Getting Back To Traditions

Last night was great! A student who has been away for over a year has returned to the kwoon and was with me as an 'assistant' during the kid's class. He had come up through the kid's class himself unlike me, so he was able to tell me about how it used to be. Training currently is much more lax than it was in days past and he let me know what actions would be taken in response to various misbehavior etc. He gave me valuable tools that I can use when teaching our young students.

Upcoming Forms

It sounds like I am about to learn a bunch of forms, so that I can pass them along to the students. One that I know about for sure is a new kids empty hand form. This will be exciting. Forms are one of my favorite aspects of training and it has been a while since I've tackled a new form.
In light of these upcoming forms I've decided it would be good to focus on going over and cleaning up the forms I already know. I have time enough to do this during my second class each training day.

Starting Over as a Student

It is so interesting to be in a teaching role. As a student when I would become frustrated with my training I would look back and could see that, even though it didn't feel like it, I HAD made some progress. Transitioning into a more teaching role has been like beginning my training all over again. I am a beginner all over. At times it feels frustrating and I feel like I am going no where. But when I look back I realize that I have, indeed, become a better teacher than I was in the past. The trick is to remember this in the thick of frustration.
The areas that I still need to do a lot of work in are actually somewhat outside of the realm of training. I need to continue to improve my management skills in regards to keeping students in line, interested and focused. This is primarily an issue with the kid's classes as you can imagine. I have gotten better, but it is a constant struggle given my passive nature.

The Beginning...

Welcome to the second incarnation of my thoughts and musings related to my martial arts training. I used to run my own WordPress blog in hopes of making a little money blogging (at least enough to pay for the hosting). The money never came no matter how much work I put into it, so I quit working myself to death on it and it became more of a personal journal of sorts. By the end of the third year I was relieved to be no longer paying the large hosting fee.

After a few months of being in blogging limbo, I have decided begin again. Since it will never be a professional blog, I have decided to just use the free blogger service. I don't have to worry about fees or maintaining the site etc. I can simply focus on sharing some of my thoughts and the things I learn.

I hope you enjoy and look forward to hearing whatever feedback this site generates.

- baiguai