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Becoming an instructor


Which do you think is more important when deciding to teach?  

40 members have voted

  1. 1. Which do you think is more important when deciding to teach?

    • Age
      2
    • Skill
      20
    • Other (please post about it)
      18


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Leading a class isn't the only way to instruct, though. In my karate class when I started at 11, a 16 year-old taught me my basics and he and a 14 year old taught me my first kata. There was an hour before the class lined up and worked out together for people to practice their techniques, ask a higher rank approved to teach something to show us new katas or whatever.

You suck-train harder.......................Don't block with your face


A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.

-Lao Tzu

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This can be beneficial, to both parties involved. It helps to keep the forms fresh in the minds of the lower ranks, and can foster the importance of being able to teach what you have learned. Of course, not every school will function this way, either, and the technical level won't be as high as that of the instructor, but that is something the instructor himself/herself can fix.

In our school, the instructor expects each student to be able to help out a lower ranked student if they ask for it on forms or one-steps. He likes for us to stay sharp on older material. When a student can't show a low rank his form, the instructor lets them know!

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Bushido..i like your instructor XD

Strike first. 'Til then i will not fight you.


Everytime someone calls JKD a style, Bruce turns over.


Why do I love Bruce Lee? Not because he was an awesome martial artist- but because his train of thought overlapped with mine even before I knew about him.

Thank you karate forums, for introducing me to Bruce Lee

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Passion...if you don't have it you won't pass it on to your students no matter how good you are.

8)

I hadn't thought of this but I totally agree! There's nothing more off-putting than an instructor who doesn't have any enthusiasm or passion for what they do.

"Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it." ~ Confucius

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I think age plays a big part of it. A forty year old man, even if his technique is not the greatest, will be taken more seriously than a 15 year old with good technique. I've read about 15 year olds teaching classes, and I just cannot accept that. A teenager, by virtue of his age and immaturity, is simply in no position to lead a class with all that entails.

There is no martial arts without philosophy.

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I think age plays a big part of it. A forty year old man, even if his technique is not the greatest, will be taken more seriously than a 15 year old with good technique. I've read about 15 year olds teaching classes, and I just cannot accept that. A teenager, by virtue of his age and immaturity, is simply in no position to lead a class with all that entails.

Look at it this way, though....if a 13 year old Musashi was willing to teach you, would you learn from him?

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  • 2 weeks later...

I feel that teaching experience makes the best instructor. You can have an amazingly skilled martial artist in his 20s, 30s, 40s, whatever age you pick, and he might not be a good instructor.

I have a good friend who is very young for an instructor, but he is one of the best instructors that I know- he is fair, strict but not mean, he knows how to deal with people and how to get his point across. It all comes down to teaching experience.

"What we do in life, echoes in eternity."


"We must all fear evil men. But there is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men."

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In our school, a person (teenager and older) begins learning how to teach at blue belt. We put these individuals through a series of training periods, written exams and then let them begin working one on one with lower ranked students. This gives them a chance to review their own material and teach some basics to new students. However, let me say that we do not allow anyone but black belts instruct an entire class. I do feel the best way to learn is to teach, but when it comes to paying customers, they deserve to have a black belt teaching their classes.

A great martial artist is one who is humble and respectful of others.

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