I was speaking to a group of senseis and we were talking about all the amazing things we'd seen from the masters. Sensei Tim described a story down in Phoenix of one of Funakoshi's students who is now a master in his own right.
The master was sparring a black belt student, dove between his legs and wound up behind him. Normally, this would be an insane move, but it was done so fluidly, that no one watching was quite sure how it happened.
Astounded, the student said, "that was awesome - how did you do that?" The answer was, "for you, karate is just a hobby."
We talked some more about that, figuring that this master was dedicated each day to karate, perhaps for the entire day. We then asked ourselves, are we willing to pay the price it would take to get that good at something? Is that what separates the masters from the rest of us hobbyists?
We all agreed to be amazed, and also that we were indeed, just hobbyists.
Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts
Friday, May 25, 2007
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Teaching Vs Learning Karate 6 - Collaborative Learning
This is the sixth post in a series that compares traditional teaching to the learning that occurs in the best karate dojos.
When my mother went to school, back in the 1940's, she went to a one-room school house. All grades, k-8, went to the same school house. She'd ride her horse from the farm, stable it in the barn next to the school, and attend with kids from all around. They all knew each other well. I can't say they cared equally about each other, but still, something important was going on that is lost in today's age-segregated schools.
Lost in our modern schools, perhaps, but not lost in our best dojos.
When there are many students of various skill levels and ages, all working in the same dojo, the opportunity for collaborative learning is everywhere. Advanced students (sempai) help the less experienced students (kohai) learn kata, demonstrate form, practice kumite, etc.
The traditional sempai/kohai relationship found in some dojos may not be the best model, because it carries the baggage of too much rigid social hierarchy. With a good dose of western egalitarianism, and some good modeling by the sensei, this form of learning can be very productive, because all students can get individualized instruction, and eventually, all can learn their karate better by being required to teach it.
This approach worked well in my Mother's one room school house. Older kids helped younger kids with math and spelling. The younger kids who were more advanced even helped some of the older kids.
The best collaborative learning not only is modelled by the sensei/teacher, but also taught. For those who have not done it before, the sensei should set up learning pairs, be explicit about the interaction, and then monitor the results. Not only is teaching more individual, the sensei is also ensuring that all students are learning. Often, students will listen to each other better than to the sensei. And you know they'll get more attention.
A recent video on teachertube.com mentioned that a student in a classroom only gets to ask one question a week. That changes completely with collaborative learning.
When my mother went to school, back in the 1940's, she went to a one-room school house. All grades, k-8, went to the same school house. She'd ride her horse from the farm, stable it in the barn next to the school, and attend with kids from all around. They all knew each other well. I can't say they cared equally about each other, but still, something important was going on that is lost in today's age-segregated schools.
Lost in our modern schools, perhaps, but not lost in our best dojos.
When there are many students of various skill levels and ages, all working in the same dojo, the opportunity for collaborative learning is everywhere. Advanced students (sempai) help the less experienced students (kohai) learn kata, demonstrate form, practice kumite, etc.
The traditional sempai/kohai relationship found in some dojos may not be the best model, because it carries the baggage of too much rigid social hierarchy. With a good dose of western egalitarianism, and some good modeling by the sensei, this form of learning can be very productive, because all students can get individualized instruction, and eventually, all can learn their karate better by being required to teach it.
This approach worked well in my Mother's one room school house. Older kids helped younger kids with math and spelling. The younger kids who were more advanced even helped some of the older kids.
The best collaborative learning not only is modelled by the sensei/teacher, but also taught. For those who have not done it before, the sensei should set up learning pairs, be explicit about the interaction, and then monitor the results. Not only is teaching more individual, the sensei is also ensuring that all students are learning. Often, students will listen to each other better than to the sensei. And you know they'll get more attention.
A recent video on teachertube.com mentioned that a student in a classroom only gets to ask one question a week. That changes completely with collaborative learning.
Teaching Vs Learning Karate 4 - Feedback and Motivation
This is the fourth post in a series comparing traditional teaching to the learning that occurs in the best karate dojos.
