I have found most who teach martial arts do so because they love the art they teach. One told the class that he felt blessed to be doing what he loves to do. I think that is the motivation of most teachers of the martial arts, although there are of course others with other motivations. To all the teachers of martial arts, what is your motivation for teaching? Just curious
What is your motivation for teaching MA?
- Thread starter Joab
- Start date
To pass my knowledge to others in order to have more peers that will keep the art alive.
Joab: Thanks, and thanks for the qoute by Rex Applegate, one of the true master teachers of close quarters combat of all time!
To share the art and knowledge to others. Teaching also makes the instructor put themselves back into the shoes of the new student. There have been many times, I would try to teach someone a kick. For the life of them, they just couldn't get it. I'd find myself thinking, "What is so difficult about this? You just lift your leg and extend it like this!" But I'd stop and take that step back, thinking that I too, was in their shoes, many years ago...struggling to get a kick, kata or technique down pat.
So, by teaching, if forces you to really look at the tech. or whatever you're teaching, from another view point.
Joab: I come from a long line of teachers, although none taught martial arts. They did it to help others, it feels good to help someone help themself.
Joab: Self defense is my main interest, coming from being picked on growing up and my family having been the victim of serious violent crimes.
astrobiologist
Brown Belt
Teaching allows us to share our knowledge with others, so that they too can feel confident enough to protect themselves.
Teaching makes us consider the techniques and philosophy we are sharing, thus we are teaching ourselves in a way.
Teaching gives our students a chance to ask questions and critique us which makes us think, thus our students are teaching us in a way.
Teaching allows us to transcend our own pride... We came up in the martial arts as beginners, working hard and eventually becomming proud of ourselves. Once we got better we realized that having a positive self image is good, but that being overly confident/cocky was a downfall. Teaching allows us to put that to practise. We get to watch our students go through the same thing. We get to share in their journey for at least some time. And we know that true privelage comes when we get to see our students become teachers themselves.
Teaching makes us consider the techniques and philosophy we are sharing, thus we are teaching ourselves in a way.
Teaching gives our students a chance to ask questions and critique us which makes us think, thus our students are teaching us in a way.
Teaching allows us to transcend our own pride... We came up in the martial arts as beginners, working hard and eventually becomming proud of ourselves. Once we got better we realized that having a positive self image is good, but that being overly confident/cocky was a downfall. Teaching allows us to put that to practise. We get to watch our students go through the same thing. We get to share in their journey for at least some time. And we know that true privelage comes when we get to see our students become teachers themselves.
Yes, and because it feels good to be part of such a continuing tradition. I'm a caretaker of the art!
For my kids, I teach them for a joint activity with them and thinking of their self-defense needs.
I started instructing because I saw it as the next necessary step in my own development as a practitioner. Teaching others makes me analyze material in ways I never have before, and gives me far more repetitions on the body. It also gives me numerous examples of how someone who is not trained in this particular techinque may react.
Over time, teaching became a passion. Seeing a student struggle with difficult material and then suddenly get it right is quite rewarding. So is realizing that you're teaching a student an aspect of a technique you never consciously new existed until after you heard yourself describe it. Many times teachers are learning as much as they are teaching by sharing the material with you, they just hide it so that you continue to think of them as infallible. I can't tell you how many times I taught a technique and then went in the back office and excitedly explained to one of the other instructors what I'd just learned about something I'd first been shown years before.
-Rob
Over time, teaching became a passion. Seeing a student struggle with difficult material and then suddenly get it right is quite rewarding. So is realizing that you're teaching a student an aspect of a technique you never consciously new existed until after you heard yourself describe it. Many times teachers are learning as much as they are teaching by sharing the material with you, they just hide it so that you continue to think of them as infallible. I can't tell you how many times I taught a technique and then went in the back office and excitedly explained to one of the other instructors what I'd just learned about something I'd first been shown years before.
-Rob
For me it feels good to teach. Someone took the time to train me and I feel it's my turn to give what knowledge I have to another. It also helps with me learning. I like when the students do well and I can say I had a hand in that.
My motivation to teach is multi-faceted.
Bottom line is that I'm a teacher. It's what I do. My parents and grandparents were teachers...it's a bit of a family trade so to speak. I really can't do anything for too long without teaching it.
I love to pass on my knowledge and I find that I get better because I teach.
This is as true for MA as it is for music, woodworking, pretty much anything I liek to do.
Peac,e
Erik
Bottom line is that I'm a teacher. It's what I do. My parents and grandparents were teachers...it's a bit of a family trade so to speak. I really can't do anything for too long without teaching it.
I love to pass on my knowledge and I find that I get better because I teach.
This is as true for MA as it is for music, woodworking, pretty much anything I liek to do.
Peac,e
Erik
Langenschwert
Master Black Belt
I kind of fell into teaching by accident. There was simply no one in my area teaching Kunst des Fechtens the way I felt it should be taught. I had joined a really good organization (the AES), but the person who was heading up the chapter had to move away. So I trained hard and took up the the job.
My motivations are for teaching are the same as for pursuing the Art as a student: The European Martial Arts by and large went extinct with the rise of gunpowder, or morphed into new forms, some focusing on marksmanship or interfacing with machinery, or into those with sporting concerns being first and foremost. This left the lethal melee combat arts of Europe neglected, forgotten, and then finally dismissed by Victorian fencing historians, from whom came the popular notion of medieval knights being nothing more than crude untutored fighters. Ironically, what was considered "historical fact" couldn't be farther from the truth.
It is to make sure that these arts aren't forgotten again is why I teach. The Masters of Defence wrote down their teachings for posterity, and now hundreds of years later, they have students from all over the world who study their writings diligently, and strive to put them into practice. In my own way, I try to be a fighter of whom the historical masters would not be ashamed. I'm not there yet, but maye in a decade or two.
There's also the cultural beef I have with the term "Martial Arts". The term was first used poetically to describe western rapier fencing, not Asian combat systems. Though of course the term can be applied to them as well, it is applied ONLY to them in much popular culture. That irritates me, to tell the truth.
Hopefully, I can do my part to rectify that situation.
And also, it's just fun to train with swords. And it gets more fun every time I do it! 
Best regards,
-Mark
My motivations are for teaching are the same as for pursuing the Art as a student: The European Martial Arts by and large went extinct with the rise of gunpowder, or morphed into new forms, some focusing on marksmanship or interfacing with machinery, or into those with sporting concerns being first and foremost. This left the lethal melee combat arts of Europe neglected, forgotten, and then finally dismissed by Victorian fencing historians, from whom came the popular notion of medieval knights being nothing more than crude untutored fighters. Ironically, what was considered "historical fact" couldn't be farther from the truth.
It is to make sure that these arts aren't forgotten again is why I teach. The Masters of Defence wrote down their teachings for posterity, and now hundreds of years later, they have students from all over the world who study their writings diligently, and strive to put them into practice. In my own way, I try to be a fighter of whom the historical masters would not be ashamed. I'm not there yet, but maye in a decade or two.
There's also the cultural beef I have with the term "Martial Arts". The term was first used poetically to describe western rapier fencing, not Asian combat systems. Though of course the term can be applied to them as well, it is applied ONLY to them in much popular culture. That irritates me, to tell the truth.
Hopefully, I can do my part to rectify that situation.And also, it's just fun to train with swords.
And it gets more fun every time I do it! Best regards,
-Mark
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