Mentoring

[deadhand31]

My branch of my school has a mentorship program for the junior students. Children who are junior black belt that plan on testing for 1st Degree Poom (junior first degree, for the non-wtf people) are assigned a mentor. The mentor puts them through constant excercise and training once weekly in addition to their usual classes up until their test date.
Tomorrow will be my first session mentoring. I will be working with a brother and sister pair who are looking to test for junior black belt in one month, which will be the first mentorship for those testing just black belt. I plan on making them push themselves a bit harder than they have in the classes (well, the brother anyway. The sister is one of the hardest working students in the school). Anyhoo, i was wondering if anyone else has similar programs, and if so, what pointers might you be able to give me?

 

[Andy Cap]

I ran my own school for 12 years. I had instituted a mentorship program and it went well. In fact it went so well that even thought the school has been closed for 7 years now, I still here from the kid/man I mentored. He calls me and tells me about his accomplishments in life adn such. it is a great feeling and has been beneficial for both of us. I think in many ways I got more out of it than he did As for pointers...listen to him, and find out what he wants from the art. If nothing else, you are a sounding board for him to figure stuff out. I hope you both have fun with it.

 

[deadhand31]

I had my first mentoring session with the pair yesterday. It seemed that they both have a decent shot at their test in June, provided that they work hard. I've already given them a homework assignment to work on their splits every other day (my school requires full splits for black belt tests). So far, everything is going good. Now i just need to work with them for the next 4 weeks. I think this will turn out to be a very rewarding experience.