Your Opinion

[BLueDevil]

Hey guys,

My instructor has resently been put in jail for some undisclosed reasons. Our rankings go:

white sash

yellow sash

orange sash

purple

blue

green

brown 3-2-1

black 10+

I have acheived my green sash and have finished my brown 3 chart and am ready to test.

Heres the deal, my school was very young to begin with and I only have technically 2 people higher in rank and they are a brown 2 level, unable to test me. So I stopped going to the school and am practising at home in my free time. A friend of mine wants to learn and I need someone to practise with so I offered to give him lessons for free to help both of us. Do you guys think Im doing the right thing? What would you do in this situation?

[Ace2021]

I would try to find a new dojo even if it teaches a different art and drag him along. If you try to instruct him he could hurt himself if you aren't doing it correctly. if you have faith in your teaching abilities, then i'd say go ahead..if you felt you've learned enough to teach your friend some stuff. I teach some of my friends some stretches and punches, kicks, and throws/submissions in my various arts. ultimately it may not be as good as a real sensei..but it's certainly better than nothing.

[scottnshelly]

I agree that some training is better than no training. You could teach him the basics until you both can find a qualified instructor.

Before you start teaching, you need to make sure that you are confident in your teaching ability, his ability to learn and his ability to not abuse his new knowledge. If you teach him how to do an armbar, then he teaches someone else how to do an armbar and that person teaches someone else how to do an armbar, eventually it will become sloppy and dangerous.

Make sure that he understands that what he is learning is not for him to pass around to all of his friends. I’ve seen this happen; someone learns something fun and exciting and wants to share it with disastrous results.

You should also emphasize the point that he should not use what he learns to rough up his brother or to wrestle with his friends as someone may get hurt.

If you don’t know everything really really well, you may have difficulty teaching it in a way that he understands. Everyone learns things differently; this is why instructors do the same things repeatedly with slight variances. You may understand something well enough to explain it, but he may not understand everything as easily as you.

If you decide to pass on your knowledge to him, be safe, lay down some rules and don’t let it get out of hand.

[Zorbasan]

a yellow sash would be able to teach someone that has had no experience.

if you know more than someone else, then you can teach them something beneficial. obviously you can only teach them up to your level.

as long as you only teach what you know, and not something you are learning it will be ok.

[parkerlineage]

a yellow sash would be able to teach someone that has had no experience.

if you know more than someone else, then you can teach them something beneficial. obviously you can only teach them up to your level.

as long as you only teach what you know, and not something you are learning it will be ok.

I'm sorry, Zorbasan, but I humbly beg to differ with you on this point. As a black belt, when I watch - for example - a yellow belt/sash do a technique, I can see so many minute flaws that they cannot see, and would never be able to see in someone else. I would never trust anything that I learned from someone who had not had several years of experience in their art; misuse or misguided technique - even if taught with only positive intentions - can be very dangerous to all persons involved.

[Zorbasan]

ok, maybe my example was a bit over the top. but my basic point is that if you know something that someone else doesnt, you are able to teach them.

if a yellow sash/belt has a very good horse riding stance, for example, then this yellow sash should be able to teach a whitesash a decent horse riding stance.

you dont have to be a maths professor to teach someone 1 + 1 = 2. thats the sort of thing im getting at, not having a yellow sash run a class.

[Jiffy]

I happen to agree with you Zorbasan. You don't need to travel back in time to find Einstein if all you want to do is learn some basic physics.

I think too often people think that you have to find the best teacher when in reality, you just need to find someone that knows more than you.

No-one is saying that someone with 2 years expereience can teach as well as someone with 10. All they mean is that someone with no experience can still learn something off someone with only a little experience.... even if only for a little while till they have to find someone else to teach them.

[Brandon Fisher]

If you know it well and you can teach well then go ahead but look for a new school at the same time. Always remember just because someone is good at something doesn't mean they can teach it.

[alsey]

i agree with zorbasan to an extent. even a white belt who knows one technique can show someone else how to do it. their teaching won't be very good however. a green belt or something could teach it a bit better, a black belt better still, and then you have proper instructors who can teach it very well.

anyone can teach (or try to teach), its the quality of your teaching that comes from experience. so by all means teach your friend what you know, but make sure both of you are aware that you're probably not that good at teaching martial arts yet.

[bushido_man96]

It sounds like you are doing the right thing, here. Teaching can be difficult, so stick with it. If you can get another high rank to help you out from time to time, it would benefit you greatly.