In a traditional classroom, you start a course with an "A" and then complete a series of assignments. Each of the assignments is graded, and the "A" is yours to lose if you don't approach perfection on each of them (90% or above). The feedback you get on each assignment is often just the score, and sometimes a "good job" comment. The problems with this approach are many.
The first problem is that the structure of grading inhibits risk-taking in learning. If you have to perform each exercise nearly perfectly, you attempt only what is safe for your grade. You won't push the boundaries of the exercise to see what works, and more importantly, to learn what doesn't work. Contrast the situation with karate, where failure is actually an important part of learning a new technique. To learn well in karate, you have to accept failure as part of the learning process.
The second problem is the shift in motivation caused by this grading system. Are you trying to perform well because you want to learn something new, or to avoid failure? When grades become the point of learning, you disconnect from your authentic motivation. When you do that, you become prone to losing your motivation altogether, especially if you should slip (the "A" is yours to lose, and once you slip, you can almost never recover).
Authentic motivation is key to learning and its close companion is enjoyment. The type of feedback you receive as a learner can maintain or destroy your motivation and enjoyment. In a traditional course, the purpose of feedback is to assign a grade and often to rank you against your peers. In authentic learning, the purpose of feedback is to improve the learning itself. But authentic feedback is not a rating of performance, instead the instructor uses feedback to
Wrapping up, let me leave you with the thought that above all else, motivation must be preserved. You can't teach students who don't want to learn, or in the case of the dojo, aren't even there.
In a traditional classroom, you start a course with an "A" and then complete a series of assignments. Each of the assignments is graded, and the "A" is yours to lose if you don't approach perfection on each of them (90% or above). The feedback you get on each assignment is often just the score, and sometimes a "good job" comment. The problems with this approach are many.
The first problem is that the structure of grading inhibits risk-taking in learning. If you have to perform each exercise nearly perfectly, you attempt only what is safe for your grade. You won't push the boundaries of the exercise to see what works, and more importantly, to learn what doesn't work. Contrast the situation with karate, where failure is actually an important part of learning a new technique. To learn well in karate, you have to accept failure as part of the learning process.
The second problem is the shift in motivation caused by this grading system. Are you trying to perform well because you want to learn something new, or to avoid failure? When grades become the point of learning, you disconnect from your authentic motivation. When you do that, you become prone to losing your motivation altogether, especially if you should slip (the "A" is yours to lose, and once you slip, you can almost never recover).
Authentic motivation is key to learning and its close companion is enjoyment. The type of feedback you receive as a learner can maintain or destroy your motivation and enjoyment. In a traditional course, the purpose of feedback is to assign a grade and often to rank you against your peers. In authentic learning, the purpose of feedback is to improve the learning itself. But authentic feedback is not a rating of performance, instead the instructor uses feedback to
- enhance (or at least preserve) the enthusiasm of the learner;
- recognize what is done right and should keep happening;
- suggest areas for improvement.
- give the student a complement on a genuine accomplishment to get their attention;
- point out what else it is that they're doing right;
- ask a question so the student becomes aware of an issue and can self-correct any problems, such as "what's your target in this technique?" or "how could you hurt yourself doing this?", and if necessary be more direct;
- if the student is doing everything right, then say so, and give them the next challenge in scaffold of learning.
Wrapping up, let me leave you with the thought that above all else, motivation must be preserved. You can't teach students who don't want to learn, or in the case of the dojo, aren't even there.
Teaching Vs Learning Karate 3 - More Authentic Learning
This is the third post in a series that compares traditional teaching to the learning that occurs in the best karate dojos.
If you've read posts 1 and 2, you may be saying, "wait a minute - karate is not authentic, because my sensei is all into bowing, and ousing, and we punch the air all the time." And if he or she does, you have a point - I concede that not all karate teaching is authentic, and in fact, I'm arguing for much more of teaching in karate to be authentic. You can find plenty of commentary, such as 24 Fighting Chickens and Bruce Lee who make the point that traditional karate is non-authentic.
