In the martial arts instructor’s world, so much time an energy is spent on developing the right training program.  There is constant discussion and evaluation about how the program is working and what progressions and techniques are the most important.  Most of this time is spent examining the techniques themselves, and instructors ignore their own role in the learning process.

When my students struggle with learning certain things, I see that as my fault as an instructor.  If most of the students are having trouble with the same thing, then I must not be teaching it right.  It is also possible that I am teaching it right, but based on who my students are, it is just not the right thing to teach.

Most martial arts programs are built around who the instructor is, not who the students are.  No wonder so many people have trouble learning!  A school, class or seminar exists because of the students, not the teacher.  Rather than forcing students to emulate the instructor’s skills so that they can one day get close, instructors should put their skills in a context that their students can understand.

All my instructors have at least 15 more years training than I do – how can emulate them?  How can I understand technique they way they do?  I can’t.  I have to take what they show me an relate it to who I am and what my own goals are.  It is simply unreasonable for martial arts instructors to build instructional programs around their own skills. This is not teaching.  Teaching involves understanding the needs and goals of the students and tailoring the instructional material appropriately.

So many martial arts systems teach too much many techniques.  Perhaps it is because some instructors enjoy impressing everyone with the vast number of moves they have memorized.  Maybe it is because students simply don’t have the attention span required to focus on the simple effective basics, and they get bored without something new to work on.  Maybe it is because many martial arts instructors are not effective teachers.  No matter what the reason, more technique is not better.  Sure, instructors need to know more technique than their students because every person may need something different.   But in reality, most students don’t need much to effectively defend themselves.  All the average person needs is a few techniques (maybe 30-60) that are well developed.

The more technique you have, the weaker your average movement becomes.

Think about it . . . if I know 25 basic movements and I practice them over and over for 3 years, then any one of those movements will be pretty strong.  If, in the same 3 years, someone else learns 125 movements, then his average move will be 5 times weaker than mine!

In trying to create training programs that are more fun and varied, instructors often start adding technique after technique in order to keep everyone engaged during class.  Maybe the students have more fun, but their martial arts end up being worthless.  Not to mention that so much of the technique we see in martial arts is academic.  In other words, it works fine in class, but how effective would it be at speed, with power and a against a bigger, stronger opponent?  Complicated self-defense sequences or weapon disarms are cool for exploration and practice but they will not work for self-defense.   The simple martial arts movements will work on any kind of a opponent – knees, elbows, groin kicks, knee kicks, palm strikes, basic blocking and punching.  Maybe add a few stick and knife defenses (using the same simple hand and foot techniques), and there you go.