# Teaching styles



## lulflo (Jan 13, 2008)

Anyone who is interested in responding is welcome.  It is for my paper to turn in at black belt.

What are some of the characteristics of a teacher who teaches soft style vs. hard style?

I know some people are more inclined with their personality to have a more yang or hard style, so how do they teach someone a soft style.  Conversely, what would be the contrast when one is more inclined to be more um or soft styled that has to teach a hard style?

I hope you understand what I am getting at, I am trying to get some material for a paper I will be writing titled, "Teaching Um and Yang"

Thank you,

Farang - Larry


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## exile (Jan 13, 2008)

lulflo said:


> Anyone who is interested in responding is welcome.  It is for my paper to turn in at black belt.
> 
> What are some of the characteristics of a teacher who teaches soft style vs. hard style?
> 
> ...



Well, part of the problem with knowing how to answer this is that I don't have a sense of what kind of teaching style is supposed to correspond to a hard style, and what kind with a soft style. It seems to me that someone with a certain teaching style (with teaching style being a very complex thing, quite often, with many different aspects) will teach hard _and_ soft styles the same way... because their teaching style reflects their concept of how people learn. So I think you need to unpackage some of the basic assumptions implicit in your request a bit more explicitly, in order to get useful responses....


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## terryl965 (Jan 13, 2008)

Do you mean hard and soft as in style like.

Hard Karate, TKD Kempo

Soft Kung Fu, wing chun

Or hard *** and soft instructors?


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## dancingalone (Jan 13, 2008)

When I studied Chinese martial arts, my sifu used some really off-the-wall methods to get us to escape from the boxy confines of our minds and bodies.  He was always trying to think of how to make his kung fu relevant and accessible to the average guy. And since he taught a FIGHTING style, his student pool often had students with experience from a hard MA like karate who needed to 'unlearn' how they moved and created power as before. 

We spent a lot of time playing catch, sometimes with an American football.  His goal was for me to run a smooth route and then make a quick cut allowing me to catch the ball while remaining in stride.  This was one of the way he taught blending.  Frisbee was another common training drill.  We would work in groups of three, catching and toss frisbees at each other in various tempos.


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## lulflo (Jan 21, 2008)

Thank you for the responses.

I am hoping to teach Hwa Rang Do eventually.  Within the art, there is hard linear kicking and punching as well as soft circular movements within the various kicking, blocking and techniques.  Some are straight forward and have hard angles while others are subtle and have large circular motions that eventually become smaller spirals.  

I have done some teaching for different types of people and have had to implement some strategy in my training to compensate for bigger stronger people and also for smaller less dominant types.  Within their training, I have had to be very patient and easy while still pushing them to their limits and keeping them wanting to come back for more.  

I guess my question would be for the teachers out there.  What do you do within your training that works for the long haul.  How do you "make" a martial artist that is the real thing and not just someone who tries to learn a bit but keeps coming back without practicing on their own?  What works?  I mean, it doesn't really matter what style one is teaching, there are drills and movements and kicks and punches and techniques and forms in many different arts, but how do you teach someone to understand both the hard and soft elements of the art?

I am just looking for individual feedback from anyone willing to put themselves out there.

For example, my most difficult challenge was when I was training my wife.  I am her husband and she will be hard put to call me Sir.  But she respects me as a MA and wants to learn.  So at first, I just went about our classes as I would want to be taught, but she wasn't having that, it wasn't fun and she felt like I was speaking to her in a condescending manner.  we talked back and forth after training and she gave me feedback on how she felt she could learn better and each class was different until she and I had come to an agreement.  She was more of the type that would like to see and hear the explanation and then do it until she was confident enough to do it without forgetting the moves, then I could help her along with some tips, but very few at a time so she could implement them.  I was okay with that because I try to be a perfectionist as often as I can and it was great to spend time with her.  I would then turn the fact that I could only give her a small piece each time and turn that small piece into several different exercises.  Slow like tai chi and then as fast as she could over and over just for memory, then the best she could do a few times after that so she would get a good workout.  

So I would use the soft style of nurturing and flowing with her needs and then turn it into a hard type style by drilling it over and over in different ways so she would get the most benefit possible.

If anyone has something to say, please chime in.

