Newsletter 958
Oh, No! Teaching a Kid’s Martial Arts Class!
Interesting situation.
I had an operation a few years ago.
Saws off the tip of my shoulder,
put in a couple of screws,
tossed in a dead man’s ligament.
Took me a year to recover.
I still did martial arts,
had range of motion,
had some strength,
but,
as you can guess,
I was messed.
So I recover,
and I am desperate to do martial arts.
I NEEEEED to do martial arts.
So I walked into a school,
introduced myself,
and asked about lessons.
The head instructor didn’t blink at my age,
merely said,
‘sure, we can get you started…’
I said,
‘No,
I’m an 8th black,
had an operation,
and I want to get active.
I want to teach.’
Well,
I ran into a good one.
He doesn’t blink,
says,
‘Oh, come in tomorrow night,
we’ll see what happens.’
So I show up,
help out with the class,
and there I was,
a volunteer assistant instructor at 68 years old.
So I walk behind the line,
put kids in order,
help them do moves.
Not hard,
and it was a start.
The problem was it was more of a tournament/MMAJujitsu school.
That’s okay,
the rules of the universe are the same for all arts,
and I know the physics.
So I watch and listen,
adapt to the instructor’s method,
and there I am,
teaching something I don’t know,
and quite well thank you.
Now,
you may be wondering where this is going.
Last month the instructor decided to retire,
offered me his school.
huh.
He’s 20 years younger,
but his body feels 20 years older,
so I have a school.
Except I don’t want it.
It’s true,
I want to teach,
I don’t want to do the paperwork
and advertising,
and call the parents
and clean the blinds and the toilet and the front walk,
and…
you get the idea.
So I said no,
he offered to a couple of other guys,
and when they asked who I was,
he said,
‘He’s Al,
just let him do what he wants.’
So they did.
And I am now in full control
of a hoard of wild kids.
I know what Custer felt like.
So what am I doing,
now that I’m in complete charge?
and can run the classes the way I like?
First,
I ask for silence.
No more running around and screaming.
That’s rule number one.
And,
the other night I had them
simply stand at attention for one minute.
No talk.
No giggle or twitch.
Twitchers and gigglers
assumed the push up position in a corner,
and we started again.
Took out three gigglers
before we finally made 30 seconds.
Isn’t that interesting?
Some of these kids have been doing martial arts for YEARS,
and they have never stood silently for as little as 30 seconds.
It was a shock to their delicate systems.
And,
during the class I yelled at them.
Talk about shock.
They were fair comatose
once they had experienced a kiai/shout.
There’s just something about when
I get in somebody’s face and raise the decibels
that has an abrupt effect.
And the parents,
a hoard of parents watched on,
and now my classes are growing larger.
The parents LIKE it
when somebody cares enough to get in their child’s face
and talk common sense
in words that CANNOT be ignored.
Now,
don’t get me wrong,
this is not a bad school,
actually,
the martial arts,
the MMA/jujitsu is REALLY good.
But it is geared for tournaments,
and taught as if the kids were kids.
Don’t yell,
entertain.
That sort of thing.
It is to the other instructor’s high credit
that they are tournament champions,
that they know how to fight.
I,
of course,
don’t care about fighting.
I care about surviving,
winning not the gold,
but your life.
So everybody is going into shock,
and then scrambling to figure it out,
and finding out that that nice, old, grandfather guy
has a tiger in his belly
that can’t quit,
that wants to eat the bears and elephants,
that doesn’t care if you whine or moan,
or give other excuses for being weak.
The other day I had some kid whine,
and I whirled on him and spoke in a low voice,
a voice so tinged with intention that every other kid in the room
froze and couldn’t help but listen.
‘I’m saving your life.’
It was an electric moment.
A moment when eyes blinked and ears opened.
‘What…what?’
The kid stumbled.
I said,
‘When somebody pushes you to the floor,
are you going to whine about your boo boo?
Or roll up and tear his face off?’
I turned to the class.
‘When the teacher or boss says work,
are you going to whine?
Or are you going to work so hard his face falls off?
I said,
‘Are you kids?
Children?
Need somebody to cry for you?
Or are you martial artists?’
It was a good moment.
A hard moment.
If you treat a child as a child,
he will grow up immature.
If you treat a child as an adult,
he will grow up mature.
Anyway,
I’ll keep you advised as the adventure continues.
For now,
if you want to learn how to teach,
I suggest the
THE MASTER INSTRUCTOR COURSE
it has the exact procedure
for getting the idea in your head
into the student’s head.
It has the six tools to make ANY technique no matter what!
It has the seven corrections which make form perfect,
and your body able to generate and support vast amounts of energy.
Now,
have yourself a GREAT work out!
Al
A WIN!
Master Case,
I got the Master Instructors Course yesterday. Holy CRAP. I wish I had bought this when I bought the Matrix Karate course. This info is amazing. I have been studying Martial Arts most of my life, this info is a confirmation that I was on the right track but I was missing some key pieces of information. The way you explain things about energy transfer is phenomenal. I also love how you debunk the stance myths in other arts. I have been doing that for a while and I was glad to see that someone else other than myself is doing it as a part of their teaching curriculum. I love it. I will be sending you my testing videos for Matrix Karate by the end of the week.
Best Regards,
Joshua
Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.
Bruce Lee
