1 question 1 answer

[El Zorro 71]

Imagine you are with you newley promoted instructor and he told you the following

" Now that I am an instructor and I have your blessing, I will be opening a school in about 1 month."

What would be the single most important piece of advise you would give him to help him accomplish his goals.....

With all of the active instructor on the forum, this should lead to some different ideas.....give it some serious thought....

take care and keep training...

[UKBBC]

don't give up your day job :D

[RGVWingChun]

hahaha nice!!! Actually, you don't know his day job. GIVE IT UP YO!!!

Moses

[Liddel]

Depends on your POV or system ranking.....

I come from a private school/group. it took years to become decent at fighting with my VT. Then i was made my sifu's "assistant instructor" he gave me a cert and all.

But this is really the beggining of being able to teach. At this point im now learning to teach. I teach all new students correct older ones under me (im the oldest student anyway) and any questions i have or cant answer off the top of my head i ask Sifu.....

So hypothetically if i JUST made a guy an instructor, under our hierarchy he would be in the stage of learning how to teach.
So starting his own school wouldnt be a good idea IMO.

This is how we create a consistency in our lineage. People learn the system and then if they want to pass it on they then learn/focus on how to teach it.

Obviously youd have an idea cause you could remember how you were taught, but everyones different and has different needs and fits with VT different so learning to teach is an important step IMO.

This is how it was for my Sifu. He learnt VT from Sifu Lok then became his assistant where he learnt the different methods for teching through trial and error under his teacher.

Thats my take
DREW

[LoneTiger108]

... if they want to pass it on they then learn/focus on how to teach it.

I'm in complete agreement with Drew here :)

Learning how to teach can take some time imho, let alone doing it all on your own without a Sifu.

[tjwingchun]

From another post:- http://forum.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50398

Until what I was always told was a "proper" job comes along, look at coaching again, you don´t have to proclaim yourself as any sort of "master", just an honest person wishing to pass on the knowledge you have gained over the years.

Be upfront on the level of your training and prospective students will respect that, if you stay in contact with your senior family members you will have a support mechanism to assist you if necessary.

You only need to be a professor to teach post-graduate students, primary school teachers are just as important if not more because of the critical period initially when a person develops their understanding, methodology and patterns of learning.

As you teach you will grow yourself, it´s the beauty of the teaching/leaning process and as long as you maintain your truthfulness and integrity all that travel the path with you will appreciate your efforts, and if you can make a few pennies along the way, all well and good.

So my advice would be to get out of your shell and teach what you truly believe and if nothing else get out of the house and meet like minded souls who have a thirst for knowledge (especially Wing Chun related )


So to answer the 1 question with 1 answer!
I would say to be honest with those who would study with you.

I teach people to teach as they procede through their forms, it is part of the methodology that I have developed over the 25 years as a professional instructor, looking back I will admit to not being perfect :eek: but I had my Sifu and Sigung behind to keep my focused and as backup if needed.

As long as you are honest with students then you should take the plunge and start a school, sometimes you don´t have a Sifu that local, I used to travel over 250 miles there and back (500 total) every weekend to train with my Sifu when I started teaching, should I have waited until I was an accomplished instructor before opening a class?

I know Wing Chun teachers who after over 30 years of passing on their knowledge are still at best incompetant.

This passes the buck more onto the student, today there is so much more information around for people to make judgements as to which Wing Chun school to join, and which teacher follow, what seems to be in short supply is honesty and open mindedness.

Knowledge is knowledge, go to any library and there is always more than one book on a subject, so why do people insist there is only THEIR way of doing Wing Chun, it is a mistery to me but then again who am I.

When I trained as a science teacher there were many on the course who I did not consider as teachers, they had the qualifications, but it was not in their hearts to teach, just to get a job with a salary.

Teaching is a very different animal to understanding and as with any skill develops in time when it is worked on, some never question their methods and remain stuck in an ignorance pit of their own making.

But that is me getting on another soapbox :eek:

[couch]

So to answer the 1 question with 1 answer!
I would say to be honest with those who would study with you.


I completely agree with this one. When someone wants to learn some WC from me, I'll be completely honest about the history of my training and teaching "career."

That student or training partner has to know your limitations and your goals as a leader/instructor so that you both know where you're going and how far each can take the other.

As Drew said, I too am from a semi-private group. I personally think this is the way to go.

Best,
Kenton

[Almost A Ghost]

Dance like nobody is watching.