METHOD OF INSTRUCTION “Ichi! Ni! San! Yamae! Ichi! Ni! San! Mawatte! Ichi! Ni! San!” Stop! Turn! But do not twitch! Repeat, repeat, repeat! There has never been a more tried and true method of drilling instant reaction than obeying a command.
Even within a specific style of a specific art, there can be as many methods of instruction as there are schools.
Three general methods seem to summarize them however: 1.
Some instructors just inherit their method as if it were part of the style itself.
Others seek out or stumble upon different methods which more efficiently help them reach their goals.
In order to consciously choose a method of teaching, instructors must state their goals, at least to themselves.
Depending on the makeup of this ideal, each instructor may favor one of the three methods over the others.
The art was “Ancient” Japanese, so the method must be similarly Japanese and ancient.
Our dojo represented all three major teaching methods in three separate teachers.
There are many approaches to teaching a style, and none of the above methods by itself is wrong or right.
One method may be perfect to attain one concept of “The ideal student”, but it is difficult if not impossible to integrate all the methods and each type of ideal into a program intended to produce the complete martial artist, an holistic ideal.
Too often teachers who claim their students will become completely-integrated-artists-possessing-all-talents use only one method to attain this goal.
It is a mixed method which I tried to bring to my own dojo.
If I were to judge other methods of teaching, if I were to alter my own, I wanted to do so with a logical argument.
Classical budo’s main emphasis is spiritual The method of teaching this spiritual state, and thus enlightenment, is the zen method: intuition through imitation.
In short, the zen method dispenses with idea of principles and of effectiveness.
There are also advantages to the zen method of training.
Too much reliance on combative method produces the “Competitive mind” which is a positive thing to have in combat, but can be self-destructive since it leaves the trainee in a constant state of frustration; he must always have someone to better.
This misunderstandings which have produced today’s inherited methods of teaching have also blinded the adherents to the fact that they are not necessarily ancient ways of teaching.
The goal is an honorable one, but too often this is done without an attempt to also change the “Traditional” method of teaching.
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