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Old 02-27-2001, 01:54 PM   #8
Richard Harnack
Dojo: Aikido Institute of Mid-America
Location: Maplewood, Missouri
Join Date: Oct 2000
Posts: 137
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This has been an extremely busy and frustrating month, not to mention a sad one for me.

My of my longest Aikido friends, Peter Ting, Sensei passed away this past week finally succumbing to cancer. More about him elsewhere.

In terms of teaching a completely new group of beginners, this can be the most excitement you will ever have. Anyone can teach people who already know something, but starting with people for whom you are their first contact with the "martial arts", this takes skill, patience, understanding and humility.

For me, it is always the student who takes precedence, not the instructor. With a brand new group of beginners the temptation is to "show off", don't. I have known instructors who have lost students regularly simply because they were more concerned on how they looked, rahter than focusing on what the student needed to learn.

I'll stop here for now.

Yours In Aiki,
Richard Harnack
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