Teaching your friends...

[Manabimasho1]

A lot of my friends - including my girlfriend, which I'm sure there are other threads on - have been asking me to teach them, and I'm a little wary about the whole deal. I've been teaching my best friend for a few months off and on now, and he's made it to his 8th kyu...however, I'm worried that if I got a bunch of them together, they wouldn't pay attention, wouldn't respect my knowledge, and somebody would get either physically or emotionally hurt.

Advice?

Parkerlineage

I am an Instructor at my Grandmasters Dojo although I don't have full command I do take over alot of classes from time to time but we have ran into these issues. There are a few rules we go by, maybe they can help you.

#1 No students are allowed to Date or become involved in the Classes!

#2 Age and Body Type are not considered during the Ranking System!

#3 When the Grandmaster asks you to do something you will do it!

#4 No Teaching the style or movement outside of class to anyone!

Ok those are some of our main rules we have had issues over the last few years with problem people even a 6th Dan student who ran off to create another dojo dedicated to our style ended up messing up hardcore more then once and has just recently been fully stripped of every title and award he recieved in our system....18 years down the drain!

but with the dating rule, that only applies to students who were not actively romantic before signing up....in other words if you and your girl friend sign up then its ok. but you can't date any of the other girls there because of Drama issues and when hearts break one or both students quit coming.

[yamesu]

Yeah,

I think teaching them outside of a proper class is not a good idea.

People can get hurt, and theres not a lot for you tofall back on.

Bring them to your dojo, and show them that they will be treated as any other student.

Only 2 out of the dozen friends ive brought to classes ever ended up taking training seriously.

And one of them changed to a style more suiting him, after getting a proper taste of the arts.

Good Luck.

[USCMAAI]

Three of my top black belts are also friends of mine. We have trained together for 15-20 yrs. My take on this is the attitude that you take as an instructor is the attitude that your students will reflect. If you act professional and control your class, it won't matter who is in your class. When I was a very young black belt I actually taught my own mother karate (she actually made it to brown belt). Having your mom in class as a student is much more difficult than having your friends (making mom do push ups is one of the hardest and funniest things I have ever done...lol). Good luck to you with your new dojo. Remember friends outside of the dojo...Instructor /student inside the dojo!

[ps1]

Parkerlineage,

Follow your heart on this and you will come to your conclusion.

Some friends who have asked me to teach them I have. Others, I have refered to a formal school. Others yet, I have discouraged from the practice.

I believe you've already decided what you should do. Now just do it. Remember, friends are friends because you can be honest with one another.

[trustkid1]

I think you have to be a certified instructor before you start teaching others. Also you have to have an insure just in case of an accident. Better to invite them to the dojo that you practice.

[karatekid1975]

I will be learning (jujitsu) from one of my good friend's husband. He (and her) was an instructor in CA. He and his wife (my bud) had their own dojo at one time. I don't see a problem with it. When he is training me, I will be his student, nothing more. If a bunch of us go out for beers afterwards, that's another story. But he has the knowledge, so I will be a willing student that listens while he is teaching me.

I also have a friend that wants to learn kickboxing. I do TKD, but I am willing to teach her, eventhough I have never done kickboxing. She isn't in it for rank or anything, so I can teach her the basics. But I am going to stress the fact that she can not use what I teach her for real, unless it's life or death, ect.

My friend's hubby is teaching me for free. So I am going to turn that around and teach another friend for free. What goes around , comes around