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02-20-2011, 12:44 PM
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#1
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Location: Left Coast
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 4,339
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Metaphors for Teaching
Hi... I'm separating this off to a new thread; thanks, Diane, for posting it...a great topic in and of itself. I wasn't sure if I wanted to start it in "humor" or "teaching" and opted for the latter...
Quote:
Diana Frese wrote:
Not to take sides, but once "funny stuff" is mentioned I start laughing and remembering teaching shiho nage out of cat food commercials....
Not to be disrespectful of senior practicioners of the various arts and styles out there, but come on, people admit you use examples to get a technique across to students who really want to learn.
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My favorite one also involves shihonage. It works very well for students of {ahem} a certain age, anyhow... you know how newbies always let their hand get over or behind them, so uke gets his balance back and can easily walk away or do a reversal?
My first aikido instructor taught me from day 1 to "glue your hand to your forehead" - which a perceptive friend of mine immediately likened to the picture on the cover of the Greatful Dead's Live in Europe 1972 (the guy with the ice cream cone splatted to his forehead).
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Janet Rosen
http://www.zanshinart.com
"peace will enter when hate is gone"--percy mayfield
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02-20-2011, 02:07 PM
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#2
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Dojo: Aiki Kurabu
Location: Elizabethtown, PA
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,110
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
Quote:
Janet Rosen wrote:
Hi... I'm separating this off to a new thread; thanks, Diane, for posting it...a great topic in and of itself. I wasn't sure if I wanted to start it in "humor" or "teaching" and opted for the latter...
My favorite one also involves shihonage. It works very well for students of {ahem} a certain age, anyhow... you know how newbies always let their hand get over or behind them, so uke gets his balance back and can easily walk away or do a reversal?
My first aikido instructor taught me from day 1 to "glue your hand to your forehead" - which a perceptive friend of mine immediately likened to the picture on the cover of the Greatful Dead's Live in Europe 1972 (the guy with the ice cream cone splatted to his forehead).
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Interesting - you give a whole new twist for the term 'Deadhead'
Greg
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02-20-2011, 02:29 PM
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#3
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Dojo: Dartington
Location: Devon
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 1,220
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
Quote:
Janet Rosen wrote:
My first aikido instructor taught me from day 1 to "glue your hand to your forehead" - which a perceptive friend of mine immediately likened to the picture on the cover of the Greatful Dead's Live in Europe 1972 (the guy with the ice cream cone splatted to his forehead).
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Hi Janet,
I used to visit a dojo in London where the teacher used to use exactly the same phrase, he referred to the exercise as 'sheer agony' just to further get the point across. It definitely gets you to focus on keeping your hands on your own centre line, which is where most people go wrong with shihonage.
Personally if I didn't have metaphors to use to help me to teach aikido I'm not sure quite how I would get many points across.
I have some really bizarre favourites, which I hesitate to even mention here, because without the benefit of me visually demonstrating what I am talking about, they would just sound daft
We need metaphors to make sense of things which are difficult to grasp.
regards
Mark
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Success is having what you want. Happiness is wanting what you have. ![Smilie](images/smilies/smile.gif)
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02-20-2011, 02:30 PM
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#4
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Location: Left Coast
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 4,339
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
The other pop culture allusion I love is the one for remembering to always engage both upper limbs, even if uke is only attached to one, and keep them connected to the center:
Move like a Dalek!
(it helps to first ask your partner if s/he is a Dr. Who fan....)
I'd love to read other folks' favorite offbeat teaching allusions/metaphors.
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Janet Rosen
http://www.zanshinart.com
"peace will enter when hate is gone"--percy mayfield
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02-20-2011, 02:33 PM
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#5
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Location: Left Coast
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 4,339
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
Quote:
Mark Freeman wrote:
Personally if I didn't have metaphors to use to help me to teach aikido I'm not sure quite how I would get many points across.
I have some really bizarre favourites, which I hesitate to even mention here, because without the benefit of me visually demonstrating what I am talking about, they would just sound daft ![Freaky!](images/smilies/freaks.gif)
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Dafter than Andy Willoughby teaching koshinage via nage singing and performing "I'm A Little Teapot..." ? ![Big Grin](images/smilies/biggrin.gif)
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Janet Rosen
http://www.zanshinart.com
"peace will enter when hate is gone"--percy mayfield
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02-20-2011, 03:27 PM
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#6
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Dojo: Dartington
Location: Devon
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 1,220
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
Quote:
Janet Rosen wrote:
Dafter than Andy Willoughby teaching koshinage via nage singing and performing "I'm A Little Teapot..." ? ![Big Grin](images/smilies/biggrin.gif)
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As daft, I sometimes demo shihonage whilst humming the Magic Roundabout theme music ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3DcChXNyYQ) - it seems to me to represent the turning on an axis making everthing go round you, quite well
Most of you won't know of the Magic Roundabout, it was a classic of 1970's UK TV, an obscure French kids TV programme dubbed into English, 5.55 pm every evening just before the News, loved by adults, it had a cult like status.
