Life lessons from the dojo
Getting back into the swing of things… and continuing to find more differences between what I’ve been taught and how things are done at this new dojo. Ah well. It’s not like I wasn’t expecting it.
243: It’s hard to overcome the curse of knowledge
Much of today’s class was spent with the students split into two groups: the green and blue belts being taught by the sensei, and the white belts (including me) being taught by two teenage orange belts. All credit to the orange belts; they were quite skilled teachers, despite their age. That said, you could tell it was difficult for them to really understand that the white-belt adults hadn’t internalized what was being taught yet. They chained together movements that I would have broken down into tiny component parts, they only did two or three run-throughs of a kata before moving on to the next thing, and so forth. And I think part of this stems from the “curse of knowledge”, which is a bias that makes it hard to put yourself in the mindset of a beginner. It’s hard to remember what it’s like not to know something, even if you yourself were in a position of not knowing only months before. It’s definitely a bias to watch out for, especially when you’re teaching very new beginners who might not have even the basic toolbox to pick up what you’re teaching.
244: Leading by team still requires one person to be in charge
We had two examples of this tonight. First was the aforementioned white-belt instruction by a pair of orange belts. There was another instance where the full class was being taught by four blue belts. The sensei had to step away for a few minutes and told the blue belts “run the class through these two katas, do at least twice through with count and correction, and at least once without count.” Sounds simple, right? Nonetheless, there was quite a lot of nervous discussion amongst the blue belts about who would do the count, who would do the corrections, whether this particular repetition would be counted or not, and so forth. Both with the blue belts and the orange belts, one student ultimately took charge and was the “leader”, even though the whole group had been tasked with giving the instruction. And honestly, I think it has to be that way. Leading by committee is fine… but someone still needs to be the chairperson.
245: You haven’t really learned something until you can explain WHY you’re doing it
One of the things I really like about this sensei is that she continually puts people on the spot and asks them to explain why we’re doing a particular move as part of a kata. Because without that level of explanation, a kata isn’t a martial art, it’s a glorified dance. And until you can explain why you’re doing something, you don’t really know it. This is one of the reasons that even after two years of tai chi, I still feel like I don’t really understand what I’m doing when I do my form. Oh, I can be flowing and pretty with the best of them, but I don’t really know why I’m doing all the moves. One of the worst explanations in any forum - be it martial arts, the office, the kitchen, or the halls of parliament - is “just because” or “because that’s the way it’s always been done.” Ask WHY. Ask it a lot. Ask it until you’re satisfied with the answer. It’s the only way to learn.
243: It’s hard to overcome the curse of knowledge
Much of today’s class was spent with the students split into two groups: the green and blue belts being taught by the sensei, and the white belts (including me) being taught by two teenage orange belts. All credit to the orange belts; they were quite skilled teachers, despite their age. That said, you could tell it was difficult for them to really understand that the white-belt adults hadn’t internalized what was being taught yet. They chained together movements that I would have broken down into tiny component parts, they only did two or three run-throughs of a kata before moving on to the next thing, and so forth. And I think part of this stems from the “curse of knowledge”, which is a bias that makes it hard to put yourself in the mindset of a beginner. It’s hard to remember what it’s like not to know something, even if you yourself were in a position of not knowing only months before. It’s definitely a bias to watch out for, especially when you’re teaching very new beginners who might not have even the basic toolbox to pick up what you’re teaching.
244: Leading by team still requires one person to be in charge
We had two examples of this tonight. First was the aforementioned white-belt instruction by a pair of orange belts. There was another instance where the full class was being taught by four blue belts. The sensei had to step away for a few minutes and told the blue belts “run the class through these two katas, do at least twice through with count and correction, and at least once without count.” Sounds simple, right? Nonetheless, there was quite a lot of nervous discussion amongst the blue belts about who would do the count, who would do the corrections, whether this particular repetition would be counted or not, and so forth. Both with the blue belts and the orange belts, one student ultimately took charge and was the “leader”, even though the whole group had been tasked with giving the instruction. And honestly, I think it has to be that way. Leading by committee is fine… but someone still needs to be the chairperson.
245: You haven’t really learned something until you can explain WHY you’re doing it
One of the things I really like about this sensei is that she continually puts people on the spot and asks them to explain why we’re doing a particular move as part of a kata. Because without that level of explanation, a kata isn’t a martial art, it’s a glorified dance. And until you can explain why you’re doing something, you don’t really know it. This is one of the reasons that even after two years of tai chi, I still feel like I don’t really understand what I’m doing when I do my form. Oh, I can be flowing and pretty with the best of them, but I don’t really know why I’m doing all the moves. One of the worst explanations in any forum - be it martial arts, the office, the kitchen, or the halls of parliament - is “just because” or “because that’s the way it’s always been done.” Ask WHY. Ask it a lot. Ask it until you’re satisfied with the answer. It’s the only way to learn.