How open is your instructor to suggestions?

[Flatfish]

About nine months ago I was looking for a MA school for my kids. I did quite a bit of research and quickly realized that the area is overrun with McDojos. I finally found a small TKD dojang that was more what I was looking for: no contracts, people don't test until they know their stuff and will be held back if they are not ready. They do cater mostly to kids but we have quite a few adults/ families. I joined the training and have enjoyed it. I think our curriculum is fairly rounded based on posts here and on other boards describing other folks' experiences. Forms, one steps and five ho sin suls per grade. We have designated sparring classes ( unfortunately tournament rules but hey) and higher intensity classes for the adults. One thing that bothers me though is the intensity with which we practice self defense moves. Throws and take downs are not fully executed and I realized that was because nobody knew how to fall, injury risk etc. i was pretty nervous about it as a fairly junior student but I stopped by one day ouside of class to discuss with our instructor. We talked a bit about benefits of learning how to fall etc and low and behold in the next class we started on basics of breakfall techniques.

So in summary even though things are not perfect I think at least I found an instructor who takes her students' concerns seriously but it also became obvious that some things are they they are because of what the majority of folks want out of training and that unfortunately means some watered down stuff because people are not willing to practice rough.......case in point : they did offer Hapkido at some point and had to cancel because people did not like the roughness and stopped coming.......marketforces I guess.

how does your school handle things like that?

 

[donald1]

Continue the traditions, in my karate school we are expected to do pushups (good ones), and usually practice kata over and over again. But then again we don't get new students. Personally i don't think a good dojo should have to change. Training is hard but so is martial arts. And it is that tough training is one of the reasons why so many people are good at martial arts. They put in the effort and got the results
Best of luck

 

[tshadowchaser]

I must admit that the instructors I stayed with the longest and that had the most knowledge would listen if a student approached them out of class with a suggestion but more than likely the suggestion would be ignored and the student would be told if they did not like the way class was run they could find another school.
I also admit that as an instructor I will listen but it is my class and Im going to do things my way. I may take a and use it but most of the time I do not want to hear what a student thinks I should teach or do. Heck they came to me for my knowledge , I did not go to them to learn

 

[Mark Lynn]

One thing that bothers me though is the intensity with which we practice self defense moves. Throws and take downs are not fully executed and I realized that was because nobody knew how to fall, injury risk etc. i was pretty nervous about it as a fairly junior student but I stopped by one day ouside of class to discuss with our instructor. We talked a bit about benefits of learning how to fall etc and low and behold in the next class we started on basics of breakfall techniques.

So in summary even though things are not perfect I think at least I found an instructor who takes her students' concerns seriously but it also became obvious that some things are they they are because of what the majority of folks want out of training and that unfortunately means some watered down stuff because people are not willing to practice rough.......case in point : they did offer Hapkido at some point and had to cancel because people did not like the roughness and stopped coming.......marketforces I guess.

how does your school handle things like that?

TBH very similar to yours, I too have to yield to market forces otherwise I won't have a school to teach at. It was wise of your instructor to listen to your suggestions because in your are the customer and you are helping to pay her bills, keep her dojo open etc. etc. That doesn't mean she has to cater to your needs but she should listen and see if she can accommodate you, who knows it can sharpen up her skills at the same time.

This past week, one of my black belts in arnis had a suggestion about my teaching flexible weapons for a future mini seminar, I was a bit reluctant not because the subject didn't interest me (it does), but I had some reservations about teaching that material in front of a much larger group. We discussed it some and I was still reluctant, but at the next class he brought a Tee shirt to start working on the stuff and sure enough I got drawn into it, pretty soon it was like the flood gates opened. Now I hadn't really gone over this type of material in several years (5+), nor had I really been teaching it either. But as we worked on some stuff things just opened up, problems solved, answers to questions came out. It was a lot of fun for me. However what was also good was that we came up with an idea or format of how to teach some of the material to a larger group, so that they wouldn't get bogged down and lost.

In regards to the roughness that is a personal thing especially when it comes to arts like Hapkido or any art that involves striking, locking, throwing etc. etc. I teach locking, throwing etc. etc. in my advanced classes for my students in my American Karate/TKD program, and my students are all between 11-14 now. I'll show a lock a TD or something and they will practice it. As an instructor I have to be very careful because sometimes the students like to get horsey, especially the boys, and they can very easily hurt someone. So I too only have them go to a certain point and then they are to back off, because I don't want someone to accidentally hurt someone.

One the other hand one of my beginners in arnis (well I guess he is a lower intermediate belt) went to a mini seminar and he was working with some different people and he had a hard time with how soft and light some of the people hit and blocked. He told me how he told a person "feed me harder" and they couldn't/wouldn't do it, and then he fed them and their blocked failed and he had to put out all stops to keep from hitting them in the face with his stick. The other person hadn't been taught to really block nor to feed with some intention behind their strike, and it was throwing him off. So I guess in my view there is a time and place for everything.

 

[Flatfish]

Some good points I had not considered. I think I need to explain a bit more why I ended up having the conversation in the first place. The instructors will sometimes let the students complete a throw and roll/ fall. So clearly they learned how to somewhere along the way. Yet I have never even seen the BBs practice that way. Hence my confusion, so I asked. She told my that they used to teach it but just don't right now and the conversation went from there. I certainly had no intention of telling her how to run her program and hope it didn't come across that way. She's a great teacher and I would not want to offend her.


i should maybe also mention that I have a background in Judo where falling is the first thing you learn, again confusing me.....

 

[tshadowchaser]

Let me correct myself a little.
If you are being taught throws and have not been taught falls/rolls you need to ask your instructor if they are going to be taught for safety purposes. That may or may not be considered a suggestion