Let's return to some more authentic and inauthentic examples of training.
Take stances. We spend lots of time learning in shotokan karate about front stance. Front stance is authentic only if your goal is traditional art - then it's used primarily in kata. For any kind of self defense or sparring, kumite stance is used. It is a springy stance alowing movement in any direction and great power. On rare occasions, you might see someone shift from kumite stance to front stance for a finishing blow.
If your goal is self-defense or sport karate, authentic training should be tied to your skill level. You might start with one-step kumite, which pairs people into defender, attacker pairs. Initially, the attacker tells the defender what's coming, executes, and it's up to the defender to get out of the way, parry, block, or counter-attack as appropriate. Still, you might ask, why is that authentic? Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't - it depends on the skill level of the practitioners. If at least one of the karateka is not experienced, at least one-step kumite slows things down so that the less experienced person doesn't get clobbered, and has a chance to develop awareness, timing, and can be comfortable in these simplified situations before moving on.
Sidebar: in an earlier post, I mentioned "scaffolding" where the difficulty of learning situations is progressively increased. Learning theorists sometimes call a goldilocks exercise like this that is not too hard and yet not too easy, a zone of proximal development or ZPD. The goal of every instructor should be to find the ZPD for his or her students. Let's return to the example.
Let's say the students have become comfortable with one-step kumite. It's easy to increase the difficulty while controlling for safety by adding parry-and-counter to the initial attack. In parry-and-coutner, the defender knows what's coming, but has to parry and counter-attack. A more difficult progression is to limit the number of moves to 2 or 3, tell the defender that one of the set is coming, but not which. Good sensei's progress until free-sparring is developed.
Taking authenticity one step further, are folks like Peyton Quinn who developed "Adrenal Stress Conditioning". The dress attackers up in big padded suits, develop realistic scenarios, add screaming and shouting, and then freak the defenders out. The purpose is not to overwhelm them, but to teach them as authentically yet safely as possible. Authentically, because in real life, you often get freaked out, your adrenaline kicks in, and your motor control and vision degrade considerably. "Redman" is a variant that many law enforcement agencies use. If you're not freaked out by one assailant, then they use two. If that's not bad enough, they arm them. You get the point.
Meanwhile, back in the classroom...
Johny is doing times tables and copying spelling words. He's probably wishing he could put his teacher through some authentic red man training. Maybe then the students could start doing some authentic learning.
If you've read posts 1 and 2, you may be saying, "wait a minute - karate is not authentic, because my sensei is all into bowing, and ousing, and we punch the air all the time." And if he or she does, you have a point - I concede that not all karate teaching is authentic, and in fact, I'm arguing for much more of teaching in karate to be authentic. You can find plenty of commentary, such as 24 Fighting Chickens and Bruce Lee who make the point that traditional karate is non-authentic.
Let's return to some more authentic and inauthentic examples of training.
Take stances. We spend lots of time learning in shotokan karate about front stance. Front stance is authentic only if your goal is traditional art - then it's used primarily in kata. For any kind of self defense or sparring, kumite stance is used. It is a springy stance alowing movement in any direction and great power. On rare occasions, you might see someone shift from kumite stance to front stance for a finishing blow.
If your goal is self-defense or sport karate, authentic training should be tied to your skill level. You might start with one-step kumite, which pairs people into defender, attacker pairs. Initially, the attacker tells the defender what's coming, executes, and it's up to the defender to get out of the way, parry, block, or counter-attack as appropriate. Still, you might ask, why is that authentic? Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't - it depends on the skill level of the practitioners. If at least one of the karateka is not experienced, at least one-step kumite slows things down so that the less experienced person doesn't get clobbered, and has a chance to develop awareness, timing, and can be comfortable in these simplified situations before moving on.
Sidebar: in an earlier post, I mentioned "scaffolding" where the difficulty of learning situations is progressively increased. Learning theorists sometimes call a goldilocks exercise like this that is not too hard and yet not too easy, a zone of proximal development or ZPD. The goal of every instructor should be to find the ZPD for his or her students. Let's return to the example.
