Some of the Best Advice I've Ever Heard on Teaching and Managing
There was a guy several years ago who was one of the first Americans to begin educating us on internal body mechanics. His name is Mike Sigman. Most Americans practicing tai chi were doing it very badly. When he pointed out mistakes and then, rather bluntly I'll admit, told people how to do it better, he made a lot of enemies.
When I began teaching I had a kids' class. I was coaching a 10-year old through a form one day and he began crying. He told me, "You're always criticizing me."
Now, no one is more polite in their coaching than I am, so his tears took me completely by surprise. Not long after this, I stopped teaching kids.
I've had new students come in with martial arts experience, and some of them would look at me as if they were the hired gunslinger when I pointed out the "internal" way of moving, as opposed to the external way they were accustomed to. Sometimes, they didn't want to hear it.
Each time I visit a teacher, a different school, or attend a seminar, I empty my cup...
The Responsibility You Have as a Martial Arts Teacher
I remember the first week I started teaching, ten years ago this month. My class was held in a fitness center in Muscatine, Iowa. Some young guys came in who wanted to learn kung fu. There were four or five of them, ranging in age from 16 to 24.
They lined up and we began warming up, stretching, doing pushups and crunches, and then I demonstrated a form and some techniques that they would be learning, in an effort to excite them about things to come.
And then it hit me. I had to be perfect.
The pressure was immediate. Every move I made in class had to be teacher quality. I couldn't make a mistake. If I did, I would lose credibility with my students. It was a feeling I hadn't expected. These guys were looking at me as if I was the expert, and I needed to prove it every class.
My reaction to this? I trained every day--hard. On weekends, I would train four or five hours a day, refining my technique, working on forms, studying applications and chin-na deeper. In one way I was fortunate...
The Best Thing that Happened to This Martial Artist
I've been writing about people who have been important to our school during this emotional time when we close it down and move South. There are people I haven't saluted due to time limitations--people like Vicky Arratia, Deb Thompson, Gary Whitcanack, Eric Schlichte, Xixuan and Conan Collins, Colin Frye, and of course Kim and Chris Miller. There are many more, too.
Since 2002, however, the most important person of all has been my wife and best friend Nancy. I've never known a woman like her. We started dating in August of 2002. By January, she started into the tai chi class and loved it. As time went on, she encouraged me to buy the building for our school. She got in there and painted and worked so hard.
She also encourages my tournaments and enjoys the road trips. The picture above was taken at a Chicago tournament after I won the gold medal in Advanced Hsing-I forms.
Having Nancy in the classes gave me someone to flirt with, and I enjoyed using her as a "dummy" to demonstrate fig...
A Great Group of Friends
Jay and Penny Stratton were kind enough to host a Going Away Party tonight for Nancy and me. I think I'd be very disappointed if my teacher left town. This Friday, Nancy and I will leave for Florida.
This isn't easy. My students have become our friends. The weather was perfect for tonight's barbeque at the Stratton's. And you should see the woodwork this guy does. What an artist!
Jay is also an artist on the grill. Also at the party were Skip Hackett, Vicky and Boris Arratia, Greg and Carol Surrierer and their daughter Rhiannon, Chris and Kim Miller, Kim Kruse (now married but I'll be darned if I can remember her married name), Chris and Kat Lierly, Doug and Jane Outterson, Jon Stratton and his friend Taylor, and Colin Frye. John Morrow also stopped by.
Over the years, a lot of students have left me, but I've always been there. Vicky said tonight that she always knew the school was there, even if she wasn't, and it gave her comfort. I understand that.
Working full-time and ...
The Heart of Our Kung-Fu School
As our school comes to a close with final classes this Saturday, I'm honoring some of the people who have helped me during the past 10 years of teaching.
Marilyn "Skip" Hackett joined our tai chi class shortly after I began teaching in Bettendorf in 1999 (I began teaching in Muscatine in 1997). She loved tai chi so much that she added the kung fu class to her schedule, even though she was nearly 60 and had never done martial arts before.
Skip quickly became the mother hen of our school, recruiting many new students from her vast number of friends around Bettendorf. She became a publicist, mentioning the classes many times in her Pet Peeves column in the newspaper 50+ Lifestyles. She talked the publisher into giving me a column to discuss philosophy. She was a tireless promoter of the school, and kept student names, phone numbers, and email addresses organized for her dis-organized teacher. She bailed me out many times when I needed to contact students.
Skip became much more than a...
Sometimes Martial Arts Students Become Family
There are two great benefits to teaching martial arts. One is the way that teaching makes you a better martial artist. It pushes you to improve your own skills. That was driven home to me the first night I taught classes--October 1, 1997. As I stood in front of a small group of young guys, I realized that they were looking to me as an expert, and if I made a mistake, I would lose their respect. The pressure to be perfect is intense for a teacher.
The other great thing about teaching is friendship. A few students along the way become much more than students--they become family. The first week I taught classes, two young guys came in to see what was happening. Richie Coulter and Chad Steinke were teenagers. Richie had a brown belt in TKD but was curious about kung fu. The photo shows Chad on left and Richie on right.
They took to the training and became obsessed, rarely missing a class. After four months, Richie said that he had already learned more from me than in 2 years of taekwo...
The Journey of the Teacher/Student
My wife Nancy and I bought a building for our school in October, 2005. For decades, I had dreamed of having my own school. My class schedules were being disrupted by the people I rented space from, and when we found an inexpensive building in downtown Bettendorf, we jumped at the chance to buy it. I never really expected to open a school while working full-time, and I braced for the additional drain on my time and energy.
The past year and 4 months has been an enlightening experience in many ways. Running a martial arts school takes a lot more time than I'm able to give it when putting in 55 hours a week for my primary full-time job (including commuting time). The drain on energy has been tremendous, not to mention the financial drain. Most months, Nancy and I have contributed hundreds of dollars out of the paychecks from our full-time jobs in order to pay the school's expenses. We haven't really minded, because this is a true labor of love. I've lost thousands of dollars every year ...
Author - Instructor
Ken Gullette
I have practiced martial arts since 1973 and began studying the internal arts in 1987. My goal is to cut years off your development time by coaching you in the real skills for high-quality Tai Chi, Xingyi, Bagua. To see more about my bio, click the "About Ken" link on the menu at the top of this page.
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