SRKF Instructor’s Review
All instructors please complete this form by Friday, August 8th; please be as open an honest as possible so we can best formulate a way to ensure everyone is feeling fulfilled and supported while building stronger classes for our students.
Our Approach While Teaching
Sifu Brinker has a saying, one I find myself referring back to time and again. You can’t force something down a students’ throat. You need to get them to open their mouths first.
What is a sure fire way to cause a student to stop being receptive, to close their mouths? It’s the same for everyone. You and me as well. Put them on the defence. Raise their hackles. Lose their respect. This is the biggest thing we need to avoid doing.
If a student feels they are being judged, you have lost the ability to teach them. Period. As instructors, we need to be diligently mindful of our attitude and demeanour. Having a condescending attitude? Absolute worst way to approach teaching. As instructors you rely on your students to learn, but if they are not, if they are not applying the lessons you have been giving them, THAT IS ON YOU AS THE INSTRUCTOR. Do they have a crap attitude? Yep, on you. Not a phase, not a result their age, not due to the weather or season.
Why do they have a poor attitude? Because they do not have a reason to change it. Why are they not picking up or applying the lesson? Because it has not reached them yet. It could be a matter of learning style, immaturity or maybe they had a bad day. As instructors, you need to have your finger on the pulse of your students and class, to identify the underlying issues and then change your approach accordingly. Not every student learns the same way. Not every student is motivated by the same things. You cannot approach your classes with a one size fits all attitude, because all you will do is alienate and eliminate those students who do not fit into the structure you have decided on.
What does this look like? Taking accountability for your students shortcomings. They have come to us to learn. If they are not learning it is because of our failure to teach them in a way that they can learn from. If they have a bad attitude we need to inspire them, not write them off. We will most likely hit walls in our attempts, but if we are not trying to change the situation or even take an interest in trying to change it, that student is as good as gone. And our school cannot survive without students.
Check your own attitude before pointing a finger at your students. You cannot expect them to know a thing until it has been taught effectively. You cannot expect them to have the ability until you give them a chance to practice and apply it. Talk less, lecture less. Inspire more, teach more. Be invested in your students and their success. Take responsibility for their failures. This is the only way you will have the ability to do anything about it. It’s not about pointing fingers at anyone. It’s about taking accountability, which will give you control and the ability to influence the outcome.
Opportunities, Potential and Mistakes
Let’s be clear- opportunities are not given, they are taken. Someone can create an opportunity for you, but if you do not help yourself and DO something with it, then it’s just a missed opportunity. No matter how badly I may want it for you, I cannot make you take it.
When it comes to teaching, as an instructor on deck I have a world of opportunity, but that does not mean that I will necessarily take advantage of it. If I decide not to engage with a student on a personal level, then I have lost the opportunity to get to know that individual, to gain their trust and therefore have the ability to influence, and the opportunity to grow in my own skills as an instructor. This is just one example.
Some of you are okay with that. I’m okay with that if that is what you want, but know that you are throwing away opportunity and your own potential. In other words, you will not advance to the master level.
If you want more from the classes you attend, then you have to do more with them. Engage on a deeper level. Let me be clear; this has nothing to do with whoever is in charge, this has to do with how attentive you are as both student and teacher, often at the same time. I can be in charge of the black belt class, the “top dog” so to speak, but if I cannot keep my ego in check, if I am more concerned with how others perceive me, then I will miss the chance to learn something when Sihing Csillag asks a question on zoom, or Sihing Burke asks about what something feels like. These are MY opportunities, as much as theirs. They seek my knowledge, I gain wisdom in exploring the answer with them. And don’t get me wrong, I am exploring the answer at the same time as you are hearing it.
And I grow, because I am okay knowing I don’t know it all, that I make mistakes. Mistakes are opportunities too, if you choose to let them be.
The opportunities are endless, the potential is beyond what you can perceive. IF your approach is open, if you are honest in your ability, strengths, weaknesses. If you are able to acknowledge what is the truth about you. If you are able to let go of your ego, your need to be seen in a certain light.
Don’t ask for opportunities. Create them. Take them.
Make mistakes. Make lots of mistakes. Learn from them. If you’re afraid of making a mistake then, ironically enough, that in itself is a mistake.
The only wrong mistake is the one you refuse to learn from.
Wuxin- Black Stripe
(As explained by Sifu Jeff Brinker, November 7, 2024)
The difference between syllabus and curriculum has been defined for years. Unfortunately, we sometimes still struggle with the differences and keeping them in perspective while we are actively teaching on deck.
Syllabus- the tools we use to teach
Curriculum- what we are actually trying to teach
Intellectually, we understand. Practically, we are struggling.
Using the syllabus as a checklist is an incorrect approach. We do not teach the syllabus; if the students know the tools, that does not yet mean they know the curriculum, the heart of our lessons. It is likened to knowing how to use a hammer; many of us know how to use a hammer, but that does not mean we know how to build a house. Our goal is to build a house, the curriculum, not teach about a hammer, the syllabus.
As it has been instructed by Sifu Brinker, the Black stripe will not be given to a student until all other stripes have been earned.
This is not without its reasoning. The Black stripe, Wuxin, translates to “No Mind”. It is the idea of “Knowledge Applicability”. The ability to properly execute a technique cannot be present if a student has not yet earned, sufficiently to their rank, the Yellow, Red or White stripes. How can they be properly applying their knowledge if they have yet to earn/adequately learn their Vocabulary of Motion, Keystone Principles, Six Harmonies?
Wuxin means No Mind
“What we mean by that is, these techniques are yours. You don’t have to think about them, you don’t have to intellectualize them. You just need to execute them and you know how to execute them.”
How can you execute a technique if you are not able to move in a way that allows you to earn Yellow, Vocabulary of Motion, or Red, Keystone Principles, or White, the Six Harmonies?
In order to have Wuxin, you must perform your Vocabulary of Motion, Keystone Principles and Six Harmonies to your rank.
At a minimum.
Because Wuxin is last, it can serve as a “catch all”; stripes that had been earned earlier need to be kept up to expectations in order to earn the Black stripe. Therefore it is again impossible to earn Black before the others.
“Black stripe means you know how to apply your knowledge. If you know how to apply your knowledge then you have the knowledge.”
Therefore, all other stripes must be earned first.