What are your thoughts on the Mental Edge?
I think many students of Martial Arts need to develope a more Positive and Focused Mental Attitude, You always hear,the way you train is the way you will fight. If you go about your training with a poor mental attitude and are mostly just going thru the motions without really being there,you are just fooling yourself. If you take Martial Arts but are always looking towards the clock wondering when class is going to end, you are just cheating yourself out of the full benefit of class, and setting yourself up for failure, whether that failure is at your next testing, in competition or defending yourself on the street. Intensity is what many lack, it is this focused intensity, giving out 110% that is going to drive you to the level of training you need to be able to achieve.
b
Martial Art Style Tang Soo Do
The trick is to keep the class moving and keep them involved and time becomes irrelevent
That is fine for a motivated student, say the class is fast paced and everyone else is into it, how do you get an unmotivated student to pick up the intensity?
b
Martial Art Style Tang Soo Do
If a student is unmotivated then the instructor needs to look no further then in the mirror!!!! Its that simple! If you can't motivate your students then you can't reach them. If you can't reach them then you can't teach them.
Joe
Martial Art Style TSD
I do not think there is an easy answer. Each student is different, and what you need to do to reach each student therefore is different. They all have that light switch, finding it to turn it on is tough. There are general things one can do, keep the class upbeat, exciting, challenge them to be better, reward them with fun activities (kids).. Anyway, I too still am seeking the same answer to your question, things that work most of the time (a one size fits all or most approach), or at least something I haven't tried yet.
I have been told by my Seniors that some you can reach, some you cannot (they leave before you do), you can only be there willing to keep trying..and as long as they don't leave eventually together you will find that key, if they let you.
Martial Art Style Tang Soo Do
I have to admit, there have been classes when I have watched the clock. It is usually when I'm experiancing pain in my back and I am hoping I can make it through the class. Usually that is not the case.
I have to say there have been a couple of classes where I have had to mentally make myself get motivated. The instructor was giving little or no energy and was struggling.
At this point it is up to the students also, in my opinion, to help bring up the energy level of the class and to assist a beginning or struggling instructor by being intent. If one student begins picking up the energy, maybe another will, and the class will begin to feed off of each other.
Martial Art Style Tand Soo Do Mi Guk Kwan, Haedong Gumdo
I think in most of these issues may be due to:
1)A kid who has been forced to go to Karate by a parent or
2) It may just be the way the kid is. I know kids that just can't put it in gear no matter what, slow gear is the only gear.
This is more in line with what I think may be the case, so how do you get to these types?
b
Martial Art Style Tang Soo Do
"I have to admit, there have been classes when I have watched the clock. It is usually when I'm experiancing pain in my back and I am hoping I can make it through the class."
I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one with aches & pains. lol
With the unmotivated ones, I give them some small kind of responsibility like checking if everyone pulled their attendance cards & calling roll. I't really means nothing, but to them, it may be the only time anyone really trusts them to do something & if you make it seem like it's important, they may too.
Sometimes parents place a child in martial arts for just that reason . the child is physically unmotivated or is lacking in physical abilities or is lacking focus . Since children that are more athletic go on to play other sports and leave martial arts these more challenged students remain and so should eventually become your best . "To quit" is easy for any one , so what you need is a commitment from the child , the instructor and most important from the parent . Try to place children by age , size and experience and use the older , more advanced students as a point of reference . For example , a 9 year old greenbelt is still a little kid to a 13 year old white belt .
Another point , sometimes teaching the basics "although a good method" such as lapel grabs 1-4 becomes boring in it's repetition , perhaps a more unorthodox aproach or perhaps more similar to how hapkido is taught ... perhaps a little more advanced in the instruction . I know a lot of people have a misconception as to what the martial arts are and actually expect it to be somewhat more in it's teaching although they lack the ability to execute what they envision .
Yes, Baseball is coming and I think some kids may disappear, it's a shame because I know the two of them are enjoying it alot, but the dad is like you will do baseball only arrrrgh, he was a baseball player in school , you know the drill, funny thing is if he would stop to see it, they both have improved their coordination and lost weight, and gained some strength.
I totally agree with what you say about breaking up repetition with more advanced application of the technique, We take a tech a work from all different scenarios to get a good feel for it, in a roundori where each person who attacks comes at you a difernt way and you use the specified tech , so you learn which situation the tech worked with and which is will not.
b
Martial Art Style Tang Soo Do