Monday, October 30, 2006
Training with Advanced Students
From now onwards, we will train with the rest of the students, instead of among ourselves, the beginner class. I thought it was really great. You get a lot more personal attention to your technique when you partner with a higher belt. All the advanced students I partnered with were very helpful and patient. I found their suggestions especially helpful for correcting the details of my forms. One small dilemna is if something they suggest about technique is a bit different from what you remember the instructor saying. It feels unseemly to argue, but you wish to follow your teacher's instructions too.
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Ask. I've trained with three Korean kwanjangnims. One, in Minnesota (college), did the Chonji forms. The second (in Atlanta), did the WTF forms. There was a break between those two of a long enough time that I don't recall the differences in their stances, etc.
My current studio (in a city right outside of Seoul) does WTF forms but uses very, very different stances than I'm used to. I'm working on learning my studio's stances, but for the first several months, he let me do it "the American" way.
He explained to me that styles differ slightly from region to region and studio to studio, yes, even here in Korea. Ask your Master what he wants and go with it, but recognize that minor differences (or, OK, ones that feel huge like my arae makki stance) are not necessarily WRONG.
I agree that different styles are not more 'correct' than one another. I meant stuff that you are going to get corrected on by the instructor anyway if you do it differently, e.g. where he wants your arm when doing a middle block.
Right, I understand, but asking your Kwanjangnim or the senior students which is correct isn't arguing.
There was a time in Atlanta that I was sure the most senior black belt was using the wrong stance on a form. I asked him and he asked Kwanjangnim. Turns out, he was misremembering. It happens. He wasn't offended and Kwanjangnim wasn't either.
But I agree--sometimes it feels funny to disagree with a senior belt.
I'll keep it in mind. I think it feels funny to disagree because I don't want to make myself look smarter, by bringing up something which I think I remember better.
Maybe this is just some Asian thing (I am Indian) to feel strongly about it, I don't know.
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