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In Teaching
Spider-man and The Teacher's Mind
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#262
 10-06-2010 03:00 PM |
"With great power, comes great responsibility."
Good, old Uncle Ben. How true.
And how strange it feels, over a decade later, to be standing in the middle of the Auxiliary Gym at The University of Winnipeg again...this time as the teacher. To look at my reflection in the bank of mirrors along the wall and see a figure in a hakama staring back. In the same place where my adventure in Aikido began, gone is the naive and impressionable 22-year-old me in my crisp, new dogi and stiff white belt: being taught how to roll improperly and to wave my arms about, movement devoid of martial intent.
I am determined that there will be no "Mexican hat dance" in my class, no "one hour of talk, one hour of practice." That nonsense was kindly beaten out of me on the mats over the last eight years and all the better for it. There is no teacher with spurious credentials and barely-discernible mumbling, juxtaposed with moments of angry barking at beginners. That's not my style.
After some initial awkwardness that involved a creaky, perpetually dry throat and getting slugged in the stomach while teaching my first class, I suppose I'm slowly settling in to the role. But obviously not without some growing pains. Thankfully I've been receiving a great deal of support -- both from Jon and from Jeremy, who has been alternating as teacher with me.
For one, after eight years of physically taking the role of student and going through the motions of the traditional gestures that follow, it'
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Views: 2402
| Comments: 5
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In Teaching
The Bend in the Road
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#261
03-17-2010 03:30 PM |
I know that for some, becoming Shodan has marked the end of a road. On the contrary, if there is anything that the milestone has done so far, it's confirmed my belief that not only does the road continue, but that the terrain has changed drastically.
What was once a guided path, well-worn and meticulously tended with helpful markers along the way has suddenly become a faded trail rising ever more steeply through a dense and mysterious forest. And if it wasn't already difficult to find my way through this dark and foreign place, there is an ominous mist settling around me - I am being engulfed by a thick fog…of doubt.
Am I being overly melodramatic? Perhaps. But the metaphor is more apt than you might think. For what I am referring to is the recognition that I will soon be called upon to assume the role of teacher.
Already? You may ask yourself. Well you see, we are a very small club. I guess we always have been, for the most part, at least in the time I've been a member. And by "very small" I mean that including myself there are only five students practicing regularly - seven, if you want to be really liberal about the definition of "regularly" (as I suspect some students are). So aside from Sensei, I am now the only other Yudansha on the mats.
Consider as well that Sensei has been teaching for almost twenty years now out of necessity, ever since he was Sankyu(!). Through a matter of circumstance, it got to the point where if he wanted to practice, he had to b
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Views: 2458
| Comments: 2
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In Teaching
On Teaching My First Class
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#237
09-17-2008 11:32 PM |
How odd it feels to be writing this post. The title seems so surreal to me. I've been doing Aikido for almost seven years ago now, began keeping this blog in 2003 and after revisiting the old posts, realize just how quickly the time has gone by. I've spent so much time ruminating and critically picking apart my own study of this art that over the years it has rarely occurred to me to view myself in anything BUT a student's role. Yet for the very first time last night, I found myself as the teacher. Such a strange and foreign feeling.
I never really wanted to be the teacher, after all. Seeing how my own Sensei had become an instructor out of compulsion and necessity, hearing how he'd often regret not being able to practice as he would have liked --- when push came to shove, this honestly rather put me off the whole teaching thing for the most part. I figured that I would just get in the way of my training. I wanted to be a student forever --- to continually siphon off the knowledge and instruction of others and let someone else bother with how everyone else was learning. I'd told as much to Sensei. He'd occasionally "test" me and the other sempai out, letting us each have a taste of teaching by demonstrating a particular technique to the rest of the class. Unsure of myself and my own ability, fearful lest I portray a confidence not yet earned, I would qualify everything I said: "Well, as you know, Sensei would do this or say that, etc." and look over my should
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Views: 2390
| Comments: 2
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