Never stop learning...

[mal103]

My old Sensei had stopped training in front of others many years ago, as a result they weren't far enough along on the way to ensure their standard and techniques were good enough. This resulted in passing on many bad habits and not being able to pass on many advanced applications and meanings to our art.

As a result I have had to constantly re-teach Shotokan as and when I have been able to learn it properly. My old Sensei can't be right when compared to the majority of other Shotokan schools, historical video's, current thoughts etc.

My last was Inner to outer block - I was taught for years it came from the hip but everyone else does it from under arm. right/wrong doesn't matter, I can't describe how it feels to go from what you think is right to what you realise is correct.

Then I've had to re-teach this to my 30 odd students and admit I was doing it wrong. There are plenty more examples.

The latest is morote-uke, assisted/augmented "block". In its basic format it is pushing someone with both arms but has many more potential applications and guess what - doing it wrong....

I guess what I'm try to say is to firstly ensure you are passing on your art properly, don't just trust your Sensei, most are probably correct but worth checking. I can think of nothing worse than one of my students saying I am doing things differently to the majority of other schools, at every opportunity I try to pass on the many known small differences within our style but some are clearly wrong.

If you haven't experienced this then you are lucky, if you have then please do your best to keep true to your style and not just pass on someone else's mistakes.

[bushido_man96]

I've had some instances in teaching where I've made a mistake and been wrong. I make sure to own up to it, and then move on from there.

I have made it a point to watch and see how others do things differently than I, and whether I should try to do it differently or not. However, I don't get to make the call on technical changes in our school, as I am not the head instructor. If you have the leeway to do that, then that is great for you.

[Archimoto]

I've had some instances in teaching where I've made a mistake and been wrong. I make sure to own up to it, and then move on from there.

The force is strong in this one