by Micha Nadia Mathieu

Created on: April 21, 2008

It might seem that all the clubs are more or less similar; but it does not suffice to pay your lessons, buy a kimono and get started to be in good hands. You might even be satisfied with your club ; but because you don't have any comparison point it might not be a good one.
Clubs can make a big difference on what you learn, the skills you get and even if you enjoy the martial art or no. Adding to that, when the instructor is not good enough you might hurt yourself just because you are not doing the moves properly.

First things always go for a trial (one session or two); to try and see what is going on in the class.

Don't forget that the Sensei or instructor being good in his discipline doesn't imply that him being a good instructor.

An instructor that is not looking at you when showing you a move is not a good instructor: first because u see better what he is doing, second because he can see you doing it and therefore correcting you.

An instructor that shows you a move and make you repeat it just a couple of times is not a good instructor: to get a move correctly you have to repeat it again and again and again and again. Why? because you have the time to remember it, to sens if you are doing it right (quite often it is not the case in the beginning, you are unbalanced...etc) by repeating it you feel if there is something wrong or not; and for your instructor to have the time to see what everybody does and correct them.

An instructor that stops everybody from doing an exercise (kick, punch or even push ups) to show one or two persons how to do it is not a good instructor. The only time he should stop everybody is in the unlikely case that almost everybody is doing it wrong. In that case you may wonder why the higher belt are doing it wrong too? they should not.

An instructor who separates beginners and advanced (different classes or separation within the same class) didn't quite well understand the principle of the martial art Dojos. why? Simply because it is part of the philosophy and the goals of the martial arts to mix the different level:
It makes you progress more and more quickly as a beginner, because you are pushed by the fact that you are competing or training with people who are more experienced. They can give you advices, you will see things and experience things that you will not with only beginners. You will see new moves that you would like to try and get excited by the things you will soon be able to do. It will be more challenging and more interesting.

You

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