Teaching - Who Should and Shouldn't

[backfist]

Over the last 32 years, I've been a devout martial artist. A few years ago, I stopped training in one style and began training in another. The style I left was based on traditional belt ranks, testing, pre-testing, etc. I trained in it, off and on, for over a decade but did not attain black belt (I had issues with authority figures). The new style was a traditional Chinese gung fu style; no belts, formal certificates, etc. I studied and trained--emphasis on study--for many years. I have long considered myself a gung fu man, rather than a karate man.

Over the last few years, I've been teaching my wife and kids, as well as a couple of my kids' friends and schoolmates, aspects of my different styles--using what's useful and disgarding what I believed was not. I love teaching, and my students actually love to learn from me. It's rewarding on both ends.

For some time now, I've been wanting to teach full time, but have some reservations. My first school is very possessive and political about it's style. Yet my gung fu style has no rank. So if I am to teach commercially, I'm concerned about how I will be perceived by (a) the public (most don't understand belt-less styles); (b) the people in my prior style (because I would incorporate some of those techniques); and © competitors whose styles use belt ranks.

I'm curious to know how some might view someone like me--decades of knowledge and experience, but one who has a hard time with the belt-ranking system.

[marie curie]

I think that the only important thing is that you make all of your students aware of what training/amount of training you had, specifically, so they know what they are getting. If, knowing that, they still want to learn from you, I can't seee how someone would concider it a problem.

[powerof0ne]

It might be a tough hurdle to overcome but if you have the skills of an instructor that should speak for itself.

Unfortunately much of the general population assumes a high rank means a great instructor. My general rule for myself is if I don't feel that the instructor can do anything against me to defend himself I won't train under him.

I had one instructor years ago that I sparred that had very bad defense tell me after I soundly defeated him: "I can make you better". He also tried to impress me by telling me he could teach me how to tear a phone book in half. I won't say the style's name because I don't judge a whole style by one school.

Anyhoo you might want to join a more structured org/association to get a commercially accepted rank. I know this goes against how you were brought up but unfortunately to have a commercial school you have to change some things around.

In the Muay Thai association I'm under we have a rank structure(In Thailand it's student and instructors/masters, no sash/belts)because Westerners like rank. Unfortunately the more effective martial arts aren't always(usually)the real money makers in a commercial school.

The bottom line is your money maker is going to be the kid's class..this is what's going to make you at least break even at first..the kids. I trained at one of the best Karate dojo I have ever had the pleasure of training in and saw it fail because the head instructor had no patience for kids, and hardly any at all for anyone that wasn't a serious karateka.

Remember: Kids will bring in the $

[MartialArthur]

powerof0ne is right, it's the kiddos that bring in the $$ to keep the doors open. The kids also have parents, which are a good source of adult students.

The kids need to have relatively short term goals (i.e. color belts) and a big thing they are striving for (i.e. black belt) to keep them motivated and coming back. Whether this is good or bad doesn't matter because it's just the way it is. Kids absolutely thrive on tangible rewards that show their accomplishments. Parents are also willing to spend more on their kids than they spend on themselves.

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[backfist]

I fully agree that kids are a school's bread and butter. And seeing that my kids are not much different than most others, I beginning to come around as far as ranking is concerned. Kids like to see that they're doing well. They also like to know that they are pleasing the adults in their lives. So I believe I'm going to begin issuing rank-level sashes to my sons. They'll probably take more pride in their training; will keep them interested and motivated; and dad will definitely enjoy their enjoyment.

And if I, as a parent, want my kids to be happy in their training, I'll bet that other parents will too.

The next step, I guess, is finding an organization who will "rank" me. There seems to be a bazillion orgs out there. Anyone have any thoughts about one?

[powerof0ne]

I normally wouldn't suggest this but you could try https://www.wbbb.org, the only reason why I normally wouldn't suggest this is because I know of a few people that aren't legit that conned their way into this organization with false rank, etc. However, I also know of people that are totally legit that joined this organization because they broke away from who they were originally with and didn't know who to go to. I've seen the certificates from here and they're Korean but the head of the organization teaches more of an old school tae kwon do/karate. What I m ean by this is that his TKD isn't olympic style and is very similar to karate, in the forms too.

I don't know how I feel about him ranking people in other arts that he's not an instructor of though.

I guess if anyone knows of any Chinese martial art organizations they should give you a link or two?

[MartialArthur]

That website looks like the martial arts equivilent of a "diploma mill" where you can essentially buy your college degree. The problem with it, even if you are legit: any student, parent, or potential student can readily pull up that website and see what's going on. You'd almost have to be careful NOT to display your certificate and patch from "WBBB" because people always like to check thinks out on an org's website. If they see that, it won't reflect well on you.

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[backfist]

I agree, Arthur (but thanks, Power). It'll be even harder to find a Chinese MA org because of the non-ranking situation.

[AndrewGreen]

The next step, I guess, is finding an organization who will "rank" me. There seems to be a bazillion orgs out there. Anyone have any thoughts about one?

I wouldn't worry about it. Just be honest about what you have.

Rank the kids white to black, forget they kyu / dan stuff. Nothing for the adults. Don't bother trying to get an organization to rank you , they didn't train you and don't do what you do.

Lot's of places have implemented a belt system for the kids when they hemselves never went through one.

[MartialArthur]

Andrew is right, just do your thing and create a ranking system for the kiddos. Just make sure it's fair, consistant and documented so that you can explain to Johnny's parents why he didn't get promoted and Sally did, even though Johnny is better (in their opinion).

Do what you want with adults, but I frequently use upcoming belt tests as motivators for my adult students, and it does work. When they're tired after a tough day at work and have to make the decision whether to hit the couch or come and workout, an impending testing can help them make the right decision. Without some kind of timeframe and deadline, it makes it too easy to say: "I'll start training again next week".

My $.02

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