Bagwork & ego & growth

A place to share ideas, concerns, questions, and thoughts about women and the martial arts.

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dmsdc
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Joined: Mon Jul 24, 2000 6:01 am
Location: Washington, DC
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Bagwork & ego & growth

Post by dmsdc »

New average female student in dojo hitting bag during 1st couple weeks.

dink, dink, dink, dink...

New average male student in dojo hitting bag during 1st couple weeks.

BAM!!!, BAM!!!, BAM!!!, BAM!!!...

Now, most of us know that the woman will likely be on the road to having better technique since she can't manifest as much innate power -- and the male student, having good power, will have to work harder to find the raison d'etre of technique.

What is our role as teachers to help both of these students progress without one student being overly discouraged and one overly encouraged by their respective sound effects on the bags.

Dana
david
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Joined: Thu Sep 17, 1998 6:01 am
Location: Boston, MA

Bagwork & ego & growth

Post by david »

Dana,

That's a very good take on the dynamics that can happen with male/female, weaker/stronger beginners.

Thankfully, the sound one makes on the bag doesn't constitute the practice, nor imply correct application of techniques. Besides, As Bruce once said, "The bag doesn't hit back."

Power is only one attribute of the practice and a good teacher will work with the "dinker" and the "bammer" on refining that and the other attributes required.

The totality of the practitioner determines the quality of his/her practice. Each will have areas of weaknesses and strengths. A good teacher will work with each to address the weaknesses and to refine the strengths.

Simple enough it sounds. But many teachers out there are trying make the students clones of themselves rather than facilitate the development of separate martial artists unto themselves.

Does the teacher know this about him/herself? Can the student differentiate? That's the hard part.

david
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