Tag Archives: teaching

Downtime

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The observant (or perennially bored) among you will have noticed that I haven’t updated much lately around here. There are a few reasons why, but the short version is that I’ve had a lot of stuff go on lately away from Internet Land, and not much of it has been nice. It’s been a very trying and upsetting time for my family and me, but there are breaks in the cloud now and things seem to be getting better.

On a training front, I haven’t got a lot to report really. I’ve unfortunately had to miss some seminars that I’d have loved to have been at, but that can’t be helped and I look forward to the next chances I get to go away and train. My own class is still going well too, albeit with a minimal number of students for now. It would be really easy to look at that as a negative, but that’d just drag me down, so I’m focusing on the positives from it. With a small number of students I’ve been lucky enough to spend a lot of time working on specifics, and giving a lot of attention to the things I can see which need addressing, and I’m hoping that what we lack in numbers at the next grading, we make up for in quality.

When I first knew the class was going to be opening on a Friday, I was a bit sad to be losing one of my own training sessions each week to run it. I thought I’d really miss putting on my dobok, standing with the others and working up a sweat. So far though when it’s come to it, I haven’t really had a chance to feel like that. From start to finish I’m completely engaged, constantly thinking, analysing and trying to adapt what I had planned to what’s happening in the dojang. I’m sure as time goes on it’ll become more instinctive and organic, with less detailed planning and more adaptation, but for now the challenge is great.

It’s really quite interesting now that I take some time out to sit and think about it as I write this, because it’s yet another aspect of Tang Soo Do I’d never really thought about before. We do a lot of work on the Internal and External as we progress through the gup grades and beyond, and teaching is yet another area where it applies. When I train on a Wednesday or Sunday now, my focus is very much internal. I’m thinking about me. How is my form? Am I applying this correctly? Are my stances good? When I’m stood in front of a class though it’s all about the people in front of me, and I’m asking the same questions of them in my head. I’m getting a lot better at pacing a class, knowing what time it is roughly and how long I have left, but I still have a few moments of thinking ‘oops, I haven’t checked the clock for ages, what time is it??’. I’m hoping the attention I pay to the moment is seen as a good thing by the people stood in front of me, I can think of nothing worse for them after paying money to be taught, to think my attention is elsewhere. Respect is a two-way street, it needs to be earned.

School Days

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My own Tang Soo Do class started last week, and today’s the second time I open the doors to the unsuspecting public. It was a really odd feeling turning up last week and being responsible for opening the doors, making sure everything was ready, coming up with a decent lesson plan (some of which was ad-libbed) and realising that none of the familiar senior faces weren’t going to be there. The only thing I can really compare it to is that first time you get in a car by yourself after passing your driving test. Daunting but with a certain sense of freedom and responsibility. It’s strange to be driving in the opposite direction of my normal Friday class though, knowing that everyone else is still there training together.

Despite it being a small class (and I was never expecting anything else) it was good fun and a good first test of my ability to control a class and to keep it running without any big breaks. Keeping the energy levels up in the room is difficult and necessary, that’s going to be the hardest part to learn and continue. Things like Ho Sin Sool are difficult at the 10th gup level, because it’s very basic stuff (relatively speaking of course), and much slower paced than sparring or pad drills. I suppose with my TSD head on I should be talking more in terms of Um and Yang, and how the slow pace is good to give students a chance to catch their breath after the hard work :) .

One of the things I’m very aware of now is just how important these first few months are going to be in any student’s development. This is where the first stages of muscle memory are going to develop, and it’s important to iron out any bad habits before they take hold, or at least to try. I find it interesting now when I look around a class to see the small idiosyncrasies and differences between similar grades. Sometimes it’s almost imperceptible what those differences are, but you could show a class full of people in silhouette and out of focus and be able to identify people by the way they perform a move. So for me it’s going to be important to make sure legs are locked out (god knows I’m guilty of this enough myself), hands aren’t opening and closing, techniques finish where they should, shi sun is level and consistent etc. Obviously these aren’t things I’m going to be hammering-down on as such in the early days, but where possible and where I spot things happening I want to try to nip it in the bud.

I dare say in just a years time I’ll be able to look back at this post and think ‘boy did I have that wrong!’, but only time will tell. They say there’s no substitute for experience after all!

Fresher? I Wish!

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For some reason I’ve not been able to get any proper rest for days and days now. I sleep, but i wake up with my head already spinning with stuff and it feels like I need to go back to bed immediately. I’m convinced that a combination of this, the changing light and the fact I can grow hair just about anywhere (the first one to mention the top of my head gets a beating) is an indication that I may in fact be part bear. I’m not sure what the other part must be, but sadly it doesn’t seem to be shark, and I don’t feel 7000% deadly.

