Comments on: My Way of Teaching – Hate It Or Love It

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:12:31 +0000

Hi, Jesse: I know this is in the archive, but just came across your site and really enjoyed this article. As a karate student and high school teacher ready to begin another school year, your insight helped me to better appreciate both arts–martial and instructional–at at time when I’m feeling in a bit of a rut. Thanks for your perspective; I’ll remember that I have just as much–if not more–to gain from teaching as my students!

By: Igor

Igor — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:42:42 +0000

I agree with Ed, people today get everything on a silver platter, and just don’t know how to appreciate… In my country (it was a part of a bigger one – Yugoslavia, before) karate in the time when my sensei started just came, and had its blast but it was really hard and expensive to get to a seminar (which lasted for 23 + days, not 2 or 3 as day have it now), and were much tougher and quite expensive, so you had to piss blood as we say to learn anything. So I guess it is quite a downer when you see someone quit without appreciating you, and spend his days just drinking coffee and beer in some caffe (as most of the young people do here)…

By: Ed

Ed — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:42:20 +0000

Teaching is a personal choice for every instructor and there will be a continuum of reasons why instructors teach. Some will get fullfilment from instructing while other will train with the students and bond with them. Whichever their reason an instructor has, that is their choice and I can’t critize them for their choice or comment on which is better. I think that what Zenpo Shimabukuro’s comment was towards; why should he stress himself to teach someone that won’t show respect or gratitude for what the teacher has done for them. This is something that I think is lost in our present culture, the understanding that learning karate is an honour that the student needs to appreciate the effort sensei’s go through to teach. Some student’s will put a lower value on instructions than what sensei’s put on the instructions that they give and my impression is that is what bothered him.

By: Igor

Igor — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:41:59 +0000

The way of karate is the way of returning (or revisiting, kinda of hard to translate to English) my sensei always says, and what is there a better way of refurbishing your basics (which are well… basic::)), then through teaching others and seeing all the little details, and learning about you through others?::)
Thanks for yet another awesome post Jesse – san::)

By: Narda

Narda — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:41:19 +0000

Yes. That’s it: friend. The people who committ to training WITH you, the feedback that occurs when folks train together, these people are in essense some of your best friends. How can one not care about them?