Your First Impression...

ashworth · Brown Belt

I had an idea suddenly come to me for an interesting topic, hopefully it hasn't been discussed before, apologies if it has!

What was your first impression of your sensei/instructor, (if you remember) what were they doing at the time when you first saw them.

If you have had a number of different instructors feel free to talk about them all.
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Ashley Aldworth

Train together, Learn together, Succeed together...

Safroot · Pre-Black Belt

When I first saw my instructor he was teaching a kids class and I was impressed how good he was with kids in general & how he was encouraging / tuning their techniques !
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"The Martial Arts begin with a point and end in a circle."
Sosai Mas Oyama founder of Kyokushin Karate.

JR 137 · Black Belt

My first impression of my former sensei was he reminded me of Sensei Kreese from the Cobra Kai! Seriously, he looked just like him.

He was an excellent karateka and teacher. I saw him break down what looked like complex things into smaller and simpler steps, then taught the students to put it together in an understandable way. Another thing that stood out was that it wasn't about him, it was about getting the students to do things correctly.

I signed up after the first class I watched. And I wasn't there to sign up or even evaluate it; I was there as my girlfriend's ride (she joined about 2 months prior). Funny thing is after about 4 months I was the only one still training. She had more important things to do, and was always "going to start again next month."

My current CI was different, yet the same in many ways. My first impression of him was that he had a quiet dignity about him. I got to the dojo unannounced about a half hour before the first class started. We sat and talked about my previous training (he trained under my original sensei's teacher), people we mutually knew, and about his organization and dojo. He didn't have a bad thing to say about anyone nor anything. Watching him teach class sealed the deal. He made appropriate corrections in an appropriate way, had the genuine respect of everyone on the floor, had a logical way/order of running the class, and the students were all quite good despite several of them obviously not being great athletes. Being a certified physical education teacher, I had specific things I was looking for, a teacher evaluating a teacher if you will, and he hit every point I thought a teacher should. Being older and looking like he needed a hip replacement, I didn't hold his lack of ability in certain things against him. What's the point, so long as he can get me to do what I need to do? It was quite obvious that could do it all at one point and can teach his students how to do it now.

I was right about him needing a hip replacement. He's had both replaced in the past, and is still putting off having the one that's bothering him replaced again.

Alan Armstrong · Black Belt

I have had many MA teachers. The one that sticks out in my mind is the Tai Chi teacher and his wife that taught alongside him; they came from Hong Kong.

He had been practicing and teaching Tai Chi for forty years.

He was very humble about his skills. What he transferred to me with his teachings has been with me for more than twenty years.

His wife privately told me a story about him.

She had just finished cleaning the kitchen floor and her husband showed up. She told him that he cannot come in because the floor had just been cleaned. Instead of going around the house to get inside, he walked across the kitchen in the upright hand stand position.

My first impression of my Tai Chi teacher will always be that he is full of surprises.

As he put it "I must know something by now"

He was however full of martial art treasures with his stories of ancient China and Tai Chi Chuan practice of coordination with meditation through harmonious body movements.

Spartacus Maximus · Black Belt

My instructor was like a character from a movie. The perfect stereotype of a little wise old sensei with unexpected and amazing skills. At 70 years old, he is in phenomenal shape and trains every day.

The most impressive thing was that he explained in a way that is rare for martial arts teachers. Very scientific, especially for things like body mechanics. Perhaps what makes him a great instructor is more how he teaches than anything else. He is very good at showing how and why everything works and getting people to understand quickly what they should strive for when training.

Nidan Melbourne · KF Sempai

I thought he was pretty cool, but i was more nervous than anything

sensei8 · KF Sensei

It was 1964; I was only seven years old at that time.

