Choosing an Instructor
(Extracted from Aikido-L)
Date: Sun, 12 May 2002
08:18:58 -0500
From: Dave K
Subject: Choosing an Instructor
What sorts of things should I look for in an instructor? I'm really looking at
technical things rather than things such as are they
respectful of their students, since I should be able to get a feeling for that.
I assume I can get a decent idea of the instructor's teaching ability from
looking at the students. Are there any red flags I should look for?
For example, in the vast majority of Karate styles, a person's back heel should
be down when in a front stance. If I was visiting a karate dojo and saw the heel
up consistently, I would ask the instructor about it. I don't have any
comparable knowledge about Aikido. Thank you for your
time.
Dave
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Date: Sun, 12 May 2002 11:46:11 -0400
From: ben eriksen
Subject: Re: Choosing an Instructor
Hi Dave.
My thoughts on choosing an instructor would be how well the Instructor
interacts with his students if he comes across as arrogant self centred then run
for t5he hill's I have gone through that experience myself were the instructor
should have been fired also remember Aikido is for your
own enoyment and therefore it should be a pleasureable experience and
fun..keep our eye's open and pick carefully .like I said I was biten
once by a real bad instructor.
Sarge
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Date: Sun, 12 May 2002 21:30:27 -0700
From: michael hacker
Subject: Re: Choosing an Instructor
Welcome to The List and to Aikido!
Until you get some experience under your belt, it's tough to tell the
quality of an instructor's aikido, teaching ability, etc. I recommend that
you *never* go on reputation alone, unless it's 1st hand from a very trusted
source who knows what they're talking about. My first advice would be to
look at his students. Do they seem skillf? Are they
arrogant/disrespectful? Do they treat each other as toys to be throw about
in order to make themselves look good? If so, you know where they learned
it from or at least who condones it.
Look for excessive injuries. If you see a lot of people hurt, sporting
bandages, bragging about training injuries, or wincing (like a dog that
starts to cower whenever you try to pet her because a previous family beat
her) in anticipation of techniques crunching down on them, you might also
want to, as someone else already said, "run for the hills."
All that said, you can't look for just technical things... you need to take
in the whole package. In fact, you can't look for them at all, if you don't
have the miles yet. It would be like when my non-Japanese speaking friends
tell people how good I am at Japanese. I appreciate the compliment, but it
doesn't really mean much. If you have experience with other martial arts,
wrestling, gymnastics, etc., you might have a decent knowledge of how the
human body is supposed to work. (That isn't always the case, as a friend of
mine has been doing ballet since she was 6, but still can't quite figure out
why her aikido won't work).
If you have a bit of experience with physical activities, here are some
things I suggest you take a look at: posture (self-explainitory), timing (do
they look like they're have to rush to close/open distance at the last
minute because of bad timing? does the practice feel 'musical,' with
syncopations, rests, etc.?), distance (do they maintain it? do they
exercise "zanshin" (remaining mind... topic for a different discussion)
before, during, and after technques?), targeting (do they follow precise
lines of attack, or does it appear to be somewhat haphazzard and random?).
Do they have to use undue muscular effort, speed, or (ugh) pain to throw
each other?
If so, I'd put your shoes back on. Use your own judgement. The advice was
free... you get what you paid for.
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Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 08:40:09 -0400
From: Pauliina Lievonen
Subject: Re: Choosing an Instructor
Craig wrote:
michael hacker wrote:
>>If you have a bit of experience with physical activities, here are some
>>things I suggest you take a look at...snip...
>Excellent post. The whole thing is right on. No need to add to that.
I still like to add something. :) You should take into account what kind of
a class it is; if you would come and watch our Sunday afternoon classes you
might well see some very odd postures, bad timing, people wincing in
anticipation of techniques...but then, it's the beginners class, I'm often
the second most senior on the mat (I'm the one people ask "are you okay"
after throwing :)).
What I also came to think about is, my sensei doesn't actually look that
good when he demonstrates technique sometimes. You really have to feel it to
believe what he's doing. I've met the opposite kind as well, people who look
amazing when you watch them, but who I wouldn't want to train with
anymore...
I'd rather go by the "how do people in the dojo interact with each other?"
to decide where to train.
kvaak
Pauliina
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Last updated on 13 Sep 2002