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Old 10-16-2013, 05:08 PM   #12
Dan Richards
Dojo: Latham Eclectic
Location: NY
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 452
United_States
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Re: When do you teach your personal style?

As some have pointed out, around the shodan level, you don't "have your own personal style." And you're still very much in the "shu" stage of learning and development, as Peter addressed.

For reference, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuhari

In fact, part of your moving into the "ha" stage has very much to do with you working with the "shu" stage to present, as accurately as possible, the movements and approaches you've been taught by your head instructor and dojos approach.

Start with the movements you feel you understand the best, and start teaching them. All the while, working to emulate your teacher as closely as possible. This, in and of itself, will give you a completely different understanding of what your teacher has taught you. It will get the movements into a deeper level in your bones. And it will reinforce the teachings of your dojo to the students. It will then give you a different level of questions and investigations to go back to your head instructor with, and thereby drawing out even finer and more advanced points from them.

Even after 25 years of training, and even though I do a lot of aiki and IS-type training and teaching, I still - as a syllabus for aikido, up until around 2nd dan level - teach the rote movements of Nishio Aikido as I was taught by Nishio Sensei and his senior students.

Good luck with teaching the classes. It will open up a whole new level in your own learning.

Last edited by Dan Richards : 10-16-2013 at 05:16 PM.
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