Post by Bob Davis on Jul 20, 2016 11:47:42 GMT
Since we seem to be getting some traffic on the forum these days lets see if we can keep it going
Below is a recent post I made on my facebook page but given the current increase in people making a name for themselves teaching "outside the box" it might be worth thinking about.
I then followed up shortly after with
Below is a recent post I made on my facebook page but given the current increase in people making a name for themselves teaching "outside the box" it might be worth thinking about.
Now here's an interesting conundrum.
I will be teaching a session (or maybe two) at this years Bunkai Bash (tickets still available BTW, if you are not going then you should ) and one of the provisos of your session is that it is "your own work". Not having a pop here because that's fair enough if you are presenting yourself in front of others but it did start me thinking.
What is my own work?
I have quite a body of stuff that I teach now but to claim that is "all my own work" would be disingenuous to say the least. Like pretty well anybody out there who's teaching, what I know is the sum of my learning and influences over the years, if you were to break it down, even the drills and applications I have devised from the ground up will have come from what I have learned from others at some point, either as a technique or principle or even just the germ of an idea.
I was helping out at (one of) Brian Bate's dojos the other night teaching his Heian Nidan drill to a small group, it transpired that I had interpreted differently to the way Brian intended and, with hind sight, it was on the back of an idea that I learned from Rakesh Patel. Now, who's work does that make it, Brian's or Kesh's, certainly not mine but I will teach it that way because I prefer the opportunities it presents to me (not right or wrong, just different ), so, although very similar, it is now no longer Brian's original drill. How much does it need to change before it becomes mine and does that mean I'm stealing his idea's or developing from what I have learned?
My Tekki drills contain elements and ideas I've learned from Andi Kidd and from Iain Abernethy plus some stuff that I think I made up myself, but must have got from somewhere in the first place.
I am currently training with John Titchen quite a lot and I have no doubt that some of his stuff will work it's way into my teaching at some point, either consciously or unconsciously, it is inevitable (and what's the point of learning from others if this isn't going to happen)
Sorry about all the name dropping but it's part of the point I'm trying to make. Virtually everything we teach we have learned elsewhere, once knowledge is released into the wide world who does it actually belong to?
(BTW, this is not the same as just copying someone else's work 100% and pasting your own name onto it, just sayin' )
I will be teaching a session (or maybe two) at this years Bunkai Bash (tickets still available BTW, if you are not going then you should ) and one of the provisos of your session is that it is "your own work". Not having a pop here because that's fair enough if you are presenting yourself in front of others but it did start me thinking.
What is my own work?
I have quite a body of stuff that I teach now but to claim that is "all my own work" would be disingenuous to say the least. Like pretty well anybody out there who's teaching, what I know is the sum of my learning and influences over the years, if you were to break it down, even the drills and applications I have devised from the ground up will have come from what I have learned from others at some point, either as a technique or principle or even just the germ of an idea.
I was helping out at (one of) Brian Bate's dojos the other night teaching his Heian Nidan drill to a small group, it transpired that I had interpreted differently to the way Brian intended and, with hind sight, it was on the back of an idea that I learned from Rakesh Patel. Now, who's work does that make it, Brian's or Kesh's, certainly not mine but I will teach it that way because I prefer the opportunities it presents to me (not right or wrong, just different ), so, although very similar, it is now no longer Brian's original drill. How much does it need to change before it becomes mine and does that mean I'm stealing his idea's or developing from what I have learned?
My Tekki drills contain elements and ideas I've learned from Andi Kidd and from Iain Abernethy plus some stuff that I think I made up myself, but must have got from somewhere in the first place.
I am currently training with John Titchen quite a lot and I have no doubt that some of his stuff will work it's way into my teaching at some point, either consciously or unconsciously, it is inevitable (and what's the point of learning from others if this isn't going to happen)
Sorry about all the name dropping but it's part of the point I'm trying to make. Virtually everything we teach we have learned elsewhere, once knowledge is released into the wide world who does it actually belong to?
(BTW, this is not the same as just copying someone else's work 100% and pasting your own name onto it, just sayin' )
I then followed up shortly after with
A case in point just came up, I just purchased Don Came's DVD "The Kissaki Method" (which is excellent BTW) but half way through found the consistent use of a finish that I made up entirely in my head for use in my Tekki drill a couple of years back (I knew that because I'd never seen it before anywhere else ).
I have never trained with Mr Came or any Kissaki people but if you saw the technique and it's use you'd swear it was the same thing (and I have no doubt that they've been using it for donkey's years before I ever thought of it).
Like Brian says "there's only so many ways to skin a cat" and a sound martial principle will assert itself if you train correctly. So even my own work isn't my own work it would seem.
I have never trained with Mr Came or any Kissaki people but if you saw the technique and it's use you'd swear it was the same thing (and I have no doubt that they've been using it for donkey's years before I ever thought of it).
Like Brian says "there's only so many ways to skin a cat" and a sound martial principle will assert itself if you train correctly. So even my own work isn't my own work it would seem.