The first time that I met Takahashi Sensei, I was frightened out of my gourd. A strange place with strange people doing strange things all being lead by a strange man. I didn’t understand anything!! Not only didn't I understand the comings and goings of the dojo, but worse off, I didn't have a minimum of an idea as to anything, not one word. Mainly, that’s because I didn’t speak any Japanese at all, and Sensei spoke very little English, if any at all. Any of the English that Sensei did speak; it was disjointed so much, that I found it very hard to make any sense of anything he said. The majority of the time, Sensei would bark out his commands entirely in Japanese, laced with some English here and there, along with a great amount of animated finger pointing. I found myself doing a lot of push-ups because each and every time that Sensei would try his hand at speaking any English, I’d laugh out loud. I couldn't help myself. This infuriated Sensei so much, not because I was making fun of him with my overboard laughter, but for the fact that I was being disrespectful to my fellow students, and more importantly, to the Hombu. Sometimes I need more than one brick to hit me on my knuckle-head before I’d get the idea.

Sensei was larger than life! He expected a certain mannerism from each of his guests to the Hombu, even more so when Soke was on the floor. They both commanded a certain behavior from the Student Body at all time, no matter the age. Not only did they both command certain things from the Student Body, but from their guests as well; they both not only required it, they both received it at all times.

Allow me a moment or two while I try to describe Sensei to you. When I first met him, he looked like a Japanese rock star. His dark black hair was lustrous; flowing and shoulder length. He was taller than most Japanese men; five foot and eleven inches. His was tanned: skin with a healthy golden-brown tint, and I’d say that his face was more round than oval, with an unblemished texture to it; yet quite rugged. His black eyes were an orchestration to behold, and by that, his eyes were piercing, mesmerizing, sad, sorrowful, tear-filled, gentle, sympathetic, warm, compassionate, expressive, twinkling, lively, dancing, and laughing, but all at the same time. His thin lips were quick to laugh, smile, grin, and beam, but depending on the situation, he could be found to frown, grimace, and scowl as well. He wore no mustache at any time; however he did have sideburns running down to his mid-ear in length. His body was muscularly toned, and by that, one could easily tell that he worked out often. His gait was purposeful without any reservation at all; he was aware of his entire surroundings at all times.

As one who would’ve expected it with someone at the wiry age in their upper seventies, Sensei’s appearance changed slowly over the past four decades that I’ve knew him, but, he wore his advanced age quite well. His hair, although it was much shorter than when I first met him; closely-cropped, his hair was still that dark black hair, but it had an ever so slight of a hint of salt-and-pepper. His skin still bore that golden-brown tint, even though one could see his age upon his face, still, it wasn’t as paper-thin or translucent, yet it wasn’t heavily wrinkled. His black eyes could still bore a hole right through you with that piercing glare; however, I could still see the orchestration was alive and well. With his smile, the hardest of soul would still melt, but at the same time, that scowl would stop the foolish in their tracks. His body continued to be a "work in progress, just like my karate-do”, and in that, at seventy-six, two years before his death, his physique and appearance were unsettlingly youthful. Although he still walked as a man quite sure of himself; his stride was slightly shorter than from his youth.

It's save to say that while I feared him at first, I grew up to love him more and more, and not as just my Sensei, but more as my surrogate father, ever since my mom and dad divorced many years before I ever meet my Sensei!!

I miss him so much!!

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**Proof is on the floor!!!

MatsuShinshii · Black Belt

The first impression I had of my Shinshii was him teaching Bunkai for Pinan Shodan. A simple non-complex Kata, at least that is what I thought at the time, that he made seem ridiculously complex.

The first style of Karate I took as a kid was within our lineage line, a sister art if you will, and they had never demonstrated the applications or defined what the postures/movements actually meant. I was a Nikyu when I joined his school and was awestruck by the way he moved and what he was teaching. It was the first time I got why we were learning Kata. Before then it was just something I had to learn to grade and had next to no interest in it. After that first night I never looked back.

I guess you could say he changed my life and my total perspective on the arts. He gave what I was doing purpose and meaning. He showed me that it wasn't about standing in line and shouting at the top of our lungs. He showed me the underlying, what some call hidden, meaning and lit the spark that burns in me to this day.

My first impression? Blown away!dumbfounded! Awestruck!

He became my mentor and my hero over the years but at that moment I believed he could walk up the wall, punch through steel and if he chose to, change the rotation of the earth by walking the other way. I was amazed by his skill and knowledge and to this day that feeling has never subsided.
That one moment changed the course of my life and drove me to aspire to be like him.

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