# I was in charge and liked it



## Manny (Mar 25, 2010)

Last night sensei had to recieve the president of IKKA for my country and was unable to gave the class, sensei asked me to take charge of the class and to put my classamtes to do the warm up and calistecnics. I don't know if this was because my age (I am the oldest in the class I am 42) or because of my background as an istructor in TKD.The class consited of 4 yellow belts (include me), two purple belts (one adult and one kid) and one brown belt (a kid).

I tought sensei would come back to the class afther the warm up but I was wrong. It seems he has to accommodate in a hotel to the IKKA representative.

My classmates asked me what to do and I have to retook charge of the class and like it. 

We made a review of the 24 orange belt techs because we are going to have examan in a couple of weeks, I was like a fish on watter, I explained the orange belt to the kids cause they almost forgotten them and the other classmates were pleased with me giving the class.

I have to say Hugo the most experienced brown belt my sensei has was absent in other ways Hugo  would take charge of the class when sensei is not in dojo.

I left dojo very happy because of my way of impart the class.

Manny


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## LuckyKBoxer (Mar 25, 2010)

seems irresponsible and ridiculous to me


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## Drac (Mar 26, 2010)

Sensei must have had his reasons for putting you in charge, like he trusts you..


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## Touch Of Death (Mar 26, 2010)

LuckyKBoxer said:


> seems irresponsible and ridiculous to me


 So... its irresponsible to put a Black Belt in charege of a class? What sort of insane training do you claim to have.
Sean


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## LuckyKBoxer (Mar 26, 2010)

Touch Of Death said:


> So... its irresponsible to put a Black Belt in charege of a class? What sort of insane training do you claim to have.
> Sean


 
He is a yellow belt in Kenpo to start with.
The instructor never said he was leaving for the whole class he just disappeared and left his students to their own devices
A black belt in Tae Kwon Do is not the same as a black belt in Kenpo, If it was reversed and a yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do who happened to be a black belt in Kenpo was put in charge I would have said the same thing.

The entire situation was a big fail in my book, and your lack of being able to recognize that is also a fail.


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## Touch Of Death (Mar 26, 2010)

LuckyKBoxer said:


> He is a yellow belt in Kenpo to start with.
> The instructor never said he was leaving for the whole class he just disappeared and left his students to their own devices
> A black belt in Tae Kwon Do is not the same as a black belt in Kenpo, If it was reversed and a yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do who happened to be a black belt in Kenpo was put in charge I would have said the same thing.
> 
> The entire situation was a big fail in my book, and your lack of being able to recognize that is also a fail.


Nobody died.
Sean


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## Touch Of Death (Mar 26, 2010)

LuckyKBoxer said:


> He is a yellow belt in Kenpo to start with.
> The instructor never said he was leaving for the whole class he just disappeared and left his students to their own devices
> A black belt in Tae Kwon Do is not the same as a black belt in Kenpo, If it was reversed and a yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do who happened to be a black belt in Kenpo was put in charge I would have said the same thing.
> 
> The entire situation was a big fail in my book, and your lack of being able to recognize that is also a fail.


Ok how is having a blackbelt lead a stupid tech review a fail? Where is the harm? Its not like they can't get any open questions answered the next day; so, what gives?
Sean


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## LuckyKBoxer (Mar 26, 2010)

Touch Of Death said:


> Ok how is having a blackbelt lead a stupid tech review a fail? Where is the harm? Its not like they can't get any open questions answered the next day; so, what gives?
> Sean


 
hes a yellow belt leading an orange belt technique review... among other things..
Like I said on the other thread on this if you like mediocrity good for you. I prefer excellence... a yellow belt running a kenpo class on orange belt techniques is never going to be excellent.


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## Touch Of Death (Mar 26, 2010)

LuckyKBoxer said:


> hes a yellow belt leading an orange belt technique review... among other things..
> Like I said on the other thread on this if you like mediocrity good for you. I prefer excellence... a yellow belt running a kenpo class on orange belt techniques is never going to be excellent.


 Its an hour class on one occassion, not a lifestyle choice. You still haven't described the harm that has come from the up-and-commer leading a review. How did this magicly make the system mediocre. You really should provide a reasoning for one stupid class in one instance. Has your teacher been there everytime?
Sean


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## LuckyKBoxer (Mar 26, 2010)

Touch Of Death said:


> Its an hour class on one occassion, not a lifestyle choice. You still haven't described the harm that has come from the up-and-commer leading a review. How did this magicly make the system mediocre. You really should provide a reasoning for one stupid class in one instance. Has your teacher been there everytime?
> Sean


 
Its the entire situation...
for an instructor to abandon the class without telling them is a sign of not really caring.

for the instructor to not give some instruction before he left is a sign of not caring.

