What do you wish you could do more in class?

[skribs]

I would like to see more guest instructors from other arts as a drop in. Bi weekly, or monthly to instruct Dan grade type students, and teachers.

Here is an example.
Month one, a semi professional boxer,
light sparing to get used to receiving strikes outside of your own style of striking. And how to deal with guards and head movement of a boxer.

Month two, Judo or D1 Wrestler Coach
teaching high percentage throws and takedowns... and defenses against the same.

Month three FMA, Arnis, etc.
Some basic stick drills.

Month Four, Kali instructor teaching limb destruction.

Month five, Hapkido, Akido, Small Circle Juijtsu or a Tuite teacher sharing principles on joint locking.

And so on.
The more schools in your town, the greater the cross training options.

Also, more seminars like a high profile GM in something like Wally Jay (RIP), or Patrick McCarthy, or Dan Inosanto, or the like...that the school attends.

Also:
I have a deep love for Karate's Gashaku tradition.
This is an art specific thing but has multiple styles attending. So it's not exactly cross training, but more like cross pollinating.

So more of that quarterly, or biannually

The issue I have with this is that some arts can take months or years to really get a hang on what you're doing.

 

[JR 137]

I would like to see more guest instructors from other arts as a drop in. Bi weekly, or monthly to instruct Dan grade type students, and teachers.

Here is an example.
Month one, a semi professional boxer,
light sparing to get used to receiving strikes outside of your own style of striking. And how to deal with guards and head movement of a boxer.

Month two, Judo or D1 Wrestler Coach
teaching high percentage throws and takedowns... and defenses against the same.

Month three FMA, Arnis, etc.
Some basic stick drills.

Month Four, Kali instructor teaching limb destruction.

Month five, Hapkido, Akido, Small Circle Juijtsu or a Tuite teacher sharing principles on joint locking.

And so on.
The more schools in your town, the greater the cross training options.

Also, more seminars like a high profile GM in something like Wally Jay (RIP), or Patrick McCarthy, or Dan Inosanto, or the like...that the school attends.

Also:
I have a deep love for Karate's Gashaku tradition.
This is an art specific thing but has multiple styles attending. So it's not exactly cross training, but more like cross pollinating.

So more of that quarterly, or biannually

Such a great idea. Now to get egos out of the way and make it happen

 

[JR 137]

The issue I have with this is that some arts can take months or years to really get a hang on what you're doing.

Yes, however you’re not trying to master their system or even become proficient in it. You’re looking for ideas to tweak what you’re doing, answers to questions you’ve had about your own system, etc.

The biggest benefit of it is seeing what others are doing and therefore learning what holes are in your system and learning how to defend against others. A system can look pretty foolproof against, say, wrestlers when there aren’t any wrestlers in your school. Get an actual wrestler and things will change.

For example - the Wing Chun “anti-grappling” nonsense where the attacker’s single-leg takedown skill was lower than the average middle school wrestler’s. I’ve coached a few middle school wrestlers, so I can say that as someone somewhat qualified to say it. If they had a wrestler they genuinely trusted and respected stop by their school, they’d have had to go back to the drawing board rather than accepting the ridiculousness they came up with.

 

[TSDTexan]

The issue I have with this is that some arts can take months or years to really get a hang on what you're doing.

And?
This really isn't a logical objection.
a.
Any thing worth doing has a time cost.

b.
The mastery of another art isn't the goal of the drop in teachers.

Nor the students.

 

[skribs]

Yes, however you’re not trying to master their system or even become proficient in it. You’re looking for ideas to tweak what you’re doing, answers to questions you’ve had about your own system, etc.

The biggest benefit of it is seeing what others are doing and therefore learning what holes are in your system and learning how to defend against others. A system can look pretty foolproof against, say, wrestlers when there aren’t any wrestlers in your school. Get an actual wrestler and things will change.

For example - the Wing Chun “anti-grappling” nonsense where the attacker’s single-leg takedown skill was lower than the average middle school wrestler’s. I’ve coached a few middle school wrestlers, so I can say that as someone somewhat qualified to say it. If they had a wrestler they genuinely trusted and respected stop by their school, they’d have had to go back to the drawing board rather than accepting the ridiculousness they came up with.

Ok, I can see that. I think it's a general rule of thumb that your style's defense techniques are often built around your style. For example, most of the defenses against a punch I've done in Taekwondo are against someone using a punch you'll see in a Taekwondo form. Most of the videos I've seen for Wing Chun drills I think would only work if the other person is also practicing Wing Chun or a similar style of Kung Fu. Like if a chess master were going to play checkers.

