Bright and early I awoke on Saturday January 28. It was the day that Kyoshi Kovar was coming to Arizona to give a seminar about teaching martial arts and in particular teaching effectivly. Kyoshi Kovar opened his first school in 1978, and he combined the teaching of self-defense and life skills to empower people with the martial arts*. The seminar was to be held at the South Gilbert location of DePalma's Team USA Martial arts, and schools around the country were coming to attend. The seminar started at 9 o'clock, so I arrived around 8:30 am. By the time the seminar had started about 30 people had arrived from around the southwest (and one from canada), to learn from Kyoshi Kovar. Kyoshi Kovar throughout the seminar explained how the best way to teach martial arts, interact with students and parents and all in all just run a great martial arts school. He explained the teaching skills required to best bequeath our martial arts heritage to new generations. His teaching philosophy will be the basis for the ranking system of teaching self-defense. His 16 teaching tools are going to be the guidelines for rating each style and system I encounter. Although to the non-martial arts instructor these tools may seem superficial, or even useless, the experienced instructors realize how important these tools are, especially when teaching younger students. 1- Friendliness 2- Transformational Communication 3- Focus Anchors 4-Preframing 5- 3 x 3 rule 6- public praise, private reprimand 7- 3 d's 8- Praise challenge praise 9- influence over authority 10- SSL rule 11-Disguise repitition 12- zero downtime 13- rise to challenging students 14-every huddle discussion a masterpiece 15- safety first 16-never compromise the instructor student relationship. This seminar really helped me define a previously nebulous concept, effectiveness at teaching. But, now i am ready to push on.
* if you would like to learn more about Kyoshi Kovar and his schools, Kovar's Satori Academy of Martial Arts, then check out his website - http://www.kovars.com/
Statement of Purpose
This project is an investigation of 5 Martial Arts styles. Self-defense is a major theme in martial arts today and to better understand how different martial arts schools and styles treat self-defense I am going to learn all I can (given time restraints) about each of the five styles. These schools will be chosen from a list of local martial arts studios, and the style will be the one that is taught at that studio. Many studios teach multiple styles, so in this case on of the styles taught there will be analyzed. At the end of the project all the schools I visited will be rated and scored to show in which areas they excel or by contrast, fall short.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Martial Styles
Dear Readers,
I have to choose four styles that will be rated in my project besides American Kenpo. I have been contemplating over which styles i should choose, i am leaning towards commonly taught martial arts with large followings in the United States. I am currently in the process of trying to find schools in Scottsdale, Arizona that i should go to train a bit at (to better understand their style of martial arts). If you know any good schools that would be willing to help me in my quest to better understand and rate their style, please comment with their name address and/or website.
Thanks
Mr. Waaler
I have to choose four styles that will be rated in my project besides American Kenpo. I have been contemplating over which styles i should choose, i am leaning towards commonly taught martial arts with large followings in the United States. I am currently in the process of trying to find schools in Scottsdale, Arizona that i should go to train a bit at (to better understand their style of martial arts). If you know any good schools that would be willing to help me in my quest to better understand and rate their style, please comment with their name address and/or website.
Thanks
Mr. Waaler
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Practitioner VS Style
As with all things, it is not the "what" that matters so much, but the "who". The greatest athlete is not great because of the sport, but because of themselves. This is necessarily true for the martial arts. So throughout the course of this project, while one style may seem superior, in reality it is up to the practitioner for the effectiveness of the style. For example, while traditional Karate-do may seem too slow or too linear, a master at Karate-do can easily win a fight.
My project is not about proving which style is superior, but which style is most efficient when it comes to self-defense. Effective at teaching self-defense, effective at fighting in self-defense situations and easiest to use. Perhaps one style may take years to learn enough to defend yourself, while other styles only take 10 months to learn enough to defend yourself. My project will attempt to make clear what styles are more apt in the area of self-defense.
When it comes to the martial arts, there are 2 main groups of thought- defense before spirit, or spirit before defense. Either the martial art style is based in the martial or the art of the martial arts. Krav Maga is very martial, while Tai Chi is very artistic. So obviously when it comes down to self defense, some styles will be more effective with less training time, because the style is based on defense and fighting.
A problem that arises from modern day martial arts is the tournament circuit. So many schools nowadays have changed their curriculum to suit the needs of the tournaments, more flashy moves and less realistic fighting styles. The sport of fighting has increased in popularity, and therefore has changed the way fighting is taught, because instead of always training to fight in real life situations, many schools teach to fight only in the safety of the ring. But, with the rise of real life self-defense classes many martial arts are reviving the self-defense aspect of the art.
It is this aspect, the resurgence of self-defense in the martial arts and in individual styles is what I am studying.
My project is not about proving which style is superior, but which style is most efficient when it comes to self-defense. Effective at teaching self-defense, effective at fighting in self-defense situations and easiest to use. Perhaps one style may take years to learn enough to defend yourself, while other styles only take 10 months to learn enough to defend yourself. My project will attempt to make clear what styles are more apt in the area of self-defense.
