Duties & Responsibilities of the Senior Student

[shotokanz]

I'm going to play devils advocate here and go with the opposite way that everyone else seems to. I do not believe that "senior students" should have to teach AT ALL, and i'll explain why (again this is only my opinion).

It could stem from the fact that the shotokan dojo i originally trained at seemed to use this as a crutch (this is a place i got kicked out of for false accusations and assumptions made against me about things i did not say or do). The sensei there CONSTANTLY seemed to have something else to do other than teach us, and i felt like i was trained more by the other black belts and brown belts there than i was trained by him.

He'd always start class, start us in the direction we wanted to go, but then have "Jim" or "Tony" take over and lead 3/4ths of the class, only magically making his return periodically to do a set of lunge punches or say "ok we're doing such and such now" then head off again, or just watch us and not count or just observe and not instruct (i'm a big believer in self development so that was ok, but still...not all the time).

I feel any students who teach should do so because they WANT to help, not because they HAVE to help. I've known plenty and i mean PLENTY of martial artists who were AMAZING, but couldn't teach the stuff to save their lives, same goes for many gym goers at my gym. They're super strong, muscular and amazing, yet when asked to help other people (aka personal training like i do) they seemed to revert to babbling children lol.

A persons ability to teach something does NOT always reflect their skill in that subject, and i feel anywhere that REQUIRES a student to teach, not let them teach because they want to learn how or improve themselves through it for their own use later or w/e reason, is taking advantage of those people, especially when they are given nothing in return, even something like free training at that school.

Again that's my personal opinion, nothing more

[bushido_man96]

I don't think they should have to teach. I do think its a valuable learning process that senior students should experience, though. If anything, it will make them appreciate the teachers more.

[mal103]

I've recently graded to 2nd Kyu in Shotokan and started to think about teaching, the other week the Sensei's car broke down and everyone was looking at me to step in until he arrived, (there is a lack of senior students and some are not training at the moment due to illness), luckily he got there just in time.

I've mentioned the desire to teach to my Sensei who then got me to go through some basics with the white belts - wow, what a difference it makes being out the front!

Its an eye opener and something that I would happily do again without payment or reward, although I can see that some students may get taken advantage of.

I would like to train agian - maybe more after 1st Kyu - but would have to balance it between being trained as well. I think the norm would be for the Sempai to not pay for the lesson if they are spnding most of it teaching.

Just my opinions....

[BladeSmartNY]

The senior student should be the right hand man. He should be able to demo any technique and keep up with the instructor.

It's a challenging role to fill because everyone in the class will be looking up to you.