Thank you,

Farang - Larry


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## Kacey (Jan 21, 2008)

lulflo said:


> How do you "make" a martial artist that is the real thing and not just someone who tries to learn a bit but keeps coming back without practicing on their own?  What works?  I mean, it doesn't really matter what style one is teaching, there are drills and movements and kicks and punches and techniques and forms in many different arts, but how do you teach someone to understand both the hard and soft elements of the art?



You have to remember your students are individuals, and treat - and teach - them as such.  What works for one student won't work for another.  There's no other way to do it.  I can't give you a magic formula, because, after 15+ years as an instructor, I haven't found a "magic formula" that works for everyone.  Different people have different styles, different needs, different abilities, different perspectives, different responses to instruction... and the only way to teach them all is to teach individuals, not systems.


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## morph4me (Jan 22, 2008)

I try to find something that the student can relate to and that I know something about, then relate what I'm trying to teach them to that. I once taught a technique using geometry, and when the student got it I was in shock, because if someont tried to explain it to me the way I explained it to him I'd never get it, but he was very good at math and he related to what I was telling him.


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## lulflo (Jan 22, 2008)

Excellent, Thank you

(Kam sa hap ni da)

Farang - Larry


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## Sambone (Jan 30, 2008)

I don't know if you have already written your paper or not, but I figured I would go ahead and reply to this thread. 

I study both hard and soft styles of Martial Arts. Both seem to be equally affective, well perhaps not, it just depends on the situation. In Hapkido, which is primarily soft technique, it is not always good to use a hard style and in taekwondo well one could get hurt if they used a soft style. But on the other hand you can use hard style in Hapkido and soft style in taekwondo. Soft style is simply just using the other persons momentum to block a punch or kick and just using push blocks and moving them out of the way so you can strick back. Hard styles can be used in the same regard to block an oncoming punch. 

In my opinion a hard style is simply used to stop the attack right as if comes. Soft styles are used to block the strick but then use the other persons momentum to strick back yourself. Using simple blocks like push blocks is simply redirecting the power from the other person to enable you to do a strick in return, whether that be a throw, a joint lock, etc.

I would have to say that it would be hard to teach the two styles together. For a white belt in Taekwondo learning hard blocks the concept of slowing the block down and using a soft block is hard. As a student gets higher in rank this becomes easier. Especially as that student nears black belt and has practiced for a few years. They have the concept of one way down and it becomes easier to distinguish between the two, when the right time is to use the different styles. 

Anyway, I hope this helps. It is just my opinion in what I have studied over the years. To me this is what it seems like.

Sam


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## kaizasosei (Jan 30, 2008)

for myself, i really didn't focus on the internal that much before. i like style and cool movements, but i simply wanted the most effective techniques as quickly as possible.  it was only through the discovery of the spiritual forces and bodybuilding elements,sophisticated technique and strategy that i learnt to focus on the socalled soft.  
  maybe all styles are soft styles, just some are more sophisticated than others.   maybe all styles are hard, just one is too tacky and clumsy to be able to control with mind alone.

in the case of competitions, some people agree in a sportive way-no strikes-or -no takedowns- or -no whatever-  
but you don't usually hear anyone say  - no soft stuff-  no hard stuff- although i guess they could mean that.  

how are we to define soft and hard?  maybe they are just differnt types of exercises meant for the same thing.  i mean, we cannot become as intangeble as spirits, not can we be as insensitive and unmoving as a pile of earth.  obviously, the physical and the spiritual are just different ways of seeing the same thing.  modern athletes also train in ways that would be considered internal as well as external.






j


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## lulflo (Feb 1, 2008)

no paper written yet, please respond as you will and thank you again for your responses, I follow and appreciate the bits and pieces I will be able to use.

Farang - Larry


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## ancient warrior (Feb 23, 2008)

sorry


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## ancient warrior (Feb 23, 2008)

lulflo said:


> no paper written yet, please respond as you will and thank you again for your responses, I follow and appreciate the bits and pieces I will be able to use.
> 
> Farang - Larry


start at what it means= um/yang there is not 1 without the other they cannot be seperated  its more than hard/ soft or father/daughter  or up and down especially if u intend to teach,the blending of the two gives you balance in training and everyday life untill u see this your art will be  1 dimensional btw how is kjn walker?


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