Standby.....

[malk103]

Attended a 50th Birthday party/drink tonight for one of our keen students who has just earnt his Green belt, the grading was last weekend.
Spoke to a lot of our more keener students tonight who really liked the faster tempo practiced recently in an attempt to get some fire into some of our senior grades, they all agreed that speed and hard work were the key so tomorrow's lesson in Bath will be a little bit "faster"......

When I was in London recently I had a really good lesson where speed and hard work was the norm, some of our lessons tend to get bogged down by a few or the fact that we try to cram too much into a lesson.
Sometimes you just have to get on with it!

[tomobrien]

Congrats on the green belt

[Paul Bedard]

Mal look at how experienced that you are getting. Good for you. I really enjoy it when my students are able to follow well enough that they `run out of gas` & by their smiles at the end of class so do they. When their legs get so heavy that they can barely lift them, is a great time to say o.k. 5 more with `kiai`. When they are gasping for air, I like to do a deep breath ( long inhale & long exhale ) & one more kata. This is a good time to talk for a moment, about what ever point that you would like to make & when you notice that their breathing rate is recovering, it`s time to get going again.
Sweaty gi, make good instructor!!

Oh & of course congrats to those that suceeded in their grading!!

Osu

Paul B

[Bob Davis]

I'm going to be Mr grumpy at Christmas now (bah! humbug!) ;D

Sweaty gi, make good instructor!!

Pardon me for saying this out loud but, "what cobblers!" Any fool can run an aerobics session and run people into the ground. I'm all in favour of a good sweaty session and also normally have the idiot grin at the end but if all you do is drill people until they are ready to drop then you are not teaching them much. If I misunderstood the quote however I would say that if the students are going to sweat then the instrutor should sweat more! (although I can break a sweat getting out of a chair so that's no big trick .

It's all about balance, make e'm sweat sometimes, make 'em think others. On the other hand, if hard work is what floats their boat at this stage then keep them at it until they are ready to learn as well.

[Paul Bedard]

O.K. Mr. Grumpy have it your way!!! lol

To clarify my statement, in no way am I suggesting that the best way to run your classes is to continuously work your students to the ground. However as Bob mentioned `Balance` is necessary, I like the quote` Think sometimes & sweat sometimes`. However, there are times when we need to just do `action without thought` or `Reflex` per say.
Conditioning is a very important part of training. Take 2 people of equal skill & put them together in a bout. The one who runs out of gas first will loose..

Osu

Paul B

[Bob Davis]

Ok, no argument about that

[malk103]

A good balance!

In the end we got moving but eventually settled down when starting to teach their new Kata, on some of the "wierd" parts I like to show a few applications to help them get it.

Tonight we had to use a smaller hall so we did lots of static work and Kata applications again (different students)

Thanks for the tips!

[jimlukelkc]

Mal, I have taught for some 25 years and if I was to give you any advice it would be to keeep learning. Too often I have seen instructors who stop learning and therefore just regurgitate the same stale lessons year on year. Never be afraid to disgard old training methods in favour of new inovations and research and develop your karate. If you can give well thought out and realistic explanations to your students they will respect your knowledge. If you can admit to gaps in your knowledge but come back with a clarification by the next lesson, they wil respect your integrity and commitment.

[malk103]

Thanks Jim, that's sound advice!

I still train 2 or 3 times a week and keep my own Kata up. In addition i'm always looking out to increase my knowledge and to go and train with others.