Feedback vs Correction

Have a look at this article

http://www.24fightingchickens.com/2009/02/21/how-to-coach-advanced-karate-students/

Personally one thing that I have found unhelpful in training is for Sensei to say 'do as I say'. As I was recently told at the Kendo Nationals seminar by a Hachidan (8th Dan) "there are many ways to climb a mountain. You can go up one way, or another. However all these roads lead to the top of the mountain". I apologize if I have paraphrased the learned Japanese Hachidan but I think that I enunciate the point clear enough: there are many ways to achieve the same thing; other paths than the one you are currently on may be equally correct and lead equally to the same destination.

When I teach advanced students I try the best that I can to show them the things that I know and let them absorb it into their view of the martial arts. For example last Wednesday I visited our sister Traditional Japanese Karate Network Dojo, Magill Shito Ryu, and I took the senior part of the class for what I would decide as a 'boxing session'. We did boxing style punches, and focus mitt and bag work which was practically unknown to the students. My aim with the training was not to say "this is a better/more correct way of doing things" but rather to show a way that other people use. The students can then reflect upon what they have trained in and see how to use their own training to counter it. They are best placed to know how to use their own training to counter a new 'threat', and hopefully I have made a useful contribution to their training. My stated goal at the outset was to show them how work around the Jodan 'boxing style' combinations that my students use and so hopefully beat them at the next inter-club kumite.

Naturally our club has been working on strategies to defeat their 'chudan centric' manner of sparring. This minor inter-club rivalry benefits all participants.

My first training with our Shihan upon joining the TJKN was an excellent demonstration of the benefit of feedback, as compared with correction. Having never seen my training before, Shihan was able to give me several points of very useful 'feedback'. Of particular note was the manner in which he demonstrated his knowledge. While he could have said "X is the best way of doing this" he instead said "I see you are doing Y, you could also do X (addressing the students who do X), but since you are doing Y, here is how you could improve it".

The real honour in a situation like this is upon the instructor who not only demonstrates their knowledge of 'X' but also of 'Y' and other methods. It is one level of instruction to say "this is how I do X, copy me" and completely another level to be able to say "X is one of many ways of doing something and since you are doing Y this is what you should be doing". The difference in knowledge is exponential. Using the mountain analogy, it is like knowing many different ways to the top of the mountain.

An example of the feedback was for Shihan to say that when moving from kihon-dachi to Zenkutsu-dachi one should slide their front foot upon the ground - moving in the most direct method. However an alternate manner of doing this is by stamping the front foot. This 'stamping' method is slightly slower but still provides the forward motion that the transition demands.

I had been using the latter method, mainly due to my training in Kendo. It would have been perfectly acceptable for Shihan to correct me and say 'this is how you do X'.

As an insight into student psychology I would have done what I was told, and then thought deeply about which is the correct manner of doing things later should I have been corrected. I don't know what my final answer would have been, but if it had been conveyed that using a fumikomi (stamp) did not have the adequate forward motion this would have been difficult to reconcile, especially since I can see how it is correct and applied well in Kendo.

However as a result of getting 'feedback' I could not only refer back to my Kendo training as to how I may improve my forward motion with techniques through fumikomi, (and thus improve my technique) I can also see the benefits of using a more direct movement. I will also examine the sliding movement and try to understand where it may be more appropriate than a fumikomi.

Whilst giving 'correction' would have resulted in a student doing what they are told (perhaps begrudgingly) by giving 'feedback' the result is a student looking to improve on what they are already doing, and also looking to incorporate the alternative way of doing the technique. The student's impression of the instructor is not one of "this person knows a path to the top of the mountain" but instead "this person knows my path, and many others, to the top of the mountain." This is exponentially a higher manner of viewing an instructor.

Importantly, whenever I am explaining how to make the transition from Kihon-dachi to Zenkutsu-dachi, I will show my 'fumikomi' method of transition, but I will also show the alternate method of 'sliding transition' and will explain that while this is not the way that I do the technique, this is a perfetly acceptable alternate manner of doing the technique.

Hopefully I can teach as well as I have been taught.

Osu!