And?
This really isn't a logical objection.
a.
Any thing worth doing has a time cost.

b.
The mastery of another art isn't the goal of the drop in teachers.

Nor the students.

I don't see how A applies to the scenario. If anything, it backs up what I'm saying.

I get that mastery of the art isn't the goal. But my experience cross-training my Taekwondo with the Hapkido (and seeing several others start off in hapkido) is that a one-hour session isn't going to give you much to be worthwhile.

 

[TSDTexan]

Ok, I can see that. I think it's a general rule of thumb that your style's defense techniques are often built around your style. For example, most of the defenses against a punch I've done in Taekwondo are against someone using a punch you'll see in a Taekwondo form. Most of the videos I've seen for Wing Chun drills I think would only work if the other person is also practicing Wing Chun or a similar style of Kung Fu. Like if a chess master were going to play checkers.



I don't see how A applies to the scenario. If anything, it backs up what I'm saying.

I get that mastery of the art isn't the goal. But my experience cross-training my Taekwondo with the Hapkido (and seeing several others start off in hapkido) is that a one-hour session isn't going to give you much to be worthwhile.

I guess that depends on how low a bar you set for that one hour.

Ideally, the instructors are going to be doing bite-size pieces. Not serving up a whole cow.

This is more a question of, how much can you teach in one hour?

Well if you're teaching the techniques. You can work on that one given technique, or two techniques and the counter(s) that.

I mean, these drills aren't supposed to be that complicated. If a technique were to require 10 hours of class instruction, it would not be what would be shared by the drop in Instructor.

Secondly you can teach Advanced students principles. When you have a foundational principle or a secondary foundation that they (advanced students) can extrapolate out from those principles the techniques that go with them.

They can really grow.

I can teach you a lot of things in one hour, but if a student just learns just one thing the class is worthwhile

 

[IvanTheBrick]

What are the things in your martial arts classes you wish you could do more, but can't? Those things you get to do every once in a while that are a real treat when you get to do them.

For me, in my Taekwondo class, it's 2-on-1 or 3-on-1 sparring. I actually think I'm better against 2 or 3 (the inverse ninja rule is real) and I love the strategy of trying to isolate my opponents and pick them apart. I've never done 4-on-1, and 5-on-1 is a bit too much, but 3-on-1 is my absolute favorite.

The only problem is we do sparring against multiple opponents probably once every 5 months on average.

I want it to be more serious or traditional training. Makiwaras etc... Training of the spirit too

 

[TSDTexan]

I want it to be more serious or traditional training. Makiwaras etc... Training of the spirit too

if I have a criticism of way too many karate schools it would be the following two things. No Makiwara and the lack of tuite drilling.

Makiwara absence is a huge pet peeve of mine.
It is the biggest fine tuner of effective power range.

I had a student who could never break boards.
I told him No more, just forget board breaking.
I put him on daily makiwara training for 90 continuous days.

At the end, his first board breaking attempt was a triple board reverse punch. I told him punch 8 inches behind the board.

He was a living wrecking ball.
Right after that, he spent 300.00 to get a beechwood makiwara shipped from Shurido.

He had never seen a makiwara until he came to our dojo.

 

[_Simon_]

if I have a criticism of way too many karate schools it would be the following two things. No Makiwara and the lack of tuite drilling.

Makiwara absence is a huge pet peeve of mine.
It is the biggest fine tuner of effective power range.

I had a student who could never break boards.
I told him No more, just forget board breaking.
I put him on daily makiwara training for 90 continuous days.

At the end, his first board breaking attempt was a triple board reverse punch. I told him punch 8 inches behind the board.

He was a living wrecking ball.
Right after that, he spent 300.00 to get a beechwood makiwara shipped from Shurido.

He had never seen a makiwara until he came to our dojo.

I love the makiwara... sure it has its criticisms, but just the practice and discipline of it is awesome... would love to get into it more

 

[Michele123]

I love the makiwara... sure it has its criticisms, but just the practice and discipline of it is awesome... would love to get into it more

My old style used a hanging bag for the same purpose.


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[dvcochran]

My old style used a hanging bag for the same purpose.


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It is just smart science to use a bag or a bob to learn power and accuracy. Beats the heck out of beating on each other.