Tree of Many Branches
…without question the greatest opponent any individual student faces – ever – is within. I know of no other study or practice that makes this more obvious to the developing student than the martial arts, and this by sheer virtue of the nature of what they address."
A student of the martial arts virtually has an entire new world of learning ahead of him, the value of which should never be underestimated by the master teacher under whose care he develops. Certainly it is true that most students approach the study of the Arts for the purposes of becoming skilled at self defense or acquiring a degree of physical fitness or the like, but it is even so just as certain that a true master teacher is acutely aware of the intensity of commitment the study of the Arts demands, along with the irrefutable transformation of mind and spirit which it exacts. And therein lay the true test of the teacher who is charged with the responsibility of facilitating a student’s development in a way that forwards him not just as a proficient fighter, which when practiced as a sole focus actually minimizes the Arts, but as an individual whose aptitude touches and promotes the betterment of the whole of his life.
There is no doubt that training in the martial arts requires more than a simple physical commitment. The student is undertaking more than attaining a mastery of certain martial techniques or forms in that, with one exception which I will address momentarily, attainment of this mastery necessitates the student come face-to-face with personal, mental and emotional obstacles that stand in the way of his achieving ultimate success over his opponent. Why? Because without question the greatest opponent any individual student faces – ever – is within. I know of no other study or practice that makes this more obvious to the developing student than the martial arts, and this by sheer virtue of the nature of what they address.
Now, the exception to this is, of course, the student who is naturally strong and powerful – one who with the pure use of muscle and force can easily overcome most physical obstacles and so perhaps is not quite as tested mentally and emotionally in his practice of the Arts. Yet, even a student of such proportions is apt to, at some point in his martial arts career, meet up with one who, though perhaps not as strong as he, is able to defeat him nonetheless. So, this is not a hard and fast exception by any means, but perhaps what it does bring to the forefront is the fact that student development in the study and practice of the martial arts is a very personal and individual thing.
The task at hand for the master teacher is the determination of what the student is ready to learn. For this, the teacher must watch his students closely and individually, whether he has one or one hundred students in his class. Keen observation tells the teacher what the student is ready for. You see, people come into your life for a reason. A student comes to the teacher because he wants to learn obviously, but in order for this learning to effect the development of character which is so essential to the practice of the Arts, the teaching must be incremental and the teacher must be sensitive to the individual student’s needs. A teacher, no matter how good, no matter how able he is to conceivably awe the student with his wisdom or martial arts’ prowess, must await the student’s invitation before proceeding to higher states of knowledge or application. Until invited, the teacher must stay on the peripherals – on the outside, so-to-speak – or risk imposing himself on a student who is neither prepared nor able to advance any further.
When a student is ready to learn, he opens his heart up to the master teacher much in the way a flower opens at the height of its maturity. He wants to know more, and may express this by asking questions, by requesting he be taught something in particular, or by simply offering to be of assistance in some fashion or other. Whatever his means of expression, what has in essence occurred is that he has arrived at the recognition that there is something more to know. He is thus mentally and emotionally available to continue on his path of development, and is saying so.
Until such time, however, when the flower has opened, try as he may or talented as he may be, the teacher will not be able to provoke a higher learning. A student will only ever garner what he is prepared to receive and not an iota more. Enlightenment cannot be forced if only because it fails to be enlightening. Therefore, it goes without saying that a teacher – even a master teacher – cannot impart knowledge when it is not ready to be received. No matter how brilliant, no matter how informative, no matter how enlightening, it will go by the wayside. In order for the student to successfully bridge the gap between the known and what is yet to be known, the stage must be effectively set. This is not my rule. It is a natural law of growth and evolution.
Teaching is a cooperative effort in that without a student there really is no teacher. And although a student may not be consciously aware of his need to advance his skills, his aptitude or his application, the indications will always be there for the teacher who is suitably attuned. The wise teacher – the master teacher, indeed – will gauge his instruction first by addressing basic knowledge or that which will set the groundwork for the continued development of the student before him. Secondly, he will enhance this training along a learning curve the student can manage even – and especially – when it means testing the student’s spirit and determination by giving him just a smidgen more than the student, himself, feels he can deal with. And lastly, the master teacher will measure the student’s next level based not on his own desire to be informative, but by the student’s resolve to want to grasp more.
Indeed, when the flower has opened, and this precise moment of maturity and preparedness is recognized by the teacher, it is a virtual certainty that the insight, wisdom and technical training conveyed will not only be embraced, acknowledged and understood by the student but, and this is important, the student will respect and seek to protect what he has come to know, inclusive of the manner in which he came to know it. And this is the nature of true development. Major strides have been made. The knowledge is secure and in responsible hands.
Now, although in my book it is absolutely and incontrovertibly critical to attend to the growth and development of the student of the martial sciences, let me say that not all martial arts training proceeds along this path. Many instructors will teach with a false sense of importance. I call this the Hero Mentality approach. An instructor so inclined is fundamentally bent on being revered and admired and, mistakenly, sets himself up to be the focal point of the training environment whereas, in fact, he is gravely in error for there is no potential for growth in this milieu – not for himself, nor for his students. Make no mistake about it, though an instructor so disposed may dazzle students with spectacular feats that overwhelm and overpower them, very little – if any – training is transpiring. What value is there in teaching a student what he cannot do? Yet, this is precisely what the instructor who is determined to “beat his own chest” accomplishes. And unfortunately, in many cases, this is all he accomplishes.
Fortunately, an instructor with this kind of mentality is easy to spot. He will:
It is undeniable that an instructor who finds the need to make himself the sole source of his student’s training and personal enhancement is following a track that will eventually suffocate the growth and development of the students in his care. He is teaching a viewpoint and not a science. If in the course of this training, this instructor also feels it necessary to throw students around in a manner that causes injury of body, mind or spirit, then it can also be said that this instructor genuinely has no business teaching. He is driven not by the desire to educate, but by a poorly founded need to be idolized. A master teacher should have long ago dispensed with the need to prove himself on the training floor, and this is a rule that should never be compromised.
Though it can be argued that there is no real way to teach a student how to fight but to throw him into the fighting ring, I can tell you that I have never found this to be true. The teacher must conceptually teach one step at a time. It is, for all intents and purposes, extremely unwise to just throw a student into a fight or sparring match. There are entirely too many variables involved, and the beginning student is simply incapable of addressing them all in one go. To do this in the absence of proper training is to set the student up for failure. It is incumbent upon the teacher to show a student how to fight, to practice this student through live repetition, and finally, to help a student feel positive about their ability to prevail. The end goal is not, after all, to churn out bullies but to train martial artists. So, then, the master teacher must set the stage for success and not for failure. It is his duty.
Always remember that it is regrettably easy for a master or grand master to make a student look bad. Sadly, this is acceptable and even admirable in some circles. But I can tell you unequivocally that is not what a master or grand master should be about. As a master teacher, I teach students to succeed in their own right – not to admire and regard me. Only in this manner can I be assured that I have facilitated their development by giving them something they can build on. The simplest practice methods are often times the most powerful.
A master teaches because he is impassioned with the virtues of the Arts, and a student learns only as he is readied through the master’s guidance. So, thus, the world that has opened for the evolving student is just that much better – just that much safer – for this guidance.
