A little advise please.

[chinto01]

Hello all. Have a bit of a dilema and wanted to get your valuable input. My friend happens to run the dojo I attend. We are more like brothers than friends so it makes this a little difficult. His dojo is 90% kids and that is the cirriculum that he has chosen to teach. I enjoy the younger students but frankly I feel that my time is wasted when I work with them. ( Here is where the critisisim starts go ahead but be gentle.) I have explained this time and time again to my friend and now I do not work with the kids at all. Only when I want to which suits me fine. However I am supposed to be his senior student and I feel it does not look good to the others that he and I do not agree on the training of kids. So now I feel guilty because the time I spend on the mat is free of charge. So my question to you all is do I offer him some sort of "dues" for the month so I can feel better about this kind of like renting the floor space for a while, and second do I recommend that he find someone else to be his "right hand man"? If he was not almost family this would be a no brainer but it is a tricky situation for now.

In the spirit of bushido!

Rob

 

[Em MacIntosh]

If you start paying him dues and you aren't benefiting as much as you'd like, will he be able to provide you with what you need just because you're paying him? I don't think so. If it's a traditional system you have immense respect for, I'd honor the master and help with the kids. Do the children take it seriously? If not, should they be there? If so, teaching or helping teach children, as boring or unproductive as it seems, can teach you a lot. If you ever want to open a school, this info is essential, even if you don't plan on teaching children. It will open you up to your own teaching style overall and will be very rewarding down the road. All in all I would not offer to pay if it isn't a necessity and keep helping with the children. As long as they take it seriously.

 

[Em MacIntosh]

LOL I just noticed my avatar.
So...I'm your old padawan.

 

[bushidomartialarts]

What's your rank these days? If you're high up enough, perhaps you could offer to head up a series of adult-only classes so you can get the sort of training you feel you need.

 

[Tames D]

Are you comfortable being in the 10% (adults)? Doe's the dojo have separate classes for kids and adults (I would hope so)? My feeling is if your going to stay and not teach you have to offer payment regardless of friendship.

 

[chinto01]

The teaching philosophy between the two of us is a little out of wack. I prefer the no non-scense approach to self defense and kata application and he is more of the tournament oriented person. It just does not seem to be working well.

In the spirit of bushido!

Rob

 

[bushidomartialarts]

As somebody who's been on both sides of your situation....

Do you realize that both of your are right? For your friend, the tournament and competition scene is what pushes him to develop as a person. For you, it's the combative aspects. Neither of you are wrong.

My studio has three main instructors. One is a theoretician, one's an artist and one's a combatant. The three of us are very different in our approach, our priorities, our teaching styles.

Our students (mostly) love it, because it allows them to experience many aspects of training. Once a student has a preference, he just makes sure he attends a certain instructor's classes a little more often.

I'd suggest having a sit-down with your friend. Tell him your concerns and ask how you can help meet your needs while staying involved in and perhaps even improving his program.

 

[jks9199]

As somebody who's been on both sides of your situation....

Do you realize that both of your are right? For your friend, the tournament and competition scene is what pushes him to develop as a person. For you, it's the combative aspects. Neither of you are wrong.

My studio has three main instructors. One is a theoretician, one's an artist and one's a combatant. The three of us are very different in our approach, our priorities, our teaching styles.

Our students (mostly) love it, because it allows them to experience many aspects of training. Once a student has a preference, he just makes sure he attends a certain instructor's classes a little more often.

I'd suggest having a sit-down with your friend. Tell him your concerns and ask how you can help meet your needs while staying involved in and perhaps even improving his program.

This seems to be the best approach to me.

Depending on your rank within the school and system, you might be able to "serve" a different customer base for him. You focus on adults, and practical self-defense, and then he can focus on competition issues and "oversee" your program.

I and my partner inherited the club we trained in from our teacher. He did it gradually after we reached black belt, having us teach more and more classes and coming less and less often himself. But my partner and I have slightly different emphasises in our training; I focus heavily on empty hand, and practical application while she's more into the weapons and "fancier" stuff than I am. It works well; we balance each other that way.