I think that most people within the martial arts understand by now that ability to perform techniques does not necessarily translate into ability to teach those techniques Being a good karate-ka and being a good instructor are two very different things. Granted, a talented karate-ka may produce good students. As long as the instructor can perform the movements, the students can mimic them and learn in this manner. This is the traditional method of teaching martial arts.
I
believe that there are three basic flaws with this method of teaching. Firstly, it assumes that all students will learn by watching and mimicking their teacher. This is not necessarily true. Studies show that people learn in three different ways: visually, aurally and tactilely (seeing, listening and feeling). Some people just need to be shown a technique and they will pick it up immediately. Some need to hear the technique explained and will constantly ask questions about it before they will understand how to do it. Some people will need to feel the movement many times (or even have the instructor move their limbs in the correct fashion!) before they will be able to perform the technique comfortably. And many people will need a combination of all three. Therefore, our “copy me” teacher will only appeal to the students who can learn purely by watching.

A second flaw to this teaching method is that students will pick up any bad habits that the teacher has. When I see my students doing something wrong, the first thing I do is check to see if I have that flaw in my own training! Then I check the dojo seniors, and finally, I look at the student with the bad habit. This way, I attempt to find the source of the problem and deal with it there.

The third flaw is similar in some ways to the second. If the teacher expects people to just copy their techniques, then we have to assume that the teacher can perform all techniques. This is a dangerous assumption. No one can do everything equally well. A good instructor is able to teach people to do things that the

teacher cannot do himself. A good instructor must allow and encourage students to develop further and along different lines to the instructor. If karate is a martial art, then students must be encouraged to be artistic and creative. It is not particularly artistic to simply copy someone else’s work!. The instructor must be able to bring out the student’s individual talents.