The tough thing about teaching martial arts.

[-N-]

+1 what ginosifu and sanjuro_ronin said.

[mooyingmantis]

"We will teach you whatever you want to know, but be aware that without sparring against a resisting opponent, it is not likely that you will develop the skills to defend yourself in an actual confrontation."

This for the win!

[RWilson]

In regards to kickboxing type sparring it is best to let the two people sparring decide the amount of force that is going to be involved. It would not be good to team the new guy up with the gung ho guy who can only go hard.


I would also add that women should not be sparring men unless the men are not afraid to strike them and the women know they are going to get hit. Training women and men together can be tricky.

One of the reasons bjj is so popular is because the sparring is relatively safe. You get to tap out. When kickboxing it is the little injuries that add up: jammed fingers/toes, getting hit in the nose, ball shots, etc.

The two guys in this clip are practically having a picnic and chitchatting. BJJ sparring is safe and fun. Still kind of gay but safe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9RIFtCqk4g

[IronFist]

GoldernArms:

If you are running a commercial MA school, then you need to give the people what they want. Most average person wants some exercise, some Asian culture, some socializing and basic self defense. They are not interested in sparring, SC, San Shou, BJJ, ground fighting etc etc. If your commercial MA school leans towards more fighting, SC or BJJ you will struggle to survive.

True.

I think most people want the Karate Kid experience.

But perhaps that is because they think doing forms and punches while the teacher counts off repetitions (bonus points if they're counting them off in an Asian language) will make them able to defend themselves.

[IronFist]

To me, Gong is ability training. You use equipment (weight) to make yourself strong. Here is one of the Gong development that I'm talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5obo6QAJek

You are talking about "technique" and not "Gong (ability)" here. No matter how fast and how accuracy your punch may be (technique), if you don't have punching power (Gong), your punch won't be able to knock your opponent down. If a teacher asks his students to punch on heavy bag 500 times daily, if the students don't do it, there is nothing that the teacher can do there. The teacher cannot punch on heavy bag for his students. The students have to do that all by themselves.

Dude, I'm one of the biggest proponents of strength on this forum. But even if you're super strong, if you are using that strength in techniques that don't work, you are probably going to lose.

A triathelete bodybuilder powerlifter marathoner superhuman mutant doing high block, reverse punch against a boxer will still probably not do very well in a fight.

[YouKnowWho]

high block, reverse punch

How to use the "high block, reverse punch" is commonly mis-understood by many MA guys. You should use it as if you "raise the waist high curtain and walk in". The high block is only to "raise the curtain". The important part is to "walk in".

[Yum Cha]

+1 what ginosifu and sanjuro_ronin said.

+2

A lot more to this than people seem to appreciate.

[mickey]

Greetings,

Shaolin shed some important light on the business aspect that appears to have been looked over.

I do not see any of you making reference to flyers or well structured brochures that will inform the prospective student of what to expect when he/she joins. Probably the greatest thing a prospective fears is that of the unknown. Give the person something that he/she can read and can formulate questions about. These things may cost some dollars to do but they serve as a tuning fork: the person can get with it or move on.

Since fighting seems to be such an issue, you can have fighting practice on separate nights or you can structure your class where the latter part of the class is devoted to fighting while those who are not interested can bow out and leave.

These suggestions can be easily implemented without you getting bent out of shape over student enrollment.

The advantage is that you are creating an environment where you can easily cut the wheat from the chaff and give your fighters the quality training they need and maybe create future instructors at the same time (from those who partake in your full curriculum).


mickey

[David Jamieson]

The tough thing about teaching martial arts.

IMO, the tough thing about teaching TCMA is the Gong development. If your student doesn't want to put time into it, there is nothing that you can do about it. When a student's technique doesn't work, he will complain that the technique is no good instead of admitting that his Gong has not yet been fully developed.

^ This.

This is so true it hurts hard.

People get bored and won't do the necessary repetitions to set the glue so to speak.

I get frustrated with this as well from time to time. But occasionally you will find someone who is willing to do the work and it's all good.

[Brule]

What's the saying? If you only do forms and no conditioning, then you have no kung fu? Conditioning is paramount to be able to inflict damage on the opponent, but also your entry startegies are what will get you there to use your weapon. Forms will not provide you with this.

[sanjuro_ronin]

^ This.

This is so true it hurts hard.

People get bored and won't do the necessary repetitions to set the glue so to speak.

I get frustrated with this as well from time to time. But occasionally you will find someone who is willing to do the work and it's all good.

For sure.
What makes Kung fu IS the Gungs.

[YouKnowWho]

For sure.
What makes Kung fu IS the Gungs.

My teacher told me onetime he saw what his teacher did was so impressive.

His teacher

- Stood on top of a stool.
- Kicked right leg out.
- Bend down his left standing leg to make his right kicking leg to be parallel to the ground.
- Raise his left standing leg up (many people can do this so far).
- Kick his right leg back with right foot point vertically into the sky, head touches his left standing leg, and
- just freeze in that posture (this is the harderst part. It require flexibility, balance, endurance, and leg strength).

It's similiar to this picture:

http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/7...leglifting.jpg

[IronFist]

How to use the "high block, reverse punch" is commonly mis-understood by many MA guys. You should use it as if you "raise the waist high curtain and walk in". The high block is only to "raise the curtain". The important part is to "walk in".

Kind of irrelevant to the discussion, I think.

The point is that dedicated practice, perfect technique, and adequate strength of useless techniques is not going to be very helpful. A reply saying "oh well most people don't understand how to use [insert technique]" doesn't really disprove it.

If high block + reverse punch is actually a super awesome technique then replace it with any of the other worthless techniques taught at so many TCMA schools.

[YouKnowWho]

If high block + reverse punch is actually a super awesome technique then replace it with any of the other worthless techniques taught at so many TCMA schools.

Maybe we should list all the "worthless TCMA techniques" here one by one. This way we can examine whether those techniques are truly worthless, or may be people just don't know how to apply it.

What are those "worthless techniques"?

[Northwind]

Must admit I didn't read all the replies, however I have to agree with the first response I felt with: YKW's 1st response. Gong is a very broad term, but includes all. It's one of the key differentiating factors that makes TCMA be TCMA - the actual practitioner. Forms are crap, applications are crap yadda ad-infinitum. We can have a gazillion of fight nights and make a hell of a brawler (with ground game et al). But if he's(/she's) not working a selected gong (selected either by teacher or student), then they are not going to get very far - other than simply being a good brawler in general. The gongs could be an iron this or that, balance, lightness, claw or grip strength, "peace" punch power, throws, getting up & out off of the ground, Prince Jin lifts the Urn, etc. etc. or could be something more generic like muscular strength within the forearm, stronger root, better ability at kicks turning into footwork entries for throws, lower back strength, more flexibility and intelligence within the Kua or just about anything.

The tough thing is that continued enduring progressive training in gongs take time and consistency of the practitioner OUTSIDE OF CLASS - as opposed to the concept of just "roll and keep rolling and you will be king of the hill" - which is good, but not the same goal...The techniques to actually practice gongs are usually extremely "simple" but not "easy" as it takes an inner strength of commitment etc., which we can all fail at...So...teaching it is easy...Nurturing it til its fruition? Now that's difficult.