Question on martial artists

[Gweilo]

I've had a couple of similar experiences, and it can be somewhat entertaining. Particularly since I work selling firearms, I'm a licensed attorney, and I'm a retired combat medic in the Army. Add my hobbies into the mix (martial arts, reading, scale models, competitive shooting) and it can be quite humorous.

Unfortunately being a Horticulturalist, my job discription does not compare to a firearms sale man, I had to laugh at the prospects of your conversation, I'm wondering if they had an infantile accident upon leaving you, lol.

 

[isshinryuronin]

After receiving my 1st degree brown belt and working toward my black belt, life got in the way and I needed to stop actively pursuing the same. I still maintained my interest, my desire, and I still sought out information, and worked to maintain basic proficiency, yet if asked, I would have likely said I was a "former martial artist" or something of the sort.

Doc, even though you were not "actively" training as you put it, you still retained the interest, spirit and involvement in the art and continued to study it. As a 1st kyu, you no doubt absorbed not only the skill, but the understanding of it as well. Given all that, you were still a "martial artist." In my book, you had no need to add "former" to your description.

 

[JowGaWolf]

And I realized that if we were to go into detail, it could be that we only teach 4 techniques in a class and there's very little time to actually practice.

You shouldn't think of it that way. Here's how it worked for me. It requires 1.5 - 2 hours time slot. This is an example.
January
1 class a week dedicated to teaching Techniques A and B. I always try to teach and train things that go together versus only one thing at a time. For example, footwork + Jab. Teaching does not mean all I'm doing is talking. Students may get a 30 minute lecture during this period of time depending on how well they absorb it and how many critical mistakes I see.

February
1 class a week dedicated to individual training of Techniques A and B. Even though we train as a group the focus is individual. At this point most students know what to do and know when they mess up. So here there is less talk and more doing.

March
1 class a week dedicated to Teaching Techniques C and D, but only if a student has techniques A and B down. If a student doesn't have it down then they train techniques A and B the same way that they did in February. They will get a 15 minutes intro of Technique C and D because sometime time in march they will get A and B down pat.

April
1 Class a week dedicated to training Techniques C and D. Same format as February. This gives me time to work with anyone who is left behind and it gives the other students training time.

In my school classes were available 6 times a week with 2 extra hours after the Saturday session and 2+ hours of unstructured training on Sunday. By the end of April most people had enough understanding of the basics to start using the basics along with new techniques that they are learning. Eventually every technique becomes a basic. Learning the basics makes the learning process faster.

If you keep this pace then you should have at a minimum 6 to 12 technique that you can actually do well by the end of the year. For a class that meets 5 days a week. 4 of those days is just regular training 1 of those classes is concentrated training

For a class that meets 3 days a week then 2 of those days are just regular training and 1 of those classes is concentrated training.

There is always time to train. You just have to decide if you want to try to cram everything or take your time and build a foundation for students or yourself.

 

[JowGaWolf]

10 minutes doing a tutorial on a front kick

I spent 30+ minutes training my brother who is an Amateur Muay Thai fighter.

He already knew how to do a front kick, but he didn't understand the timing and deployment for the kick. In order to understand how to correctly land one at will, I had to teaching him about visual cues, body mechanics, body structure, punch or attack commitment, and he had to learn how to do a front kick from the front leg and not the back leg. 30 minutes of in person training was a crash course at best and a summary at worse. I left out the lesson on timing because I didn't have enough time to teach it and I thought he would be able to figure the timing on his own.

visual cues, body mechanics, body structure, punch or attack commitment, and how to do a front kick from the front leg
Each one of the topics above are individual lessons that I teach.

Visual cues takes about 6 months
Body structure takes about 6 months for kicking and punching
Body mechanics takes about 6 months
Punch, kick, and attack commitment can only be taught after the first three are taught.
Front kick from the front leg. This is done through out the training from day one.

Keep in mind that none of this includes strategy, baiting, advancing / retreating using the front kick, nor multiple uses for a front kick.

If all I need to do is teach someone how to do the motion of a front kick then give me 5 minutes. If a person wants to know how to use it effectively then, it's going to take time.

 

[skribs]

@JowGaWolf

Unfortunately, my school has too many students. Can't make classes longer without interfering with school or going too late into the night, and too many students to focus on one technique for that long.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

@JowGaWolf

Unfortunately, my school has too many students. Can't make classes longer without interfering with school or going too late into the night, and too many students to focus on one technique for that long.

Class size does change the approach. I've never dealt with classes much more than 20 - and any toward that high end, I had either other instructors or senior students to help out. That allows me to let different pairs work on different things for most of class, and to tailor class to each person's level. With a larger group, it needs a very different approach - one I'm not much experienced at.

 

[JowGaWolf]

@JowGaWolf

Unfortunately, my school has too many students. Can't make classes longer without interfering with school or going too late into the night, and too many students to focus on one technique for that long.

Do you have any extra days that can be turned into Seminars? or Special training days?

 

[JowGaWolf]

Class size does change the approach. I've never dealt with classes much more than 20 - and any toward that high end, I had either other instructors or senior students to help out. That allows me to let different pairs work on different things for most of class, and to tailor class to each person's level. With a larger group, it needs a very different approach - one I'm not much experienced at.

This is why we had a dedicated day. Only those who wanted to actually learn how to use Jow Ga to fight with need to come So out of a class of 20 I only have about 5 or 6 that were willing to put in the work and do a little sparring. I wouldn't try to teach everyone who attended the school, because not everyone wants to learn how to fight using martial arts. Many say that they do, but very few are willing to walk that path.