I attended the Freshers’ Fair yesterday at the college closest to my hopeful catchment area for my branch of the club, and it went as well as I’d hoped for. We were a bit out of the way, stuck up on the first floor in a small room with the NHS, a bank, the Samaritans and people like that (including a stand for a local nightclub with a girl in hotpants who really looked like she had no idea where she was, let alone what she was meant to be doing there), but the students seemed to come through in small herds. I’m pretty sure the collective noun for a group of students is a herd. What was nice was that most of the people who put their names on our sign-up sheet seemed genuinely interested. I’ve contacted them all now, just to let them know that a) I’m not some weirdo collecting peoples’ details (I’m not!), and b) that I’ll be in regular contact until the club opens. I’m indebted to those who came along to support me, I think if I was there on my own all day it would have been a bit more nerve-making, not to mention a lot less fun :) .

I’m hoping to have the club up and running in around four weeks, and with a venue that already seems likely I’m starting to get excited. I’m not starting until then as it gives me a chance to sort out all the things I’ll need to get going, and also gets the British Championships out of the way. I wouldn’t want to get everyone in for a lesson and then immediately lose the momentum by buggering off for a week. The British should be good fun though, I’m really keen to compete again, even if my nerves at the time will be jangling and my stomach doing somersaults. The good thing about being a Dan grade at these events is that I tend to have to help out with running the mats now it seems, which gives me less time to worry. There’s probably an argument to say it gives you less time to prepare too, but as far as I’m concerned all of the preparation will be between now and the day. Trying to go over forms too much on the day of a competition normally results in me forgetting the simplest of things, I work a lot better when I’m in automatic mode.

I feel like I should give Murphy a little shout out as he doesn’t get many column inches here these days, but he’s been an absolute little star at agility lately. He seems to have come on in leaps and bounds (oh the punnery!) over the last couple of months, and with the exception of some particularly smelly places on the field, nothing seems to distract him any more. When we started training there were a couple of small Cocker Spaniels who he was head-over-heels in love with, so much so that I had to change classes as he wasn’t getting anything done other than ignored by the focal points of his adoration. But now I think he’s just about ready to get officially measured (to see if he goes into small or medium classification) and entered in a competition. The only thing I’m not too convinced about is his entry into weaves. Dog agility has a lot of different obstacles: Jumps (including jump-through tyres), tunnels, A-Frame/dog-walks, see-saws and weave poles. Weave poles are quite easy once they’re in and going, but finding the entrance is the hard part. Your dog has to enter the very first pair from the right, anything else counts as a fault, and Murph has trouble finding that first pair at full speed or from an angle. Once we crack that though, look out world.

I say ‘world’, I mean the relatively small world of local dog agility.

Novice division.

My golden boy taking a well-earned break on Monday evening

:)

A Long Week

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Well, it’s Friday, and it’s the Friday at the end of a very long week. I’m not sure why it’s felt so long, but I swear it’s lasted about ten days so far. With the squad training session on Sunday, dog agility on Monday, training Wednesday, teaching/training on Thursday and more training tonight (all on top of a very stressful week at work), it’s been quite tiring. There’s a Gup grading on Sunday which sees two people go for first gup, and that’s a big step, so I really feel for them. Don’t get me wrong, I feel for anyone out there currently sweating and dreading the thought of standing up and showing us what they’ve learned since the last grading, but at first gup it feels like a really big step, especially as it’s your very last gup grading ever.

One of the second gups I mentioned above is about to turn the big four-oh, and in celebration (commiseration?) of the fact she’s hired out a local venue tonight for a big party. Hog roast? Check. Bucking bronco? Check. Licensed bar? Check. Karaoke(!!!)? Check. All signs point toward a great evening! I don’t envy her having just the Saturday to recover before her grading though, but then I kinda know the feeling, I took my Dan grading the day after a week in Germany ‘sampling the local cuisine’.

I’ve had the pleasure of teaching the Falmouth class for the last few weeks, and I’m just starting to realise the enormous feeling of satisfaction you get when something you’ve taught comes together. I’m not nearly vain enough to claim that it’s down to me of course, I’ve only been there for four or five weeks, but seeing the little differences take hold is a fantastic feeling. The lower (I hate using that word, it sounds so condescending) gup grades especially have taken everything on so well and given the limited time back a lot of them have had, I’m impressed.

