This is a conversation that has come up many times between myself and my students... ...I'm curious to hear from those of you who teach. How does your teaching style compare to how you were trained going up through the ranks? Did your instructor require you to do things that you would never dream of asking your students to do -- and if so, why not?!? Are there requirements that you carry on with your own students? For me, much of my teaching style comes directly from what I experienced with my Korean instructors. There are a few things that were done that I wouldnt do with my students -- the first is not hitting them with sticks if they didnt perform a technique or stance just right. That was a common occurrence. The second would be doing things like requiring new students with previous experience, to sit-out after the warm up for several weeks before allowing them to train through an entire workout, in order to see how much they really want to train with you. There are a lot of things that I do much the same as the way I was taught. I take my students out in the snow to train bare footed and with no top (the guys, of course - females wear t-shirts or sports bra's) -- I require my students to break 3 boards (stacked solid) with a punch before they can be promoted to black belt. I dont use air conditioners in the summer time. I require all of my students to learn how to read and write in Korean. I could probably go on with examples in both catagories, but I'm more interested in what you all have to say. Mike Burnett, Sa Joo Shin Koo Hapkido Yoo-Sok-Kwan Lincoln, NE
The main differences are I don't ask my students to call me Sir/guru/sifu, I ask them to work things out for themselves instead of waiting for me to tell them something's OK, If they learn something new I also get them test it that class & work out what they have to do to make it work. I also don't ask them to applaud at the end of the class. there's not really much in comon with the way I teach & the way my old instructor taught. In the last couple of year's I've been exposed to way's I feel suit me better. that's not to say that there wasn't some good in the methods he used, just that as my Philosophy's grown I don't feel they fit who I am as a coach.
I teach in my own style... based on how I was taught by my master, by my insructors in Korea and based on my experience in public school teaching. My style is not that different from my master... wetend to be serious and practical. We talk through a technique as we show it and show it several times from different angles and speeds. We then show the "what if's" and the counters. I think that by teaching in a style similar to my master's allows for an easier transition for the students. By adding my own views, activities, comments and way of doing things adds novelty and interest. It feels good whe I see another instructor teach an element in the way I taught them... and I love to see what they add to it (which in turn goes in to the way I teach it next time). I would say that among the two instructors and the master, we are similar in style but fairly different in our delivery....l which makes it more interesting for instructors and students alike. (I always participate class, regardless of who is teaching. Black belts that Pee me off are the ones who sit in the back while class or warmups are going on becaue they "aren't teaching".)
I wanted to make a separate comment on this. I don't get excited about the titles either. However, at our school, we use "sir" and "ma'am" from top to bottom (white belt to black, black belts to white) as a sign of respect. I must say that personally I like it. It shows respect between ALL students and instructors and is more professional than "Hey you". We laso use names which is good for rapport and the "feel good" factor. Something I noticed also is that without being told, the students refer to the instructors as Mr. so-an-so or Mrs. so-in-so... mainly because that's the model we show in class. Something good about this is that our students and instructors take this with them outside of the dojang as well. As far as title of sabeomnim/kwnjangnim/master/etc... we use it at the the beginning of class as in "Face the ... and bow" and we use "master" when talking about our master, even though he doesn't care for the title... he prefers to be "student" or as he's usually in charge "instructor".
Although I have had the opportunity to train extensively with more than a half dozen well known 2nd generation Korean Hap Ki Do Masters over the past twenty five years, I would have to say that only two could be considered my main instructors. Both of these men would be considered super "Hard Core" military type instructors. Fear was the dominant atmosphere in both schools. This was particularly true when dark coloured belts were the majority of students present. The sound of the bamboo sword was like a whistle in the trees EVERY DAY! However, this was far more humane then hearing them say: "Any kicking and punching try", or "you and me fighting time". Which is what you heard if you really ticked them off! Time for a beatin. Just for fun! All eight of my second Master's black Belts consider ourselves to be "survivors", in every way. It has been almost ten years of full time teaching since he awarded his 8th black belt. The vast majority of my student population has trained in martial arts before, with about one third achieving the level of black belt in one of the more popular styles, Karate (various types), Aikido, Ju-jitsu, Kung fu, and of course Tae Kwon Do. I run my school with a minimum of ritual, but maximum emphasis on the respect aspects. I treat my students as ADULTS who know why they are there. This is one of the reasons why I carefully screen ALL of my students before they are allowed to join. I learned quite early on that intimidation was the enemy of relaxation. You must be approachable. Without relaxation students did not learn as quickly or retain as much. It also develops a free fighter faster. Once a student becomes "gun shy", their future potential become limited. You must increase the various "risk" factors (intensity, heavy contact, arials, complex breakfalls..ect) in accordance with their skill, confidence and fitness levels. I keep religious, political and Korean cultural aspects to a minimum. Although I will speak at length about any Korean cultural insights I might have gleened, I personally see no point in learning how to speak and write in Korean. If you want to learn it as a skill, then that's great. But in my humble opinion, it has no bearing on the development of Hapkido skills. I spent ALL of my time with my teachers learning technique, anatomy, Ki development and free fighting theory. All of my instructors, major and minor, physically demonstrated the techniques as well as explained everything to me in various qualities of English. The only problem arrising out of this, was the fact that I must constantly be carefull to include 'articles' in my sentences when I am speaking myself. I will never ask my students to call me Master, Grandmaster or some such title. When I began organizing, training and managing security teams (20+ years ago) they called me Sir out of respect. Today, all of my students address me that way whenever or wherever they encounter me. Senior belts are not given any title or formal name. The junior level students know why these people wear dark belts..they earned them with sweat, blood and heart. One note about breaking boards for black belt. Punching to break is FAR MORE dangerous than hammer fist to break boards and with hammer fist you can demand may more boards be broken in a single blow. You might also try cross grain breaking, a favourite of both my main teachers. Begin with a single piece of 1" thick pine about two inches across the grain. They will find this a real challange! The standard in the late 1960's was the ridge hand beer bottle break. Not many instructors of this generation will accomplish this in their lifetimes. That is true Ki power, not to be tried by hobbiests.