Let's say the students have become comfortable with one-step kumite. It's easy to increase the difficulty while controlling for safety by adding parry-and-counter to the initial attack. In parry-and-coutner, the defender knows what's coming, but has to parry and counter-attack. A more difficult progression is to limit the number of moves to 2 or 3, tell the defender that one of the set is coming, but not which. Good sensei's progress until free-sparring is developed.
Taking authenticity one step further, are folks like Peyton Quinn who developed "Adrenal Stress Conditioning". The dress attackers up in big padded suits, develop realistic scenarios, add screaming and shouting, and then freak the defenders out. The purpose is not to overwhelm them, but to teach them as authentically yet safely as possible. Authentically, because in real life, you often get freaked out, your adrenaline kicks in, and your motor control and vision degrade considerably. "Redman" is a variant that many law enforcement agencies use. If you're not freaked out by one assailant, then they use two. If that's not bad enough, they arm them. You get the point.
Meanwhile, back in the classroom...
Johny is doing times tables and copying spelling words. He's probably wishing he could put his teacher through some authentic red man training. Maybe then the students could start doing some authentic learning.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Karate and Authentic Learning
Authentic learning is a method of constructing learning experiences (you can't quite say teaching) that places the learner in the center of situations which as much as possible simulate the performance environment. Arguably, it is one of the most effective learning methods around. It also goes by the name apprentice learning.
Different karate dojos (learning environments) may or may not be authentic.
Before diving in to the question of whether karate is authentic learning, however, we have to ask - what is the performance environment? What are we trying to accomplish? Answering this question is the key to answering the other question -- is karate authentic learning? -- and answering it at the personal level -- is my karate authentic learning?
So, ask yourself, "What do I want to be able to do?"
The reason the question of authenticity is so important can be illustrated by the goal "Defeat a mugger." I'll illustrate with a story.
I began learning karate eight years ago. After about a year, I experienced my first free sparring. Because I had been learning traditional karate-do (the art form), I was very good at jabbing by extending my fist forward, lunging, and pulling my draw hand to my opposite hip. I attacked my opponent (a third-year student) with all my enthusiasm and confidence. I missed. Bam. With my draw hand pulled back to my hip, there was a huge opening around my entire right side, which my opponent's huge fist filled. His fist cracked into my head, drove my glasses into my head, popped the lens out of the frame, and left a half-inch, freely bleeding gash in my eyebrow. I was so stunned (literally) that I spun as I fell to the floor. Less hurt than disillusioned, but that hurt deeply in its own way.
The hurt was the starting point of my answering what do I want to get out of this practice? Do I want to be invincible? Not gonna happen. So what, then? I decided I wanted the following out of my dojo:
So, my recommendation, is to determine what you want out of karate and align what you want with your learning environment. If you're in your perfect environment, your very lucky. If not, you may have to talk with your current instructor to request custom learning, a change of lessons, or even advice on changing dojos.
What you can't afford to do, on the street, is find out that your karate was not authentic. I have a small scar to remind me how lucky I was to lose that sparring match.
Acknowledgements
I was inspired to write this column by the blog http://vickygraboske.blogspot.com
Different karate dojos (learning environments) may or may not be authentic.
Before diving in to the question of whether karate is authentic learning, however, we have to ask - what is the performance environment? What are we trying to accomplish? Answering this question is the key to answering the other question -- is karate authentic learning? -- and answering it at the personal level -- is my karate authentic learning?
So, ask yourself, "What do I want to be able to do?"
- Get a black belt.
- Defeat a mugger.
- Keep my family safe.
- Compete in karate.
- Stay in shape.
- Beat up the bully.
- Be part of a venerable tradition.
- Live through a war.
- Seek perfection of character. (See Funakoshi's Dojo Kun)
- Take down criminals.
The reason the question of authenticity is so important can be illustrated by the goal "Defeat a mugger." I'll illustrate with a story.
