious.

i think the skill in teaching children, is, that you have to be able to teach the art, and to keep kids attention at the same time. but not all kids is the same. some you have to be funny, and then your going to have to keep the explanation simple, and not too much information at one time. i think i am developing a combination of being funny, and serious, and exciting all in the same class. i dont want to have to be a clown in the classroom, but drill instructor approach is not going to work with kids either.

congratulations! lol i just signed up my first new student for my new location a few hours ago. feels great doesnt it? little do they know, they just made history.... make sure you photocopy the check, and frame the application!

hi i havent been on this site in a long time, and this topic really got my attention because it is something i've been dealing with lately. i began teaching my kids last year, and they were 6 and 7 at the time. it was a disaster. after coming to my school with me all there lives, and "playing karate", i finally started teaching them... and they hated it. after only trying for a month, i enrolled them in a kids class taught by a lady who was a kuk sool won teacher, and very patient. the kids took to her class, and since she had a ton of kids (my school is all adult) had a great time. i had some soul searching to do, since i found myself getting a little jealous that she had more success than i did, but a mans gotta know his limitations anyway, about 6 months ago my (now 7 and 8 year olds) kids asked me to learn my style (yippie!) and we're doing great now. i know they miss their old teacher, and now i have to deal with the guilt of feeling like i "stole" my own darn kids away from her, but they were ready. so i guess my point is that my kids related better to the kuk sul won teacher because she was more experienced teaching kids, and the environment was more suitable for them. i was afraid i was doing to them what my teachers did to me. the truth is that they were too young... for the method of teaching i use. you know, we all cant specialize in everything!

hi, i had a business teacher (not in school but a guy who help me learn business), who said, you have to decide, you will be the best price, or the best product, but it dont make sense to try and be both. you can try to be cheaper than the gym, but then the gym will tell people, they have more stuff for the money (and you not going to be cheapest anymore). but if you price yourself to be the best, they will chose price or value. its like cars. do you want saturn, or mercedes. depends was important. save money or get results. my idea is, people want cheapest, but only when the quality doesnt make a difference. kind of like you can buy dish soap in the dollar store or grocery, but your not going to get your food there. my advice, charge what you are worth, then when they jump explain why your not the cheap guy.

fire him. you dont go into business to take any students just because he has a dollar. but maybe you can talk to him about his attitude, and if he does not improved, invite him to find another school.

the community center is a very good place to teach. you dont have this stress of, not enoug money, or how can i pay rent this month. the problem is, they have too many rules. you can build a really strong school just in a community center, some people never even left their place to get a building! i know one lady in my town, who is a very good teachers, and she has maybe 100 student in her community center clases. and she only teach 4 days a week, that's great. you can also use the center for extra school and income if you have a place already, and do them both. or, you can build up your enrollment, then buy your place when your ready. me, i started my school in 1992, at bolling air force base gym, andrews air force base and ft myers army base, before i opened my school. i was only 22 years old, no education, i dont know nothing about business, except how to fight. and wow, i taught more than 1,000 students since that time. and guess what, no kids! all adult fighters. (sorry for bragging)

hi i do adult classes, so my students come from all over. i choose my place becase it is in a low rent area. i drove around to find where the rent is cheap but i am in a high traffic area. i think if you get your reputation is a good school, your location can be anywhere. for a school, if you have a low rent, you dont have to "monkey" as a teacher. i know lots of teachers who want only traditional pure, arts, but they end up with birthday party and clowning around with 4 years old kids, just to pay the bills. i will put some pictures of my place if i can figure it out, and you can see how basic my school is, but it sends a message to new students, what kinds of school we are.

hi i believe respect in the martial arts, like many things martial artists talk about, is for looks only. like the "tenets of tae kwon do" and martial arts creeds and stuff like that, nonviolence and everything. one time a friend of mine who is a school owner, said, martial arts is not about fighting. oh yeah? since when? all of that is image. we have to looked like a shaolin monk or something. this is the thing that makes a martial artist, criticised a NHB fighter, or a very confident martial arts master, remember, we are supposed to be humble. or not? no we are fighters. maybe some guys want to be school teachers, promising good grades and all. but if you want your kids to never be picked on again, he doesnt go to the math tutor, he comes to me. my point of this is, respect in the martial arts comes in three forms only. one is celebrity. he is famous, so you show him respect. a very popular master or martial artist, is love by many people, you cant say bad things about him, not even to say, his art is weak. this is why many martial arts teachers like to make websites, write magazines, and put out video. you know, like what do you mean he's no good? hes in all those books! put it in writing enough times, people will believe you. this is why ashida kim is known as a ninja master, even thow he's and old white guy from florida with a tae kwon do learning. second, is age and rank. look at the creator of some styles of martial arts, do you think you can beat this old man? maybe. but you respect him because he is old, he paid his dues, he deserved it, even when he might not been the best of all time. he is our hero when we were younger. the last is, fighting skill. when a martial artists can fight, everybody respect him. even you might not like this guy, but he has what everybody wants, skill. plus, he going to kick your sorryif you challenged him. so people will at least bite there tongue when he is in the room, call him jerk when you get home on the computer. skill, i think is the best and highest form of respect. it is the only TRUE respect in the martial arts. how many times you saw people vouch for another one, because that is his friend. you see it all the time with masters, they talk good about another master, because he knows him. but the respect of a teacher who is good fighter, everyone will think well of him. but you can respect the man, respect the rank, but still you dont think his art is good. i think this is what they call, diplomat. see you cant walk around in this country saying another guy's kung fu sucks. but you have to find a *nice* way to say, i cant speak for his art, but he's a good man. as a teacher its one of the hardest things, especially if you are a school owner, especially if you need other people for paying your bills.

