Originally posted by vt guy
Is it worth checking out a instructor who hasn’t completed his training… His chi sao was terrible, there wasn’t any sensitivity at all in the system. Just block with Wc techniques and use a lot of force. So I ask, should people be teaching when they themselves don’t have answers for students?
I can’t see any value in it, so my answer would be “No”.
Bill
In the school I belong to, my Sifu has no problem with students checking out other systems and schools, as a matter of fact I myself have been doing that for 15yrs now. I’ve always had a curiosity for other styles of Wing Chun and non-WC systems, and I enjoy a good conversation/comparison of systems with others outside of the school. As always it’s non confrontational and is used as an exchange of technique and concepts only. Beside that, an instructor cannot control what any of his/her students do in their spare time so it should not even matter what anyone thinks about their own curiosity of other systems and styles. I believe it is a healthy thing to be curious and to explore other avenues, for me it has strengthened my belief in the system I study and allows me insight to how I can apply my tools to other ways of fighting.
Sihing
I feel that confidence born of realistic measures is one way to look at it. A student should have confidence in his skill and this confidence should come from ‘sensible’ realistic training. The confidence in your instructor should be based on realistic measures instead of cult of personality syndrome.
If we accept our nature to be easily fooled by ourselves and modify instrospection to be more critical and honest then we would have a basis for evaluating our skill level AND we’d be in a better perch to identify if someone else is fooling us.
Vt guy, no one can know the depth of another’s knowledge. We could inquire at large, but IMHO, the only objective way to know is to ask the individual. A teacher must be able to give you knowledge that you can apply. If you feel you’re learning something that doesn’t working for you then how can you build your confidence? Why continue?
Personally, I don’t put stock in belts or grades because I had a black belt as a kid and knew that was meaningless. I’ve worked long enough to know that a new graduate with a spiffy degree is generally useless when they first start working in their field. They’d have potential, but the real education starts in the workforce.
Just m thoughts
Originally posted by vt guy
Is it worth checking out a instructor who hasn’t completed his training. I use to practice with a instructor that didn’t complete his training and it showed. He couldn’t answer all my questions, he had to ask his sifu to see to get the answers. I ask, should this person be teaching even though he hasn’t finished his training. I have to add to that even in the forms he was questioning himself. Shouldn’t a person who is teaching know everything up to his training. He was only a level 8 in a 10 level system and he didn’t really show it. His chi sao was terrible, there wasn’t any sensitivity at all in the system. Just block with Wc techniques and use a lot of force. So I ask, should people be teaching when they themselves don’t have answers for students?
Originally posted by vt guy
Is it worth checking out a instructor who hasn’t completed his training.
IMHO, it’s not how many sets or drills a person knows that matters the most. Richness of understanding and internalization is far more important (to me). Unfortunately, significant depth of understanding is far more uncommon than many of us might prefer to think or confess.
FWIW, short of death, I cannot fathom what it really means to “complete” the system.
I use to practice with a instructor that didn’t complete his training and it showed.
I don’t doubt it; seen some of that myself.
Conversely, I’ve encountered plenty who have purportedly “completed” (sic) the system, yet demonstrated significantly lower knowledge and understanding of Wing Chun than others I’ve met who have barely advanced beyond their initial Siu Nim Tau training.
I’ve also encountered quite a few skillful people in their own right who can’t teach or pass along their understanding worth a whit.
Of course we could all find someone who had assimilated both breadth and depth of Wing Chun, in addition to some ability to teach (an entirely separate skill set), and they are accessible - things would be quite peachy.
On another thread, some folks were musing who they’d want to learn Wing Chun from. For me, the ideal teacher is a humble yet worthy student of Wing Chun, such that our learning might be reciprocal, perpetual, and sincere.
Regards,
Originally posted by kj
I’ve also encountered quite a few skillful people in their own right who can’t teach or pass along their understanding worth a whit.
Kathy Jo,
I’ve seen this many times myself, and find it to be quite an interesting and important point. For this reason, when selecting an instructor, I often recommend to people that they look at the students rather than focusing strictly on the skills of the sifu. As you’ve so astutely pointed out, just because someone has a given skill, it does not automatically follow that they can transfer that knowledge/skill to a student.
Bill