Getting Annoyed

[Orion]

Bit of a follow up for you all. I took your advice and just got on with my lesson last night (didn't go last week as I was ill). To cut a long and not very interesting story short. My sensei didn't just allow me to learn the next kata but since i had already learn't it he asked if I wanted to join the 'big boys' and learn bassi dai(sp?) which is our brown belt kata. So all in all I was just a little impatient.

[RichardHangHong]

That's good to hear Orion. You see, a little patience can go a long way.

[bushido_man96]

There you go. You have been rewarded, and you thought you were being held back.

[Jiffy]

Well Done, and thanks for the follow up info. Whenever in doubt, remember that your instructor is there to help you, not hold you back, so if you are not moving on, chances are, you're not ready.

[24fightingchickens]

Hi All

I am currently working towards my Purple belt (grading at the end of the month), however im starting to get bored/annoyed in class. Its not with any of the students but its with the fact that I know my grading kata (I'm far from perfect but I would say I know it to blue belt standard). I have learn't in my own time from a DVD the next kata up. However in class when it comes to kata I have to go with the rest of the blue belts and go through the kata to count (with the sensei infront showing us the moves). I don't know what to do I enjoy it, but I feel I am being held back, and I get bored and can just feel myself not trying. Last night was great until the kata section and then I just wanted to be at the gym.

Has anyone else felt like this and what did you do?

The problem is not you, as the others have suggested. I know everyone thinks there is a natural slump after your learning curve flattens out when the Heian suddenly become too easy to hold your attention and you aren't yet ready to learn something more meaty.

But I don't think that is the problem. I think that happens because of poor coaching skills on the instructor's part.

The problem I suspect is that your instructor is not very skilled at providing you with effective feedback, nor does he have you on a coaching plan like he should, nor is he framing his feedback in your personal style nor relative to your goals nor development level. Effectively, he's not coaching you - he's naming techniques, doing demos, and counting numbers, and leaving you to figure out where you are at by yourself - which you are not qualified to do alone!

Instead, you need to sit down with the instructor and both of you need to agree on where you are at development wise, and he needs to do his job and make sure you have at least three things to work on at any given time.

There is another problem.

The Karate belt system with all of the kyus and pretty color belts are too many levels for the amounts of content involved. Around the pre-brown belt level this really shows up in Shotokan, that's for sure. 10 kyus is really too many. So between 6 and 4 kyu things get a little old because the material doesn't ramp up very quickly at that point.

That's my take.

From your follow-up message, it looks like he provided a stop-gap "Here, sonny, play with this for a while" to keep you interested, but if he ramped up his coaching skills, he wouldn't have needed to do that, and you wouldn't have been left wondering what was going on.

There are books out there on Situational Leadership and this "slump" the other folks mentioned. Good coaches, parents, and managers all handle the slump period of "conscious incompetence" with strong coaching. Letting it go unaddressed is a mistake. I imagine after the big boys class bores you, you will be back in this same situation again.

[Jiffy]

You raise some good points there, some of which I agree with, some I don't.

Definately there is a coaching issue here. As part of an instructor, I agree that they should try to pick up on the level of boredom (a lot easier said than done) and try to help to get through that.

I don't agree with your suggestion that there is not enough content in the kyu grades. The problem is that most instructors don't teach what there is. The grade system in Karate has worked for a long time and still continues to work, but often the instructors are held to the whole "minimum 6 months" (for example), without really having the knowledge of what should be contained in that time. I believe the slump is a normal part of training in Martial Arts that often occurs somewhere between the ameature students starting to gain technical skill and the enlightened student. I personally see this stage as a stage of transition though where the student should focus on the finer details of what they are doing. Unfortunately, many instructors are not compitant enough to provide those details.

[24fightingchickens]

Definately there is a coaching issue here. As part of an instructor, I agree that they should try to pick up on the level of boredom (a lot easier said than done) and try to help to get through that.

That's not what I wrote.

If the instructor is well-trained, there will be no period of boredom, because they and the student will be in constant personal communications as to the things the student needs to work on, his level of development, his self-perception of his level of development, his goals, and will be giving continuous feedback - both positive and negative, as to how well he is succeeding. There shouldn't be a period of boredom. That only happens when the situation is already out of hand because the instructor is not doing his job as well as he could.

I believe the slump is a normal part of training in Martial Arts that often occurs somewhere between the ameature students starting to gain technical skill and the enlightened student.

There are shelves full of books about this "slump" - I've written a few thousand words about it myself - it is well documented and researched. Managers deal with it in new employees, and coaches deal with it on new members of the team.

It is natural that people will experience it, but there are techniques for handling this period of training, and if the instructor is properly trained for it, it won't be an issue.