Passing along your art...through exchage students?

[Carol]

In this article, Guro Buzz Smith talks about hosting exchange studnets and passing along the Kuntaw arts to them. Now that the exchange students have returned home, they are anxious to teach themselves and pass along what they know to other martial artists.

At my old Kenpo school, I had a chance to meet a young fellow from Quebec that came to the US for a few months...just to train in Kenpo at our school.

Have any of you taught exchange students? If you have, would you share your experiences?

Guro Buzz? Any favorite stories to share about teaching the exchange students?

 

[kuntawguro]

In this article, Guro Buzz Smith talks about hosting exchange studnets and passing along the Kuntaw arts to them. Now that the exchange students have returned home, they are anxious to teach themselves and pass along what they know to other martial artists.

At my old Kenpo school, I had a chance to meet a young fellow from Quebec that came to the US for a few months...just to train in Kenpo at our school.

Have any of you taught exchange students? If you have, would you share your experiences?

Guro Buzz? Any favorite stories to share about teaching the exchange students?

How much time have you got? There are several hundred stories. I have invited these two students to come into this forum and share their stories ( of which they probably have 100 on me)and their insights.

Both of these students had prior martial arts backgrounds in their own countries and had requested martial arts families to sponsor them. That is how my sponsoring them came about. I was contacted by a police friend of mine saying he was contacted by the local school lookig for martial arts families and he had referred me to them. Now, first you have to understand , I am divorced,I have no children. My wife had cancer before our marriage and could not have anymore children. She had 2 from a previous marriage and they are grown.

The exchange program person contacted me and asked if I would be interested in sponsoring an exchange student, I said sure. She asked how my family would take it and how we could help the student. I told her I lived alone and then she said- sorry, but we cannot put 1 student with you, but we can do 2( something about the rules of sponsorship for singles) and she said she would get back to me.

A week later she sent me info packets on 2 students. One was almost 6 ft tall and the other barely 5 ft. One was an Aikido student and the other Hapkido.I let her know there was no Hapkido school anywhere near where I live and the Aikido was a college course. Soon after I was contacted by the students by e mail and they said they would like to try my art and would I please sponsor them. I advised her that there were element from both those arts in the art that I taught. Well the paperwork went thru and i was told of their arrival time and what I was responsible for.

I picked them up from the airport and found that they were reserved and apprehensive. The trip to my house was uneventful but when we arrived they were taken back that I owned my own home ( I think they thought i was rich). I live out in the country in an area of hardwoods. I got them settled in and showed them to their rooms where everything was and told them of my rules of my house in regards to homework, chores, and what they could and couldn't do.

Anyone who knows me , knows I collect weapontry. I have tons of knives/ swords/ guns and stuff. A lot of my things are antiques , so I had told them that my weapons were not toys and if they wanted to hold them I would be glad to let them but no swinging. But kids will be kids and I found one of my swords with the wrapping undone a short while later. One of the boys had tried to tie it to his waist. Took me a couple of days to locate how to retie the decorative wrapping sequence on the internet and to get the sword back to display status.

I had scheduled a camping trip figuring that with no outside interruptions we would get to know each other. I rened a canoe , loaded up my vanwith camping stuff and took them to a local river located close to Lake Michigan surrounded by national forest . Neither had canoed before or camped, so this was going to be their first experience to write home about.We canoed 27 miles and saw egret, heron, fish, turtle, and saw very few people. The boys had a hard time getting the hang of paddling ( running us in to every possible obstacle on the way) but soon they were pros. We set up camp as it was getting dark and we discussed what theywanted out of their trip here to the US.

The discussion went on and on and with each insight the wheels turned inside my head of how i could meet their needs. First I figured I would have to earn their respect. They knew i was a competitor as I have a lot of trophies in my house. So, I set them up. I learned a trick from an old friend and proceeded to mess with them. I set the trick up and went for it. While holding a conversation around the campfire that night I reached into the fire , grabbed a large ember and held it in my hand while I talked about there being more to martial arts than just kicking and punching and how there has to be dicipline and investment. After about 2 minutes of holding the ember- I tossed it back into the fire.

I said I could teach them how to do what I had just done and they were freaking out. WIZARD! he he. So I taught them while we were drinking cokes and talking. Yun , the S korean, was very apprehensive and tried the trick on a small scale letting out small yelps when it wasn't going right. Nikki was not sure he would even try it. But, after about an hour , they were both doing it. Trust- they trusted me to not hurt them , and I didn't. They walked away with little more than a trick - but now they trusted me.
More stories to come.

 

[kuntawguro]

Nikki was from Bulgaria, Yun was from S. Korea and Alexi was from Russia. These three kids had nothing in common besides the martial arts. They would come to the school and train 3 nights a week and nudge each other to get better. Their english got better because it was a common thread for them to communicate. I don't know how many times I was asked what was meant by " rag doll" " air head" "troll" and countless other words and phrases. I believe they think we talk only in euphemisms. Still, they were able to get along and challenge each other. I felt like MR Miyagi at times as they were trading training time for labor time helping me fix up my house and with the various projects I had going.