 

[Hanshi]

Tough question. As a general definition I'd say one should be a black belt who is committed and devoted to making martial arts a part of their life and their identity. Someone simply "taking karate lessons" would only be a student.

 

[skribs]

Do you have any extra days that can be turned into Seminars? or Special training days?

Nope. We run 6 days a week. I've already had to cut back for health reasons (teaching 150 different petri dishes takes its toll).

 

[JP3]

Interesting thoughts, I found myself nodding as I read it. I do realize, though, that casual acquaintances will pigeon hole me regardless. I believe it is human nature to do so. You may not agree, but from my perspective, so long as I don't allow those who need to not pigeon hole me in a specific way to do so,and don't allow myself to do so, then that is the primary concern. How others, particularly those I barely know, define me, is of little importance to me personally.



I've had a couple of similar experiences, and it can be somewhat entertaining. Particularly since I work selling firearms, I'm a licensed attorney, and I'm a retired combat medic in the Army. Add my hobbies into the mix (martial arts, reading, scale models, competitive shooting) and it can be quite humorous.

Here's what I think, boiled down.

I really don't care what other people think of me, as most of what they think matters not a whit to me in my actual life. Their thoughts do not affect, or effect, pick your word, me or my life. So, I end up not worrying about it.

Which is not the same as not caring. Do I wish that people like me, respect me, think good things about me? Sure.

But... to worry about what it is that they think ends up being wasteful of my own time & energy.

Which... is funny considering some of the deep discussions and rabbit holes we've been down here on MT. And I'm only an amateur compared to some of y'all.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Here's what I think, boiled down.

I really don't care what other people think of me, as most of what they think matters not a whit to me in my actual life. Their thoughts do not affect, or effect, pick your word, me or my life. So, I end up not worrying about it.

Which is not the same as not caring. Do I wish that people like me, respect me, think good things about me? Sure.

But... to worry about what it is that they think ends up being wasteful of my own time & energy.

Which... is funny considering some of the deep discussions and rabbit holes we've been down here on MT. And I'm only an amateur compared to some of y'all.

That's a good way of putting it.

Let me share my view. I don't care what others think of me, except that I'd like to earn the respect of those I respect. I do care what others think of what I do (the techniques, not the art), but only insofar as I appreciate having some different opinions to help me avoid some of my own biases and blind spots. So, if someone doesn't like what I do, I don't care. If they can give me some good reason to rethink what I do, I care quite a bit.

 

[JR 137]

That's a good way of putting it.

Let me share my view. I don't care what others think of me, except that I'd like to earn the respect of those I respect. I do care what others think of what I do (the techniques, not the art), but only insofar as I appreciate having some different opinions to help me avoid some of my own biases and blind spots. So, if someone doesn't like what I do, I don't care. If they can give me some good reason to rethink what I do, I care quite a bit.

In an odd way which I can’t fully verbalize, this reminds of of a great quote that I try to always keep in mind. It’s hard to follow sometimes though...

“I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.”

- Edward Gibbon

 

[Gerry Seymour]

In an odd way which I can’t fully verbalize, this reminds of of a great quote that I try to always keep in mind. It’s hard to follow sometimes though...

“I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.”

- Edward Gibbon

That’s a great principle to follow. Damnably hard, though.

 

[JR 137]

That’s a great principle to follow. Damnably hard, though.

They just suck you in sometimes.

 

[JP3]

In an odd way which I can’t fully verbalize, this reminds of of a great quote that I try to always keep in mind. It’s hard to follow sometimes though...

“I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.”

- Edward Gibbon

That reminded me of this one, in the same line of thought:

"No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master." ~ Hunter S. Thompson

 

[Buka]

A different version of you exists in the minds of everyone who knows you. Sometimes we orchestrate that version, sometimes we do it subconsciously.

I care what some people think of me, I don't care what some other people think of me. Some people I purposely make dislike me. What can I say, it's a gift.

 

[Earl Weiss]

When in your opinion, can someone call themselves a martial artist?
It was a question asked in last night's class, when we have a discussion at the end, I never really thought about it much, but the answers were diverse.

The first problem i there is no universally accepted Criteria for what is or is not a "Martial Art" . I know you can take each word and search out a definition, however the whole may be greater than or different than the sum of the parts. Some years ago i wrote an article exploring various aspects of the terminology and of course got plenty of criticism, but FWIW here it is. https://1c47d0f0-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites...KltdN5_xed4CAXCidPYP15JbgSbyXc&attredirects=0

 

[snake_monkey]

I would like to pose a question in response to this question. What makes someone a fighter? I have not found any opportunities for combat sports but my martial arts training has taught me how to be a fighter. This is TMA. My fists and arms have gotten stronger. Bone density, full-body conditioning, and energy increase. To put it simply - It's not about appearance, it's about experience.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I would like to pose a question in response to this question. What makes someone a fighter? I have not found any opportunities for combat sports but my martial arts training has taught me how to be a fighter. This is TMA. My fists and arms have gotten stronger. Bone density, full-body conditioning, and energy increase. To put it simply - It's not about appearance, it's about experience.

I suspect you'll find some differences in opinion on this, but they're likely to be within a limited range. A "fighter" is someone who fights. Now, the differences in opinion will be in what counts as "fights". Does sparring count? All sparring or some? Does sport combat count? Unsanctioned challenge matches? Or just stuff light fighting "in the street" (and what does that even mean?)?

I have skills in areas that are useful for fighting. But I don't fight (I've looked longingly at some sport combat, but can't seem to stay un-injured long enough to give it a go). I do spar, but rarely these days with folks at or above my own level - mostly with students. So I wouldn't call myself a fighter.