Martial Arts:An Instructors Perspective

New students are refreshing. They are so wide-eyed and excited when they start training. They soak up everything that you teach them like sponges. It reminds me of when I started and also when I received my Black Belt. My instructor says that his best students are those who have the experience of a Black Belt and the enthusiasm of a white belt. Even after more than 10 years, I still get excited to go to class and see what things are happening that day. The only drawback I can see from the new students is that they are so hard on themselves. They have a tendency to make their mistakes personal like something is wrong with them. My hope is that they will soon see that mistakes are nothing to get worked up about. It’s okay to cut yourself some slack; especially keeping in mind that martial arts is very difficult to begin with. You’re teaching your body and brain a new set of rules and it takes time to adjust. Mistakes are sometimes the best way to learn and as such, should be appreciated.

The Black Belt worn is just a piece of cloth. That alone does not make someone a Martial Artist anymore than putting on a Fireman’s uniform makes someone able to put out fires. Neither of them can do anything without the person that wears them. These outward symbols are representation’s of the person’s core, of who they are.

I am amazed at how my sensei can maintain a high level of enthusiasm day in and day out. He holds weekly training sessions for all his instructors and at each one, he emphasizes the need to be “caring”. He says that in order to be a good instructor, we have to care about our students. With that as our foundation, we can unsure that each student will end each and every class with a sense of accomplishment. He stresses that this is what keeps them coming back for years! He couples his love for his art, with sound psychological aspects and caring. It makes sense.

We just had 12 new children begin training with us this week. It is interesting to see the different levels of excitement from the kids. They ranged from completely excited to bored to absolutely freaked out. This is the exciting part for me as an instructor: there’s no telling which one’s of them will not stay with us very long and which one’s will be around for a long time.  There is no way to determine any of that on their first day and kids have a remarkable way of surprising you. I’m looking forward to being part of their development.

This week I find myself recognizing another change in my perspective. Some of my reasons for continuing to teach are different from the reasons that I started with. Here are the current ones:

• I’m challenged each and every time I teach
• Despite years of training, my personal expectations keep going up
• I am constantly impressed by my sensei
• More and more people are impressed by me
• I am impressed by the students
• There is still unlimited potential for me as a student, and instructor

I’ve gotten to the point where I can identify most of the student’s strengths and weaknesses. I have an emotional investment in them feeling good about themselves as they train. I feel as though I’m losing my concern over ‘myself” and focusing more on their improvement. I’m not so focused on how good or bad I’m doing teaching each class. Rather, I want them to feel good about their improvement and themselves. It is a very liberating transition.

I’ve noticed something lately about the adult students that I teach. It seems as though most of the adults that get into martial arts are very exacting and demanding on themselves. They are exacting in the fact that they have entered into a sport/hobby that requires specific movements to be successful in certain situations. This is a tremendous amount of pressure to put on themselves on a daily and weekly basis. Most people would not dream of making their lives more difficult by participating in such a venture, but the MA does. Also, due to their detailed natures, the adult students on not very forgiving of themselves when they make a mistake. While whatever specific move they are doing at the moment is very simple, they need to keep in mind that they know thousands of such small moves. The overlooking or improper execution of one of those is miniscule when taken as a whole. I guess that all us practitioners suffer from the same drive to better ourselves.

I’ve recently found that my perspective as an instructor has changed. I have gotten to the point where I’m very comfortable with most teaching situations that come up. This has allowed me to be extremely focused on the needs of each student that I’m teaching. On any given day, I will find myself  instructing one-on-one as well as leading groups of students. The one-on-ones are currently very easy for me.  With regard to the groups, I am now able to utilize the school’s mirrors to oversee that groups as I lead them. This is exceptionally challenging due to the fact that all activity is reversed from my perspective. Additionally, the larger the group, the farther away the students in the back row are and the more difficult for me to observe. My focus while leading is to ensure the group is following properly and to identify when one or more students are having problems. I need to alter the pace as needed while ensuring that the more capable students are still adequately engaged and interested. I’ve learned from my sensei that the key to successful teaching is making each class interesting for all and not leaving anyone feeling left behind.  It is a balancing act that I am becoming more at ease with. My new goal is to help the other instructors attain this level of comfort with their teaching.

I’ve often wondered why, even after 10 years, I am still driven to continue training. In my time I’ve seen many people attain their Black Belt and then abandon the upkeep of their arts. I have been taught that my martial arts is like boiling water, the heat must be maintained or it cools. I do know that when I train, there is a brief period of satisfaction followed closely by another strong desire to do better. It’s usually no longer than 12 hours after my last session that the urge to practice something strikes me. Maybe it’s the idea that my art emanates from me and and I give it form by my practice of it. I am fully aware that, realistically, there is no end to my art and I can always learn more. I am also perfectly content to keep going on like this for the rest of my life. For me, the journey is so enjoyable that I hope I never reach a destination.

I have been fortunate to experience physical altercations both in the dojo as well as the outside world. Not to say that I am a trouble-maker, but my career for the last ten years involved dealing with potentially violent people. The reason that I believe I am fortunate is because my training and my career have helped me overcome my fear of getting hurt. It is true that many/most people are afraid of getting hurt physically. While this is not a bad thing, it often keeps people from reaching their full potential. I have learned that the human body is a remarkable thing. It is designed to take an incredible amount of punishment and continue functioning. Furthermore, I now know that I may be struck by someone and it will not necessarily incapacitate me. The only way that I was able to learn this is by getting hit…and kicked…and thrown. After a while, it just becomes commonplace and easily accepted. Fear of pain is a powerful motivator but overcoming that fear is liberating. That fact is true in all aspects of life.