One Size Fits None
With Grandmaster Kwon when I received my black belt in 1998.
In my martial arts days, I learned quickly how different instructors affected my enjoyment of class. Master Kwon was an amazing teacher, but I hated when we did a “lecture” class and had to sit for almost the entire hour. Another instructor was very literal and expected us to do techniques in a very straightforward way. Another had studied some other martial arts and mixed those techniques in.
And then when I began teaching, I realized that I’d have to make sure I stayed for another class so I could get a workout. You could sometimes break a sweat teaching, but most of the time you had to focus on the students and make sure they were doing their best.
Overall, I did not realize how good a school it was while I was there. I mean, I knew I was learning quickly and growing as a person, but it wasn’t until I was out of the school that I realized how lucky I was to have the level of instruction I did.
When I moved to Greensboro, NC, I sought out a new school. I stopped in at several studios and saw sub-par students and teachers at most of them. At one, I took a free class and within minutes we all realized I was the most experienced person in the room, and that included the two instructors.
Finally I heard about a school that was taught by an old-school Korean grand master. They taught in English and Korean and it seemed a very exclusive kind of place. I found it and watched a class. I was no where near the most experienced or talented person there, in fact I felt like a white belt. I was sold almost immediately and signed up for a year.
But it didn’t take long for me to realize that though I appreciated the intensity of the school and the new approach to old techniques, it was probably not a good fit for me. Master Kwon had always taught the “art” side of martial arts: that it is about growing as a person, developing skills, and finally learning to fight. This new school had the philosophy that you had to develop the skill to end a fight with one blow. And that was it. No spiritual aspects. If a technique was more showy than practical there was no place for it. They were focused on perfecting a handful of kicks and strikes that you could deliver with maximum power to end a fight immediately.
That’s a solid approach if you are training fighters or law enforcement or something, but not for just regular folks. There was little discussion about avoided fights, just ending them with maximum damage to the other person.
Not my cup of tea, since the chances of getting into a fight are so slim and most likely will be against a drunken idiot who doesn’t deserve to get his internal organs ruptured. After a couple of months, I just stopped going and began the search again for another school.
It took the new experience for me to realize how fortunate I had been with my first school and instructor. Finding the right fit for a style of training can be a lifetime search, but sometimes you get lucky the first time.