Plans for my own class (eek!) are coming together, I’ve got an appointment this afternoon to see the owner of a local studio with an eye to hiring it. The nearest Freshers’ Fair is on next Tuesday, so I’m hoping with a bit of help from some of the friendly faces we’ve already got training I may be able to get some on board, all ready for the first night. Before all of that though, I’ve got a serious amount of unwinding to do tonight, and a cocktail of beer and karaoke is just the ticket :D .

Good times ahoy, and good luck to everyone grading this weekend. You’ve done the hard work, enjoy the day.

(yeah, right! ;) )

Crammed Calendar

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We’re on the third row down on my desk calendar now, which can mean only one thing: it’s the best bit of the year! :D

September is when I start to get really excited about the stuff coming up, but before all of the various festivities get going I’ve got lots going on. The EMTF British Championships are coming up, and in preparation the clubs down here are getting in some serious training to make sure we’re all on top form and repeat the success we had away at the Europeans earlier in the year. It means we’re having squad sessions every other week at the moment (on a Sunday before heading back over to the academy for evening training…) to make sure ours forms and sparring is as good as we can hope for.

At the British Champs my instructor is grading for his Oh Dan (5th Dan) and there’s extra preparation for that too. We’re away for a trip up to see SBN Nessworthy which may end up being in Newcastle, and there’s an extra trip to Bedford in the offing as well. Somewhere in the middle of this there’s a Gup grading happening too, so those guys grading are under even more pressure to train hard at the moment. To be honest I’m feeling the pressure a little too, as I’ve stepped in to teach one of the clubs once a week, which means their preparation is in part my responsibility. There have been lots of changes in the syllabus recently, and although none of them are massive ones, they’re small differences to things which can highlight a lack of continuity between clubs at an event like a grading. I’m doing my best to help make sure this continuity is present next weekend.

My own training last night was the worst in ages. I’d been feeling a bit off all day at work, that sort of car sick feeling, and thought I was fine until I got my dobok on. I had nothing in me, no energy at all, and my brain refused to work. I forgot at least one move in each of my forms and wasn’t with it at all. My forgetfulness didn’t stop there; I got home and realised I’d cycled back and left my helmet at the academy. It hadn’t even occurred to me while I was riding. Here’s hoping for being a bit more lucid tonight, those poor people deserve more than me stood in front of them for an hour and a half going ‘durrrrr I do karate I do!’.

In other news, I finally moved the shed in the front garden! Ok, so it took me and three friends (friends bribed into doing it with homemade pasties) to do it, and there was a bit of shouting a bit of blood, but it’s done. It means I have a front garden again, and light in the living room. The shed was sat right at the front of the garden, and the garden’s raised up about 3 feet on a wall, so it practically eclipsed any natural light that might attempt to come in the house, and in an old miner’s cottage with walls 2 feet thick and small windows, every last bit of light is precious. Unfortunately I now have a garden that looks like it’s been lifted out of the Battle of the Somme. The next thing to do out there is decide what to do with the unruly hedge, sort out, level and replant the lawn and then create some steps in the wall to get up there more easily than with the death-trap steps already there. A landscape gardener I am not.

“Teacher Leave Those Kids Alone”

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Over the last month or so I’ve started taking some classes for one of our instructors over in Falmouth. It’s new to me, this teaching lark, but it’s slowly getting better.

I think it’s fair to say my first couple of lessons in charge weren’t as good as they could’ve been, and I’ve already started to see the things in my teaching I need to correct and make better. I talk WAY too much when I’m stood in front of the class, and I’m not nearly as concise as I could be when I’m trying to get an idea across, but I think that’ll come with practice. I went to the first couple of sessions with a very definite plan of what i wanted to do, and when, but I’ve found so far (and remember we’re only talking about 4 or 5 lessons so far) that I do much better when I go with only a couple of ideas in mind, and to see how the class evolves.

The last couple of lessons I’ve used that principle and, last night especially, it felt a lot better. It’s been a long time since I went to lessons that last an hour and a half, and filling that time as someone with very little teaching experience can feel daunting. You don’t want to bore people, nor do you want to get to an hour through and realise you’ve got nothing left. It’s fair to say that I was glad I was working on forms a couple of times as they can take up a lot of time, but last night I went in with the idea in mind to avoid forms altogether.

After my previous blog post I had punching on the brain, so I built the lesson around that. From making hand basics look better, breaking down a punch into its component parts to focus mitt drills and some one-step work. Working on a particular ‘thing’ (God, you’d think I could come up with a better word than that after years of writing here…) seems to be a nice way to build a lesson, and it gives me a lot of flexibility once I see which pieces need work.

