Honour sinks where commerce long prevails (Oliver Goldsmith). Its been almost 3 months since I opened my school in Blackrock, County Dublin, and I am happy that I am now in a position where I break even. For me, this venture has been more an experiment in seeing what is possible than in making my fortune. It was the right thing to do, after 20 years of training and 2 years of teaching martial arts. I am not a person who likes to place myself at the centre of things and definitely not one who likes to lecture from a position of Authority. In my many years of experience as a teacher, I have always recognised that mutual respect is the key to education. In many ways, the dysfunction which the teacher tolerates within themselves becomes the injustice which is tolerated in the group. It has been an interesting few months, noticing how many people want to belong to something, how many people want to believe in something and, in some cases, how many people seem to lose all critical faculties and buy into a guru/disciple relationship with a smile on their faces. I am still uncomfortable with marketing but am cognisant of its necessity in perpetuating my project and enriching the experience of my dedicated students. Coming from a combat sports background and having recently dabbled in some old methods of training which we used when preparing ourselves for full contact tournaments in the past, Ive been reminded of the importance of allowing your students to earn their skills in pressure tests. By engaging in these games we, the Instructor honour ourselves, our students and our martial arts. Otherwise, what are we practicing only a kind of dance which looks like fighting but is really just an exhilarating ballet. Maybe I am just getting cynical in my fourth decade. I believe I am honouring myself. As the great bard, William Shakespeare wrote, As he was valiant, I honour him. But as he was ambitious, I slew him. At the recent Instructor Course in Scenario training with the honourable Rory Miller, I had a nice chat with a man whom I consider an old school martial artist who said that many of the best schools he had been to had only 5 or 6 people training on the mats. This is something I subscribe with. How many of our most notable Instructors are valiant, how many are merely ambitious? That is a question worth asking.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 15:24:49 +0000
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