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A brief overview on the methodology of teaching martial arts as defined by Grand Master Robert Gemmell.
This teaching programme is designed to first teach the student the art, and second teach the Instructor how to teach the art form.
The teaching of martial arts, like any educational pursuit, requires a specific format of teaching methods and techniques, and a syllabus which carefully presents the topic from the introductory or basic level to advanced and very advanced levels.
Robert Gemmell says in his Forward to the "Kempo-Bushido-Ryu Instructors Manual" written in 1992 that "running a successful Teaching Programme regardless of what level you enter as an Instructor, requires a good knowledge of ...
How the School operates
Its general aims and objectives
The requirements and expectations of your position
He says there are three teaching principles :
We learn by doing
We learn from experience
We learn by trial and error
And uses the Punch to demonstrate these three principles :
A punch becomes accurate by doing many repetitions
A punch gains power and speed when we no longer have to think how to execute it properly
Delivery of a punch becomes efficient and deadly after free style practice
Instructors are taught to teach Basics with a Modular approach. When a student thinks they "have" a move, their vision is expanded by the potential of an extension to that move.
The teaching of children requires a different approach to that of adults. Children learn in an effortless and natural way, absorb what is taught and enjoy the Question and Answer sessions to follow through on what has just been taught. Adults do not accept ideas and principles so readily, already having many personal experiences, so the Instructor must "open the door" to these ideas, and it is up to the adult student if he decides to walk through.
A guide for lower level Instructors is that their prime function is to convey the physical aspects of a technique. The more complex definitions of the Art and its analysis is left to the senior levels who continue the teaching process.
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