I always thought I was going to enjoy teaching, as I love doing small parts of classes or helping people one-to-one and I like teaching people in non-martial arts related things, and as the lessons are ticking by I’m starting to realise I was right. It’s daunting to be responsible for peoples’ progression in something I feel so strongly about, especially as I’m not as young or as fit as others (I’m staunchly of the mindset of ‘don’t teach what you can’t do’), but when I make a suggestion to improve someone’s technique and I see it work and see how it ‘clicks’ with them, it’s enormously satisfying. It’s also really good to find that I’m not forgetting some of the most simple things when I’m trying to demonstrate something. Well, not as often anyway ;) .

(In hindsight, perhaps I shouldn’t have picked those particular lyrics as a post title…)

Changing Of The Guard

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Saturday saw one of my favourite nights of the year; Eurovision! For my American or Asian counterparts, the Eurovision Song Contest is a very glam, very camp, annual music competition held over here in ‘Yurp’. The various countries put forward their entries which really span just about every musical genre you could imagine, and we, the public, vote. It’s on for about three hours, and has a MASSIVE audience across the continent. I’m a huge fan and love getting together with my mates once a year to vote, do a sweepstake and generally get beered-up and have a good time.

A long-standing part of Eurovision for me has always been the commentary by the inimitable Sir Terry Wogan. He’s very dry, and gradually gets more and more drunk while taking the mickey out of the other countries. Unfortunately last year was his last, after years of what can only be called very political voting in the Eastern Bloc nations. He was obviously getting more and more disillusioned and last year’s very obvious voting for Russia was the straw that broke the camel’s back. So this year we welcomed Graham Norton into the fray, and personally I was very pleased with him. He’s got the same cutting sarcasm and his own cheeky witticisms, and once he got into his swing he was genuinely very funny. Well, what I heard was; I was at a very raucous party with my friends, drinking and eating European beers and snacks and arguing over the scoresheets I’d printed from the BBC website. Good times.

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A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be asked to be one of the coaches for the new Kids Kickboxing class, and every week since I’ve been turning up for the extra hour before our Sunday Tang Soo Do lessons and working with the little guys. Quite where they get their energy from I’ve no idea, but I wish I could harness some. So far I think it’s going really well, I’ve had pretty much the same group with me each week and I’ve managed to remember all their names, which to be honest has been a task in itself. I’ve very quickly been able to see which of them is picking things up easily, where any problems might lie, and which ones of them have freakishly strong punches for their size!

It’s enormously rewarding watching them soak up everything they’re told and shown, especially when you’re able to identify a small thing to change which makes a big difference to their technique. They sparred with us (the coaches) last night, and I think I can safely say that almost without exception, they loved it. It’s not often they’re told to get stuck in and start hitting adults, and you could almost see their faces light up when we were getting them padded up. I’m looking forward to seeing how they progress over the coming months.

I’m really pleased to have this head start on teaching, because it’s definitely where I think I want to be in the not-too-distant future. Don’t get me wrong, I love my own training and will keep going for as long as I’m able, but I have to think realistically too. I’m thirty-two in nine days time, and I might only have a few good years of being able to compete and train for fighting at the level I do now. What does that leave afterwards? I’m not indestructable, I can’t keep going forever, and not training would leave a massive gap in my life. I think I’m lucky to be training in something traditional, as if it were competition or sport oriented (especially sport karate) I think I could get very bored just teaching drills and not actually training for a purpose any more. Spending all my time working on drills and techniques that I know I’d never use in competition would be pretty soul-destroying. It’s now that I need to focus on getting a strong Dan grade and to keep working beyond there, and work toward teaching more; both kids and adults alike.

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Have you ever had one of those ‘I knew it!‘ moments? You know the sort of thing, you’re sure you were right about something, and it turns out you were spot-on. I had a good one this last week and it’s made me feel much better about myself. It’s nice to know that even if other people take you for a fool, you know better :) .

Sir Isaac Newton Stole My Supper!

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As part of the club’s ongoing development and expansion we’re starting up a new kids class and programme. In order to get it up and running we’ve started a bit of a recruitment drive, and yesterday we did the first major part of that with a full day at a local primary school. Five of us took the day off of work (well, strictly speaking four of us, one person works at the school) and got there at nine in the morning ready to spend the day teaching the kids some basic kickboxing skills and to give them a good run about. Although we had a plan of sorts for the sessions, it sort of evolved during the day and was nicely refined by the end of the day.