I began learning karate eight years ago. After about a year, I experienced my first free sparring. Because I had been learning traditional karate-do (the art form), I was very good at jabbing by extending my fist forward, lunging, and pulling my draw hand to my opposite hip. I attacked my opponent (a third-year student) with all my enthusiasm and confidence. I missed. Bam. With my draw hand pulled back to my hip, there was a huge opening around my entire right side, which my opponent's huge fist filled. His fist cracked into my head, drove my glasses into my head, popped the lens out of the frame, and left a half-inch, freely bleeding gash in my eyebrow. I was so stunned (literally) that I spun as I fell to the floor. Less hurt than disillusioned, but that hurt deeply in its own way.
The hurt was the starting point of my answering what do I want to get out of this practice? Do I want to be invincible? Not gonna happen. So what, then? I decided I wanted the following out of my dojo:
- personal drive
- health
- more safe (rather than a guarantee of safety)
- companionship
- last, and least, some art
So, my recommendation, is to determine what you want out of karate and align what you want with your learning environment. If you're in your perfect environment, your very lucky. If not, you may have to talk with your current instructor to request custom learning, a change of lessons, or even advice on changing dojos.
What you can't afford to do, on the street, is find out that your karate was not authentic. I have a small scar to remind me how lucky I was to lose that sparring match.
Acknowledgements
I was inspired to write this column by the blog http://vickygraboske.blogspot.com
Karate and the Wiki Community
If you're both a karate practitioner and a netizen, you've probably tried to use wikipedia to learn more about your martial art. As far as it goes, wikipedia is pretty good. As far as it goes.
What WP lacks, is depth of subject and proper orientation. WP is about karate not in support of learning karate. What the net needs is a community supported site. A site where we work to gether to capture and even develop new knowledge about learning and practicing karate.
That need is why we, members of the Palmer Lake Shotokan Karate dojo, created a wiki site for collaboratively building up the knowledge we'd like to see about martial arts, and karate in particular. That site is KarateForge - the place where karate can be hammered to our needs.
We're just getting started, but we already have articles on techniques that wikipedia doesn't have. And we cover those subjects from the I-want-to-learn-how perspective. Sure we throw in a little encyclopedic knowledge, but it's mostly about how.
We're also humble. We don't believe we know it all. Come join with us to create the Martial Arts Book of Knowledge (MABOK). Membership is easy and you will never have your email shared with commercial interests.
We're also frugal. We don't think it takes a lot of money to learn karate. We won't charge you a thing for membership.
We're also lonely. If you run a dojo and don't have a web page, come join us. Put your page next to ours and make this the place to go on the web.
If friends are not enough to convince you, think how easy it is to run a school where you can make announcements, refer to articles that you've written, and have lively discussion of the art vs. application of karate.
What WP lacks, is depth of subject and proper orientation. WP is about karate not in support of learning karate. What the net needs is a community supported site. A site where we work to gether to capture and even develop new knowledge about learning and practicing karate.
That need is why we, members of the Palmer Lake Shotokan Karate dojo, created a wiki site for collaboratively building up the knowledge we'd like to see about martial arts, and karate in particular. That site is KarateForge - the place where karate can be hammered to our needs.
We're just getting started, but we already have articles on techniques that wikipedia doesn't have. And we cover those subjects from the I-want-to-learn-how perspective. Sure we throw in a little encyclopedic knowledge, but it's mostly about how.
We're also humble. We don't believe we know it all. Come join with us to create the Martial Arts Book of Knowledge (MABOK). Membership is easy and you will never have your email shared with commercial interests.
We're also frugal. We don't think it takes a lot of money to learn karate. We won't charge you a thing for membership.
We're also lonely. If you run a dojo and don't have a web page, come join us. Put your page next to ours and make this the place to go on the web.
If friends are not enough to convince you, think how easy it is to run a school where you can make announcements, refer to articles that you've written, and have lively discussion of the art vs. application of karate.
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