Teachers Guide to Teaching

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While, most articles jump into the topic immediately, I’m gonna start off with a warning, that if you choose this path, be prepared at the fact that this is an extremely difficult art to teach. And, I’m gonna share with you everything that my Sifu has taught me regarding teaching the art as well as things that I’ve learned from my own experience. I’m gonna do it in a number format so you can pick and choose which you want to read, and that also allows me to add-on things to this article when new experiences arise.

1)Not for they money - I share with you the first and most important thing Sifu has ever taught me when it comes to teaching the art. Don’t do it for the money. What exactly does that mean, well it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be compensated for your teaching. But, what Sifu meant was that there will always be 2 choices in your path in which you must decide. If you run the Wing Chun school in order to make it your living, you will quickly loose the path of why you were originally teaching. Just like Sifu I got into teaching to learn the art.

2)Student and teacher are the same - If Sifu’s lesson was number 1, this is my own personal lesson I share with you my students. That when you begin teaching in Wing Chun, yes you are the Sifu, and the students are your students. But never forget that the teacher and student are the same. That means that once you begin to teach, you should also remember that you should not forget to learn as well. You don’t want to end up like my old high school and college teachers, who give the same lesson year in and year out. Never growing from the experience of teaching but simply reliving the same experience over and over again. Can I say, Bueller?... Bueller?... Bueller?
3)Don’t copy, feel - All teaching involves the simple process of monkey see and monkey do. So, basically you show a motion and the student tries to mimic it. But, Wing Chun teaching involves a more hands on approach, since the student, can’t just look at the technique and hopes to copy it, but must in fact feel what the technique should properly feel like. For example, the simple process of holding the stance of YGKYM, he or she can’t just copy the 4 motions, you must test his structure so he knows what it feels like to be centered.
4)Touch the stove - When I first started teaching, I wanted to keep teaching, and I would never shut up. But through experience and awareness, you come to realize that the student needs to go through both success and failure to truly understand any process or the simplest of techniques. Learning involves that process, so what I’ve come to learn is that, when you show a technique, let the student play around with it for awhile. Don’t be so quick to correct or jump in, only if he’s doing a motion incorrectly which could lead to him or her hurting themselves. How can a student know right, if he doesn’t know wrong? So, in the end, he’s got to touch the stove to know that its truly hot.
5)Earn the name Sifu - On day 1 when you first begin to teach you are called a Sifu. But its only through time and training that you earn the right to be called Sifu. When you first start teaching, you have some knowledge of what you are doing, and because of that you are a teacher. But the title of Sifu while easily thrown around, has to be earned. Not necessarily out of obligation on the student, but through the students eyes he should feel confident that physically, mentally, and spiritually you are in fact a Sifu.
6)Teach what you can do - Everything that I’ve shown any of my students, I can do. Although between the 1st day I taught to the present, my skills have changed, as a teacher you can’t expect students to do things that you, yourself cannot do. In other words, you lose credibility in your teaching, for example if your fat, and then you tell your student you should lose weight.
7)Let them be - One lesson I learned in teaching, and I literally learned it on day 1, is let them be. And that is, if you follow rule #1 which i mentioned, you let students make their own decisions. In other words, to often you see teachers ask, why weren’t you in class, how come you haven’t come in awhile? Well, just like we stated in the opening pages of the website, your here coz you want to be here. You want to learn the ultimate discipline, it’ll have to come from you, not me commanding you to show up and train. Not me saying, how come your not practicing at home. My job is to teach you how to get to the door, your job is to open it.
8)Letting go - About 3 or 4 years ago, I remember talking to Sifu and he discussed his teaching on detachment. Eventually we got on the subject of him, and quitting teaching, and basically I was shocked at the fact that he could so loosely say that he could quit today, if he wanted to. I thought it was just insane at the time, that how can you leave something which you love so much. And, that concept as outrageous as it was for Sifu to say, eventually in time I learned what he had meant, and now after developing the skill and awareness I can literally say the same thing as well. You start with nothing and you end with nothing. As a teacher the lesson of detachment serves so many purposes for you, and at the same time, I can’t really recall specific teachings that lead me to understand it.
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