I’m not sure what I was expecting before I went in, I mean, I knew the very youngest (Year 1) would be the hardest to teach the kicks to, but what I wasn’t expecting was how much shorter the attention spans got as the day went on and the children got older. It was a bit of a battle of attrition by the end of the day when the oldest kids were all crammed in, but it was a lot of fun. I knew I enjoyed working with kids and teaching them, but I was surprised just how much I enjoyed working that closely with them.

After over four hours of constant warming-up, stretching, kicking, cooling down and repeating ad nauseum (broken up with a nice spot of lunch down the pub), I was shattered once I got home. Unfortunately I didn’t have too much time to get settled; Wednesdays are training days. So I dragged my backside up off of the sofa and went along for another hour of Tang Soo Do and adult Kickboxing. I won’t lie to you, I was knackered by the time I eventually got home (via Tesco for sustenance and a beer), and all I wanted to do was eat some food, drink my beer and go to bed to sleep for a week. I painstakingly prepared myself some nice little panini stuffed full of chicken, and then it happened, Isaac f**king Newton stole my supper!

To be fair, he himself didn’t, but his law of universal gravitation did. Yes, my fancy sandwiches slipped of the plate and went all over the floor. I honestly could have cried, at that time that was just about the worst thing I could have imagined. Today’s swim is off the cards I think, I’m like a total zombie and barely capable of getting off my chair, let alone swimming a mile or so. It’s games and Inbetweeners (the funniest show on TV, no question) night with my reprobate friends tonight though, something I look forward to as the highlight of every week.

I’ll leave you with what might look like a very dull photo, but to me it’s brilliant. Walls at first floor height!

Look! Walls!

Look! Walls!

Train Drain

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I’ve had quite a hard time of it with my training recently, it’s felt very difficult at times with a lot of ‘one step forward, two steps back’ in my own mind, which hasn’t been very nice at all. I’m not under any illusion that it’s always going to be great and I’ll never forget anything and suchlike, but it’s the first time it’s really hit me as hard as it has. I’m going to keep grinding and work my way out of the slump, but it’s surprised me at just how draining it’s been, both physically and mentally. Last night was a much better session for me for several reasons.

Kick paddle work is right up there with kick shield as far as I’m concerned, I love striking something, so last night was a bit of a treat being able to work some of the more difficult kicks. Jump spinning crescent kicks are hard, but I got a few to come out with that I was pleased with and I also spotted something which I think might be holding me back on aerial kicks. I noticed that I really don’t like to lean back on them, I guess it’s an innate fear of losing the landing leg from under me perhaps, but the only jump kicks I feel are working are those which don’t require a lean. In dwi bal ee dan apchagi (rear leg jump front kick) it’s necessary to make sure you stay as upright as you can, as the temptation is to lean forward if anything, and in my new favourite – ee dan dwi hurichagi (jump spinning hook kick – I think!) there’s a big lean but in essence you’re leaning forwards whilst facing backward. I can’t put it into words very well but it feels much stronger.

I really enjoyed being given five minutes to work with one of the new white belts, where each junior was paired with someone senior to them, and as a senior I had the responsibility of teaching my junior his first two preset Il Soo Sik Dae Ryun. I really enjoy teaching and I love the satisfaction of seeing something ‘click’ and sink in. There were a few times last night with this, admittedly relatively small things in the grand scheme of things, but it was great to see his shape changing into something resembling a TSD practitioner, even if it was just for two or three movements.

We had an hours extra training for the sparring team after the main lesson again, and it was something I was looking forward to and dreading in equal measures. My sparring’s been annoying me lately (as I’m sure it does for everyone), and I’ve been very much in a rut in terms of how I fight. I know how to blitz, when to cover, when to jam and so on, but my execution lets me down. I’m a big chap and even the smallest movements are more obvious when I do them, so I have a tendency to telegraph what’s coming next. My first blitz step is a big culprit – I can move forwards fast off of it, but getting it into position is something I need to work on. As much as I love to take points and even win (imagine!), my sole objective last night was to mix it up. To change what I do and take some risks, and I did just that, with varying levels of success.  My axe kick is a lot faster thanI gave myself credit for and being tall, is something I’ll be working on as an ‘opener’ I think. I’m taller than a lot of people, I might as well use it to my advantage.

Today I’m shattered if I’m honest, it was a real effort getting out of bed and my legs and ankles make me feel like I’m wearing full-leg plastercasts. It’s getting there slowly, I just have to put more work into managing expectations.