Being an instructor makes you a better martial artist

Luther unleashed · Brown Belt

Being a teacher of martial arts, makes you a far better, martial artist. The reasons are simple and I would like to break them down as simple as possible.

For one thing, I believe that most martial artists would agree that one of the most important thing that you should have to be effective in your martial art is a very strong foundation in the basics. When teaching it did not even become clear to me, how many times I will go over the basics from teaching students about the structure of the stances and why it is important to throwing a jab or a roundhouse or executing some of the most basic, fighting combinations, or kata to even executing the most basic defense when somebody mounts on top of you. It took about seven or eight years before I finally started to say holy cow I’m getting burned out a little bit on teaching, the same beginning techniques over and over. The list to say you will become quite good at the basic and most simple techniques and this goes into a very famous Bruce Lee idea which was I do not fear the man who knows 10,000 kicks but I fear the man who knows one kick and practiced it 10,000 times.

Another thing is that there is a heightened sense when demonstrating to ensure that you have 100% proper technique. This could mean the angle of your arm in a block or it could mean the positioning of your body and shoulders and hips, when throwing a strike, or the pivot of your foot on a kick. Knowing that you are being watched and these days probably recorded definitely makes you hyper focus on ensuring you demonstrate proper technique.

Lastly, I believe the teaching is a tremendous responsibility to represent not just the art in the proper light, but humanity, which is an important component of martial arts. It is in this way, that we continue to progress more deeply, and meaningfully in the hearts by always being on our toes, so to speak Representing the core values that are so important.

Please let me know your thoughts. For those teaching longer than me I am quite interested in what you have to say, and for those teaching last time to me, I am equally as interested of where you are at in your journey, and if you see things differently than myself. I have been teaching Since 2014.
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bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

I agree completely. I really believe I started making improvements in all aspects of my Martial Arts when I started teaching on a more regular basis. Attention to detail becomes so important, because you have so many eyes watching you demonstrate all the time. And they students will attempt to do it the way you showed, so it has to be spot-on.

Another aspect it that it makes you more flexible in your thinking and approach to teaching. It's easy for us to teach things the way we learned them, but at times we have to pivot because not everyone learns the same way. Sometimes we have to find different verbal or physical cues to get a concept across. This is a great thing, as it expands our thoughts and can even force us to talk to other instructors for methods and approaches that have worked for them. The more ways we can see the same thing, the better we make ourselves.

I'm a big believer in the adage, "When one teaches, two learn."
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Luther unleashed · Brown Belt

“When one teaches, two learn”! Wow that is an awesome saying!
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Hustle and hard work are a substitute for talent!

aurik · KF Sempai

KarateKen · Green Belt

Luther unleashed · Brown Belt

sensei8 · KF Sensei

ryanryu · Yellow Belt

This has been my experience as well. I really enjoyed running a club and it is a totally different experience when YOU are the Sensei. Even though I had taught often at my home dojo, when I was the CI I felt so much more responsibility for my students, like Luther said. I wanted them to be safe, I didn’t want them to misuse the art, and I wanted training to be a positive experience for them - nothing I had thought about when I was the student.

It also made me think hard about the skill of teaching. What made sense to introduce at what ranks? What does progression look like? How do you connect new and old requirements? My old sensei used to say the best thing Miyagi did was organize Goju-ryu into a syllabus. For me, teaching Goju-ryu forced me to “organize” the style in my mind in a similar way. Huge perspective shift.

I also got a lot better at saying "I don't know" and "Let me think about that more"! Those have been pretty handy life skills to have lol
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ashworth · Brown Belt

I also find that your knowledge and understanding of techniques will grow as your students encounter issues that you haven't come across before.

Being a karate-ka that started from the age of 5, when it came to start thinking about what I was actually doing the techniques just seems to come naturally, and because of this when I started teaching, students would hit speed bumps where something doesn't quite seem right and I struggled to identify some of these, as for me it just felt natural. I feel like you almost have to learn the mistakes and how to solve them.

Overtime you learn all the common mistakes and have tricks up your sleeve to help solve them, then every now and then someone will come along with a new mistake you haven't encountered yet, just to give you something to think about...
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Ashley Aldworth

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bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

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