When it comes to the martial arts, there are 2 main groups of thought- defense before spirit, or spirit before defense. Either the martial art style is based in the martial or the art of the martial arts. Krav Maga is very martial, while Tai Chi is very artistic. So obviously when it comes down to self defense, some styles will be more effective with less training time, because the style is based on defense and fighting.
A problem that arises from modern day martial arts is the tournament circuit. So many schools nowadays have changed their curriculum to suit the needs of the tournaments, more flashy moves and less realistic fighting styles. The sport of fighting has increased in popularity, and therefore has changed the way fighting is taught, because instead of always training to fight in real life situations, many schools teach to fight only in the safety of the ring. But, with the rise of real life self-defense classes many martial arts are reviving the self-defense aspect of the art.
It is this aspect, the resurgence of self-defense in the martial arts and in individual styles is what I am studying.
Friday, January 20, 2012
An Evening Contemplation
Dear Readers,
In an attempt to provide evidence in my ability to accuratly judge the merits of martial arts self-defense capabilities i have provided previous works of mine in this area, please take a look at the attached pages to view a thesis essay on self defense, a performance of a self defense based kata and a self defense technique that i created myself.
The technique describes the movements sufficiently to attempt on your own- warning, be aware that all described manuevers are intended for martial artists and so if you have never trained in the martial arts before use caution before attampting any of these actions.
Thank You
Mr. Waaler
In an attempt to provide evidence in my ability to accuratly judge the merits of martial arts self-defense capabilities i have provided previous works of mine in this area, please take a look at the attached pages to view a thesis essay on self defense, a performance of a self defense based kata and a self defense technique that i created myself.
The technique describes the movements sufficiently to attempt on your own- warning, be aware that all described manuevers are intended for martial artists and so if you have never trained in the martial arts before use caution before attampting any of these actions.
Thank You
Mr. Waaler
First Official Post
Dear Readers,
I have always been interested in the martial arts, in fact i have been studying them for most of my life. I wanted to do this project to further research the martial arts to better understand one third of modern martial arts.
As many martial artists know today the martial arts are much different than what they had been. With the rising popularity of martial arts for show, stunt men, actors, tournament competitors etc. the martial arts have been fundamentally split between the martial and the art. Perhaps this has also allowed the arts to be more popular in general, but it has given the martial arts a lot of bad publicity. The increase in popularity means the opportunity for money has increased, making the martial arts more business than education. This gives rise to martial arts schools that many good martial artists would describe as belt factories. These schools churn out belts not for skill but for money, pay your 2 month fee and you will be upgraded to your next belt. This style of teaching is counterproductive, lessening the quality of the martial arts.
But, there is also a great appeal for these schools, being able to earn a black belt quickly with minimal effort attracts many who don’t know what the martial arts is really about.
Martial arts are not about showy movements and flips that are seen in tournaments or movies; it isn’t even about being able to beat up people. It is about yourself, being confident, self-disciplined, and respectful. And to achieve these traits mental practices are paired with martial exercises to become the best we can be in both our mind and our body.
The ability to defend yourself is most important to your being confident. But self-defense is worthy to learn in any case, even if you don’t want to go through the arts side of martial arts.
My project will show what styles of martial arts are most focused around self-defense, and who most effectively teaches it. This project will analyze 5 styles and rank them on a scale of 1 through 10 for seven categories, for a total score between 7 and 70.
Thanks, keep reading,
Mason Waaler
I have always been interested in the martial arts, in fact i have been studying them for most of my life. I wanted to do this project to further research the martial arts to better understand one third of modern martial arts.
As many martial artists know today the martial arts are much different than what they had been. With the rising popularity of martial arts for show, stunt men, actors, tournament competitors etc. the martial arts have been fundamentally split between the martial and the art. Perhaps this has also allowed the arts to be more popular in general, but it has given the martial arts a lot of bad publicity. The increase in popularity means the opportunity for money has increased, making the martial arts more business than education. This gives rise to martial arts schools that many good martial artists would describe as belt factories. These schools churn out belts not for skill but for money, pay your 2 month fee and you will be upgraded to your next belt. This style of teaching is counterproductive, lessening the quality of the martial arts.
But, there is also a great appeal for these schools, being able to earn a black belt quickly with minimal effort attracts many who don’t know what the martial arts is really about.
Martial arts are not about showy movements and flips that are seen in tournaments or movies; it isn’t even about being able to beat up people. It is about yourself, being confident, self-disciplined, and respectful. And to achieve these traits mental practices are paired with martial exercises to become the best we can be in both our mind and our body.
The ability to defend yourself is most important to your being confident. But self-defense is worthy to learn in any case, even if you don’t want to go through the arts side of martial arts.
My project will show what styles of martial arts are most focused around self-defense, and who most effectively teaches it. This project will analyze 5 styles and rank them on a scale of 1 through 10 for seven categories, for a total score between 7 and 70.
Thanks, keep reading,
Mason Waaler
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)