I had started a koi pond in the back yard long before they got here but never finished it. Together we were able to get it 99 percent done. Each took their turn at getting lost when the hard work came up, but I think it evened itself out in the long run.
We went to a Koi farm and walked around for about an hour looking at all the plants and fish and how the owner had laid it all out. I had the guys come to the main pond and look at the really large koi the owner had in his pond ( I had been there numerous times before , picking the owners brains for ideas and advice)I handed each of them a handful of Koi food and I reached down into the water with my handfull- the koi came swimming up to my hand like pirahana and sucked the food right out of my hand. the boys didn't want any part of that. I told them that the koi didn't have teeth
and showed them that all they did was suck at your hand- so they each tried it after being called chicken. The look of sheer terror was very entertaining. Then they didn't want to leave the pond when it was time to go. Another story they could tell their friends.

 

[hongdoll1019]

wow, you finally started to write the whole thing down huh?
hmm bitter smells of recollection (haha)

I'm sure that there will be hardly no experience throughout the country with exchange students coming to US to learn martial art like this...(especially from Korea)
we can make it long enough to publish it! now we are only in day2 isn't it??

ah.. first, my name is Yun , from South Korea, and yellow belt holder in Maharlika Kuntaw. Also the supporter of Kuntaw with all my heart.

I'm sure people can see how things went in Guro Buzz's view, and I'm also very excited to see how you felt about us.. wish I can contact Nikki and let him know!

Well I was the dedicated student, wasn't I?

I can also feel some blanks like... yes, I untied the sword , (I made lots of fuss time to time)....direct canoes to the shore...:uhyeah:



keep on writing Buzz , I'll post too.

 

[kuntawguro]

The club was a 45 foot by 60 foot hall with kicking bags and striking wall and everything you would want in a training place. I introduced them to the Filipino martial arts theories and some of the tricks. One of the tricks that Yun jumped on with both feet was the covering of ground. I stood 8 foot away from him one night at class and asked him to kick me but not touch the ground before he hit me. He looked at me like I was crazy. Then I showed him the sky hook principle. After that , he was covering 8 ft easy and doing different kicks and evn putting up kicking shields to gain height as he was getting distance. The light bulb turned on over his head. (Maybe this old man had a few things that he would share). I had broken 2 ribs doing a stunt for a movie just before the boys arrived so I was on the mend getting re injured every other month at work from the inability of my boss to realize that - yeah- I had broken ribs and was not the right guy to install condensing unit all by myself.
The boys worked around my inability to do some of the heavy lifting around the house and some of the digging at the pond. They hauled tons (literally) of rocks from the woods and neighbor's property.
We went to a ttournament a couple of hours away and were asked to put on a demonstration at the awards ceremony- so, I got each to do a bit of the things they liked to do in Kuntaw. We did a bit of stick drill, then disarms , then staff disarms, then self defense, all of which was being filmed. There was a good applause after we were done. I don't really think they thought they could pull it off- but they did in grand scale. The intensity was there and it went off without a hitch. I was pretty proud of them for having such a small time to prepare but to follow thru like troupers.

 

[Carol]

This is some amazing stuff Buzz. Keep it coming, if you can

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Below are two pictures of Nikki and Yun at an IRT training seminar that featured Buzz!

 

[Carol]

AWESOME photos Brian!

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

AWESOME photos Brian!

I try Carol I try!

 

[kuntawguro]

thanks Brian- we didn't get many photos of them while they were here. Pictue taking wasn't the top priority when they were here.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

No sweat. I will pass a few more along from the seminar when I get the chance!

 

[kuntawguro]

Yun- tell them about your Halloween experiences ( this is a good one)

 

[hongdoll1019]

well, where should I start..
I think - this doesn't have much with martial arts though..

yeah.. I knew about Halloween, but yet never been participated.
I guess the part that kids go to the neighbor and 'maraud?' the candies
(even don't know who they are_)doesn't come with Korean ethics..

but I enjoyed it totally!

on haloween, Anton (he is the one in the photo with me) asked us to go
trick-or-treating , so Niki and I said we love to, but we didn't have any costumes with us.

then here comes another Guro Buzz's specialty : .... haloween face make up.

anybody who knows Buzz would surely know he has lots of lots of talents,
but probably not one of this.

Buzz Niki and I drove down to party store and bought some make up creams, and a scythe. I decided to dress as a ninja, wearing all black uniform (actually the top part was from sun yoon do dojo, thanks)wooden sword on my waist, and a ninja mask from buzz, which is for the special police force, I guess.

and Niki was on for the traditional one, Father Death.
Buzz did a scull painting on Niki , and I think he made a robe too.

well after that Anton came, we picked up Aleksey on the way,( he dressed up as a his hero Che Guevara, viva revolution!)
and we got a hell of candies. (mine was gone after a week)

it was a pretty cool day for the exchange student.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Hey Yun glad you have joined us here on MartialTalk! You should stop by the meet & greet forum and introduce yourself to everyone.