Success And Failure As An Instructor

A Success

Yesterday in the Level 1 Young Dragons, I was asked by a student what the white stripe was for.  I might have easily answered "The white stripe is your 6 harmonies, and that means your forms".  But I hesitated.  We've been talking alot as instructors about how we need to not be so focused on specifics of the syllabus.  We don't want the students (or ourselves) to simplify the striping system to such a degree that it becomes a checklist.  As mentioned in a recent article by Sifu Brinker, we don't want to train in, or teach from, a silo.  Instead, we want to help the students (and ourselves) realize how everything within the curriculum, and the syllabus, is connected.  And we want to help students connect the dots in order to expand their opportunity for progress and growth.

So instead, I challenged my own thinking and changed my answer to "Well, the white stripe is our 6 harmonies.  And specific to what we are working on today...."

I went on to explain a little about the external harmonies (hands/feet/elbows/knees/shoulders/hips) and showed her how that would work specifically with the choke defense that we were learning.  How it's not just our arm performing the technique...but also our legs, feet, entire body really.  And by having everything working together, in harmony, we maximize the efficacy of the technique.  I did not get into the internal harmonies and tried to keep my explanation short and "level/age appropriate".  I was pleased in that she seemed to understand and began to utilize more of her body.  And I could tell in her expression, that she felt the difference and was happier with the results afterwards.

I was happy I made the attempt to answer her question about a stripe by using what we were working on in that moment as the example.  This is a practice I will continue as I can see the benefit to the student, and to myself.

A Failure

Later on with the Level 2s, I was leading the class and was going to progress the choke defense to a small taste of how it could lead to an arm bar.  I was not happy with how my explanation went.  Reflecting on this afterwards, I could see a couple reasons for this.  The first is confidence.  Half way into the explanation, I realized that I was lacking confidence in my words.  And that, to me, means that this is something I need to be practicing more myself, before I will have a good ability to teach it.  The second factor was that I had Sihing Burke and Sidai Csillag demo this for me.  I'm still favoring my foot and didn't want to risk an accidental twist.  In hindsight, I think that I may have done better with the explanation if I had actually been doing the demo physically as well.  Or, alternatively, it would have been better if one of them had explained and demo'd so they could have stopped, gone slower, moved around, etc, in real time with their explanation.  Either way, I will remember this in future so I can adjust my instruction to best serve the students.