its possible. my recommendation for you: 1. train hard to keep yourself in top shape all the time (most teachers are not in shape). makes it easier for students to be excited about training under you 2. study all you can get your hands on for business with the martial arts, and sales and marketing. can i recommend "good to great" (jim collins, there is a website too), "guerilla marketing" (jay conrad levinson), as many sales books you can get, and enroll with one of these groups like EFC, MATA, etc. i have them, and not everything is good for a serious martial artist, but you get lots of good information to run the school. 3. you will need to have a set aside time for marketing and sales. some people think all they have to do is show up for class, but it dont work that way. until your first 30 people you have to have at least 10 - 20 hours a week to bring people in. once you have a comfortable number of guys paying the bills, the only way is to go balls to the walls full time its the only way. other than that you will see saw up and down your enrollment, and never break free of your job. you dont have to sell out, and it is possible to have a hard core school and make a good living at the same time. there is no such thing as "not in my town". its education and preparation, then dedication.

the sifu name there is hoy lee. he is the most senior master in america for jow ga. i think for your area, he would be the best choice (i havent been in hampton/vb in 10 years, but last time i was there, ) maybe you should try it for a few months.

well he learned another important rule, dont bad mouth another person, because they might come back to prove you wrong. i dont think teachers should go around challenging other ones to fight all the time, but we did not study this art to make it easy for someone to put you down either. what rivalry does, is keep people respectful. it makes the cowards, act like cowards, which is to talk your trash in closed doors, not out loud as if no one important will hear. but rivalrly does something else. its competition. it keeps a teacher always in shape, always ready to defend himself or his reputation. you MUST be able to play the game if you wear the uniform. it is the reason we have styles, because some guy 100, 200 years ago, said, i have a better way to do this. once you make your "better way", you have to prove its a better way. this is the source of true respect in the martial arts, respect of skill. they dont have to like your looks, or personality, but every body will respect the skilled martial artists in his presence. and this is what i ment by "make a coward, act like a coward". you do it in the comfort of your friends and students. unless you figure you have better skill than the next guy.

rivalry is the most important in a teachers experience, especially young teachers. this is how the arts get developed, one guy says, you know i think i can beat this guy. i was with a teacher who didnt like another one, so when he knew i was going there (to invte them to my tournament) he came. any way, long story, but the conversation became, you told one of my students i'm fat and no good. he asked him to spar now, or later he can come back. the guy (who talks lot of trash, they dont do tournament only streetfight) told him, you guys leave or i'm calling the police. he didnt realize, he violated one important skill of becoming a teacher, which is, hold your courage when your in the presence of another teacher. john was not going to hurt him, he even said, come on we can spar light, the other guy still said, get out. rivalry keeps us in shape, it keeps us courage and brave, it also keeps people in respect. i bet this guy, he is never going to speak bad in his back, out loud, only as a coward does....very quiet. my friend yes he little out of shape, but i respect him a lot after that. this kung fu guy, he respects him too, and most because he's a rival and his going to demand his silence.

hi danbong! how long you been practicing tae kuk mu sul? i use to consult with mr kim! are you from the citrus hights school, or the one on madison? i'm opening a school with one my students in yuba city very soon...like as soon as we can find a location.

its hard to answer this question if your a student. how can a beginner judge the expert? on what he sees in the movies? or a tournament? or comic book? some people will look at a teacher with a belly, and say, he is no good. or a teacher who can do splits and has a nice body, and say he is good. or one who is acobatic, and think he's good. "good" teachers, you can only tell one way, that is to compare his students fight against others. just like you cant chose your parents, i dont think its that easy to chose your teacher. you find a school and you study for x, y, and z. and months, maybe years later, you find out if he was that good or not. but the real focus should be, to be a damn good student. you train like a mad man, to make your teacher and school look good, and to be good skills yourself. if the teacher can guide you to that goal, then i say he's okay.

most of the students who training regular private lessons, i charge $55 aclass, or $40 if they pay in advance for the month. for the students who live out of town, and only study a few times a year, it depends, how often and how long the training sessions is, and how commited he is to the art. about $300 for a weekend visit, this is for 1/2 day training

people are going to put down any art when it is popular. in a way, it is good for those of us who are strong, because your opponents have a disadvantage when they believe you are a weak fighter, and find out later that your not. the answer is, to train hard and become a good example of your fighting style. get lots of sparring practice so that you know how to use your techniques, then finally, get out there and show what you can do. after you are done proving yourself, teach what your good at and give your students the knowledge you developed while you were fighting. this is the stages of becoming a teacher, that sad to say this, but most of us skip. especially in the "modern martial arts" world, where people study and art, and they expect to become an expert or teacher in 4 or 5 years. they study an art, and 2 or 3 years later they have a certificate in their hand, which they never proved themself to get it. so you have is, a guy with forms and no skill. kung fu people get dogged out because most of us only practice form, and never develop or display the fighting skill we have.

thank you. i'm looking foward to some good exchange. anybody here own school?

hello, my name is maurice gatdula, and i am a teacher in sacramento california. anybody from my area on here? how about jow ga?