Don't even get me started on the Devon pixies and how helpful they can be ![Wink](images/smilies/wink.gif)
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Success is having what you want. Happiness is wanting what you have. ![Smilie](images/smilies/smile.gif)
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02-20-2011, 09:41 PM
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#7
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Dojo: Kenshinkan Dojo (Aikido of North County) Vista, CA
Location: Oceanside, California
Join Date: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,253
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
My teacher uses metaphors frequently to illustrate an idea or movement. One I use with our kids' class is with ude kimi nage and I tell them to pretend to hold a big, gooey cream pie in their hand and then smash it to the mat as they slide forward and throw.
I really like the Little Teapot metaphor for koshinage - and would like it much better if I could just get that tune out of my head now.
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Michael
"Leave the gun. Bring the cannoli."
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02-21-2011, 09:59 AM
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#8
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Dojo: Aikikai of S.W. Conn. (formerly)
Location: Stamford Connecticut
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 386
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
I love all these metaphors and will ask a couple of questions later, but first, Janet, thanks for the validation!
Here is my next I was thinking of this morning when I woke up
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Hombu dojo in Shinjuku, Tokyo our tour group from our dojo and others. Masuda Sensei's class, it was years ago in the early seventies.
Nikyo: He waved the hand I had grabbed the wrist of and said, in English:
"King snake," then I felt the nikyo.
Naturally I could use that. A few years later, at the Y it was useful so people wouldn't just yank straight down on uke's arm. There was the sense of moving toward uke that made all the difference. I guess it was another example of extending ki, but he used an example from nature that everyone understood.
My husband explained to me recently that there is indeed a King Cobra. I didn't even know that, but there was no doubt Masuda Sensei was imitating a cobra.
Last edited by Diana Frese : 02-21-2011 at 10:06 AM.
Reason: had forgotten a word
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02-21-2011, 11:23 AM
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#9
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Location: Left Coast
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 4,339
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
Quote:
Diana Frese wrote:
"King snake," then I felt the nikyo. ...
My husband explained to me recently that there is indeed a King Cobra. I didn't even know that, but there was no doubt Masuda Sensei was imitating a cobra.
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Sorry to go OT but I don't like to let critter information go awry...
There is a king cobra, but a kingsnake is not a cobra.
Kingsnakes are a large group of constricting snakes. They are commonly kept as pets.
The use of the word "king" to describe any snake, BTW, be it the kingsnakes OR the king cobra, means that it is a snake that eats other snakes ![Smilie](images/smilies/smile.gif)
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Janet Rosen
http://www.zanshinart.com
"peace will enter when hate is gone"--percy mayfield
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02-21-2011, 12:58 PM
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#10
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Dojo: Allegheny Aikido, Pitsburgh PA
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 948
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
I have a very vivid memory of one day in the dojo with my teachers. It was just me and them. We were working on kokyo tanden ho and Garth sensei was trying to teach me how to relax and just move up my center. So as I had a hard grip on both of his wrists he proceed to sing and perform the itsy bitsy spider song.
Not sure if I fell over from laughing or from him actually throwing me. maybe a bit of both. But it served very well to teach me what he was trying to illustrate.
Another is kokyu nage where nage just reaches down to pick an imaginary flower lift it to their nose to smell it and the tosses it away, all with the hand that uke is attached to.
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02-22-2011, 04:50 AM
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#11
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Dojo: Aikikai of S.W. Conn. (formerly)
Location: Stamford Connecticut
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 386
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
And now a word from our sponsor? Nope. Just a commercial from a couple of decades ago who doesn't advertise here.
Oscar Meyer.
We all know how important it is to get students to roll properly. Now when I called the roll from ground level (not standing) the egg roll I didn't mean the one you get from your favorite Chinese restaurant after class...
I meant pretend you are an egg .....
There are different ways to teach this, I'm sure you know them, but I tried to put a little humor into the situation if someone was unsuccessful. I would just sing the Oscar Meyer baloney song, or at least the first two lines. And then help them roll over, not sideways like a baloney.