My teacher has absolutely either taught every single class or given appropriate instruction and an appropriate black belt to teach every single class for the last 25 years.

I have not said Manny is a bad martial artist, or a bad kenpoist. I simply said it is not a good thing to put a yellow belt in charge of running a class and teaching orange belt techniques... a group workout fine...putting a TKD Black belt in to teach the class something about TKD to add to their base knowledge then fine. But putting someone who is a beginner in the art in charge of other beginners is not a good thing.... sure its one class for now, and sure the bad habits that can be picked up might be minor, but there is no good example to be learned from it... if you want to nurture a beginner who si also a black belt in another art and prep him for teaching, then possibly a supervised time is fine... but there is absolutely nothing you can say that will convince me that this is good.... use logic and you will agree.


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## Touch Of Death (Mar 26, 2010)

LuckyKBoxer said:


> Its the entire situation...
> for an instructor to abandon the class without telling them is a sign of not really caring.
> 
> for the instructor to not give some instruction before he left is a sign of not caring.
> ...


He wasn't teaching, it was a review, and if you use some of that logic and read the post you just made, you just said that a group workout was fine; so, lets leave your logic on that point alone shall we. It was right on the money! As for calling everyone mediocre, you should work on that. Its a journey.
sean


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## dancingalone (Mar 26, 2010)

There might be cultural factors in play here.  Perhaps since Manny is the oldest student present, perhaps he would be considered the most likely person to 'mind the store' so to speak while the instructor is out.  I wonder how old the other adult is.  If he's a 18-20 year old, I could understand why the instructor chose to ignore the belt seniority system.


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## Manny (Mar 26, 2010)

Thank you all. Well as I mentioned in my first post I don't know why sensei left me in charge, maybe because my age (I am 42 and all the other studentes are from 33 yo to 11 yo) or because I have a BB in TKD, I am a TKD instructor and referee too, so my background in MA is not huge but enough I can say.

Last night sensei told me the president of IKKA in Mexico (Mr. Netzahualcóyotl Soots Lopez a direct student form Gil Velez) was hungry, he hasn't eat since he left Sonora (in the north of México) till he arrived to Veracruz (The gulf of mexico) so my sensei took him to dinner and then to the hotel so sensei could not arrive to dojo to give the class.

I am a humble yellow belt (next week orange belt afther examination) you are right so I figured out I would put the class to do kicking techs using the kicking shileds (like in TKD) but the class wanted to do a review of the orange techs because we have examination next wensday.

Sincerily think that if Hugo (a 20 years old brown belt) was available  sensei would put him on charge as usual, but Hugo wasn't dojo.

The thing is I was in charge and like it and yes I don't know all the techs of kenpo yet but I have what it takes to conduct a light  kenpo class if need it, I don't need to have a master degree to run a simple kenpo class were exercise and some beginers techs are review.

Manny


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## Manny (Mar 26, 2010)

dancingalone said:


> There might be cultural factors in play here. Perhaps since Manny is the oldest student present, perhaps he would be considered the most likely person to 'mind the store' so to speak while the instructor is out. I wonder how old the other adult is. If he's a 18-20 year old, I could understand why the instructor chose to ignore the belt seniority system.


 
In the class that night we had, a boy brown belt (Cristopher 10 or 11 years old) one purple belt (Sebastian 13 -14 years old) and the other ustdentes were yellow belt like myself (Gabor 33, Serge and Orlando 20 years old each one). I am the oldest student on class with 42 years old, so basically I am the Grandpa there.

Manny


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## dancingalone (Mar 27, 2010)

Manny said:


> In the class that night we had, a boy brown belt (Cristopher 10 or 11 years old) one purple belt (Sebastian 13 -14 years old) and the other ustdentes were yellow belt like myself (Gabor 33, Serge and Orlando 20 years old each one). I am the oldest student on class with 42 years old, so basically I am the Grandpa there.
> 
> Manny



Well there you have it.  Manny was eldest man there with experience teaching MA to boot.  The next oldest adult is a novice in kenpo as well but with no other experience to back him up.  The kids are disqualified because they're far too young.  16-17 maybe, 14 no.


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