Octavius
02-27-2002, 10:07 AM
Another thread here has inspired me to ask myself this, so I posit it here for you mental mulling:
Which type of teacher would you choose if you had to choose between the following in each scenario?
Scenario 1:
- a teacher who has legit training, lineage, and background, and shows good form, technique, etc. He is physically fit and physically capable of doing everything he makes the students do in training. But he is young, and does not yet have the experience of an older person.
- an older teacher, perhaps with a minor physical disability of some sort that does not allow him to be as dynamic in his movements as a younger man. But he also has had the legit training, lineage, and background, but also has simply the years of experience his age has given him. But becasue of his age and physical disability is not able to do everything that he teaches.
Scenario 2:
- a teacher who has the legit training, lineage, and background, and is reasonable competent as a martial artist. He is of course better than you, but he does not possess any physical attributes whether it be genetically endowed or skillfully attained that would simply WOW a person. But the upside is that he is a truly decent and good person. A person of honor, virtue, true wu-de.
- a teacher who has the legit training, lineage, and background, and has some phenomenal and incredible abilities. Simply put, this person has skill that seem like magic. But, he is not an easy person to get along with. Not that he is a crook, or a contemptible human being or anything, but he has an abrasive personality and oftern comes off as cantankerous and as a jerk. But man, the things he can do...
Scenario 3:
- two teachers, let us assume that they are currently of equal skill and ability (however that may be assessed). The only difference is this:
[a] one teacher has trained for a long time, but on and off during this length of time, and has not made kung fu his priority as a vocation in life. But eventually has arrived at the present level of skill.
[b] the other teacher has trained for a much shorter period of time, but the shorter period of time was very intense, eating, breathing, sleeping kung fu and making it number one priority in life. Such that even after the shorter training period, he now has the same level of skill as the first teacher.
If the above is the only difference between the two, and everything else is the same, which would you choose?
Which type of teacher would you choose if you had to choose between the following in each scenario?
Scenario 1:
- a teacher who has legit training, lineage, and background, and shows good form, technique, etc. He is physically fit and physically capable of doing everything he makes the students do in training. But he is young, and does not yet have the experience of an older person.
- an older teacher, perhaps with a minor physical disability of some sort that does not allow him to be as dynamic in his movements as a younger man. But he also has had the legit training, lineage, and background, but also has simply the years of experience his age has given him. But becasue of his age and physical disability is not able to do everything that he teaches.
Scenario 2:
- a teacher who has the legit training, lineage, and background, and is reasonable competent as a martial artist. He is of course better than you, but he does not possess any physical attributes whether it be genetically endowed or skillfully attained that would simply WOW a person. But the upside is that he is a truly decent and good person. A person of honor, virtue, true wu-de.
- a teacher who has the legit training, lineage, and background, and has some phenomenal and incredible abilities. Simply put, this person has skill that seem like magic. But, he is not an easy person to get along with. Not that he is a crook, or a contemptible human being or anything, but he has an abrasive personality and oftern comes off as cantankerous and as a jerk. But man, the things he can do...
Scenario 3:
- two teachers, let us assume that they are currently of equal skill and ability (however that may be assessed). The only difference is this:
[a] one teacher has trained for a long time, but on and off during this length of time, and has not made kung fu his priority as a vocation in life. But eventually has arrived at the present level of skill.
[b] the other teacher has trained for a much shorter period of time, but the shorter period of time was very intense, eating, breathing, sleeping kung fu and making it number one priority in life. Such that even after the shorter training period, he now has the same level of skill as the first teacher.
If the above is the only difference between the two, and everything else is the same, which would you choose?