I was so bad. I wonder why anyone put up with my classes!
You guys with your songs, I love them. But look what you tempted me to confess. Baloney rolls, Singing commercials.
What next?
( This is a line technique, next nage please.....)
Seriously, Cherie, your examples are very beautiful and inspiring.
And Janet, thanks, I always wanted to know what a kingsnake was, I knew they weren't poisonous and cobras were.
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02-22-2011, 04:57 AM
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#12
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Dojo: Aikikai of S.W. Conn. (formerly)
Location: Stamford Connecticut
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 386
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
May I take an extra turn?
Michael's cream pie smashing into the mat just reminded me of the beverage poured on uke by nage's "heaven" hand in tenchi nage.
By the way, I don't think I was the one who started this one, it might have been Terry Dobson.....
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03-02-2011, 10:00 AM
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#13
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 711
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
Are these even really metaphors? Most of the examples in this thread seem like actual descriptions of physical movements. E.g. If you throw a pie on the ground you DO extend your arm and face your palm down, etc. If you want a student to put the back of their hand on their forehead, a picture of someone putting the back of their hand on their forehead is simply a description, isn't it? If something is actually an accurate description of a concrete body movement, what's wrong with that?
The one problem I can see is to make sure they realize that it's often just a first approximation. Once they get the basic idea further refinement will still be necessary and the refinement may no longer fully fit the earlier example.
What I think of as metaphors are things like when people talk about flowing water our your fingers or things that are more abstract and open to individual interpretation (and I find these far less useful).
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03-02-2011, 11:25 AM
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#14
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Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 495
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
"I'm not looking at you, I'm looking past you"...
I have to credit Jay-Z ![Smilie](images/smilies/smile.gif) I use this when nage pays too much attention to uke.
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03-02-2011, 11:40 AM
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#15
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Location: Left Coast
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 4,339
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
Quote:
Basia Halliop wrote:
Are these even really metaphors?
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Ok, they are similes. Which are like metaphors, only different...But who would have paid attention to a thread titled "similes for teaching" ? ![Big Grin](images/smilies/biggrin.gif)
Last edited by akiy : 03-02-2011 at 01:01 PM.
Reason: Fixed quote tag
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Janet Rosen
http://www.zanshinart.com
"peace will enter when hate is gone"--percy mayfield
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03-02-2011, 04:11 PM
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#16
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 2,415
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
Quote:
Janet Rosen wrote:
Ok, they are similes. D
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Not having the right pair of glasses on when I read this I thought you wrote smilies.
dps
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Go ahead, tread on me.
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03-02-2011, 05:10 PM
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#17
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Location: Left Coast
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 4,339
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
Quote:
David Skaggs wrote:
Not having the right pair of glasses on when I read this I thought you wrote smilies.
dps
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Well, they are, like, simile to each other!
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Janet Rosen
http://www.zanshinart.com
"peace will enter when hate is gone"--percy mayfield
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03-15-2011, 07:16 PM
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#18
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Dojo: Greensboro Kodokan
Location: Greensboro
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 346
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
Quote:
Janet Rosen wrote:
(it helps to first ask your partner if s/he is a Dr. Who fan....)
I'd love to read other folks' favorite offbeat teaching allusions/metaphors.
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Or Dr. Seuss--one of my teachers advises us to pick ourselves up by our loraxes!
Susan
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03-15-2011, 10:25 PM
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#19
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Dojo: Kenshinkan Dojo (Aikido of North County) Vista, CA
Location: Oceanside, California
Join Date: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,253
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
Oh Janet, you should be ashamed, very ashamed of that pun - and I truly regret that I didn't think of it first.
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Michael
"Leave the gun. Bring the cannoli."
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06-10-2011, 03:09 AM
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#20
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Dojo: Aikido Verein Esslingen
Location: Duisburg
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 193
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
Dirty Dancing:
"Look, spaghetti arms! This is my dance space. This is your dance space. I don't go into yours, you don't go into mine!"
Gotta love Dirty Dancing. I am such a girl, can you tell? ![Stick Out Tongue](images/smilies/tongue.gif)
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Minds are like parachutes - they work best when they are open.
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10-02-2011, 04:38 PM
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#21
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Dojo: Aikido Terrey Hills
Location: Sydney
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 120
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Re: Metaphors for Teaching
Sound effects baby!! Each technique seems to have one. 'Nuff said. ![Wink](images/smilies/wink.gif)
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The world changes when you do.
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