Just a comment about teaching my students to read & write in Korean (Han-Gul)... I never used to do this. I began to see more-and-more difficulty in properly pronouncing Korean terminology not only among my own students but moreover, among the majority of the Korean style students out there. It always cracked me up when I heard the local ATA Taekwondo instructors all saying, "cha-rip, cha-nay" for "attention, bow." Or when another TKD instructor would say, "sho, chung-ray." Anyway, what I've found is that if my students can see the terminology written in Han-Gul, they are much better at correctly pronouncing it. The written language is pretty easy to learn, so its not like I'm placing a huge burden on anybody. Many instructors do not require any knowledge of the Korean language, some only require a smattering. I require my students to learn the terminology for most all of the techniques that we train with... as well as the Korean names for several dozen pressure points. I think my students would say they honesty enjoy the extra knowledge. Mike Burnett, Sa Joo Shin Koo Hapkido Yoo-Sok-Kwan Lincoln, NE
I'm just gonna add into the korean speaking part of the teaching. Most korean martial art schools that I know of have them speak in Hangul when doing warm ups counting the numbers and what not. (these are how they are pronounced) Hana (1) Doul(2) Say(3) Nay(4) tasol(5) yulsol(6) illgup(7) yuldul(8) usually up to 8 then Doul(2) Doul(2) Say(3) Nay(4) tasol(5) yulsol(6) illgup(7) yuldul(8) then back to 8. And also they teach them ofcourse how to bow yeah, Chew-di-yo (attention) Kuki (kinda like saying cookie) Kyoung-nay (Bow to the flag) Bodaroll *almost like your saying borrow* (return) Or just Kyoung-nay (bow). Par-Paco (switch feet) then you got Co-mon(enough/stop). I can tell you all know basically what you are all talking about. In our school we usually address each other as sir or mam. weither you are white belt talking to white belt black belt talking to white belt white belt talking to black belt and everything in between yellow, blue, and brown. I'm half korean and I'm mostly Korean because I was rasied by my Korean grandma she knows no english so I have to learn korean to speak with her which I and learning more every day. (My instructor will only teach the student the reading and writing of Hangul but he will teach them to speak some. Writeing and reading it only if they want to he doesn't force it on them and say you will not get the black belt if you don't know how to read and write and speak it fluent. God have mercy on the student that gos to a school like that)
About Korean in the class It's nice to have Korean terms in class and extra nice when they are pronounced correctly. However, there are a lot of great masters and instructors out there who cannot pronounce nor speak Korean, but they sure know their art. My master, for example, is the greatest teacher I have ever trained with. He spends his time practicing the art... not the language. He regrets not promouncing it better... so he usually has me teach the students little by little. The bottom line, though, is Having Korean in class is great but only if you have the time,skill and resources to teach it right. By the way, John_IHF, with no disrespect intended, one of the "problems" with Korean is that there are many words for different techniques (some Chinese based and some not)... e.g. out of the 4 books I have in front of me, the term for inside body block (as written in Korean) is a bit different in each. Additionally, even if you speak Korean very well, which you probably do, there are many dialects of Korean... Seoul dialect is the most common but some books and instructors use others. Additionally, there are 4 systems (recognized) of Romanization... leading to more problems. (One of the reasons I mention this is because the way you wrote the numbers is the non-standard/non-Seoul dialect... Hana, Dool, Set, Net, Da-seot, Yah-seot, Il-geop, Ya-deolp, Ah-heop, Yeol is the Seoul dialect and most common.) Bottom line (and by the way, John_IHF, I truly am not critisizng your post or Korean): Having proper Korean in the classroom is good, but not at the expense of good proper training (we are a school that doesn't have as much time as we'd like in the classroom!)
I understand what your saying completely My Grandmother was raised on the country side by the moutains and they all have different accents and dialect I agree with you fully there. Its nice to be able to do advanced techniques speaking with the instructor in Korean so as not to allow the new students to get exposed to the advanced techniques and continue to only work on the basics because they probly don't know Korean. In time they will learn it because they will always ask how to speak korean better just so when someone like or GM Jang Young Shil comes to our school again they are able to show him that they are learning the art as well as the language and that will impress him I'm sure it will impress korean girls . Learning new languages not only improves the understanding in culture but also allows you to expand more. Lets say you goto a Job interview and you know more then 3 languages opose to just 1 it will look alot better for you expectually if you're going to be a customer service representitive you know?
