Teaching Taijiquan 2:

 Motivation and Progress

 Written by Nick Gudge (last updated August 2012)

 This short article is the second of five aimed at those who are thinking of changing their approach to teaching. Specifically this article is about understanding why students undertake taijiquan classes and how classes can best meet their goals. It attempts to prompt some questioning of motivation in both students and teachers, to highlight some common flaws in teaching approach and to recommend a few teaching methods that have proved successful over more than a decade. For those readers that a just looking for some suggestions I would recommend reading the third article of this series ‘Teaching taijiquan - Suggestions for Beginning Teaching.’ For those who have longer term aspirations in teaching and who want to understand more so they can develop their own methods, please read on.

To begin, I would like to look at two things: the aspirations, motivations and over time the progress of the teacher and the aspirations, motivations and ultimately the progress of the student. The combined measure of success of these two factors will principally determine the success of the teaching process.

For many teachers, teaching means doing what their teacher did, with perhaps a few minor adaptations because of different abilities. Few train as teachers. Even those that do train as teachers, generally they train with teachers who teach them taijiquan and not teachers who teach them how to teach. A large pyramid of teachers or a teacher’s training program is not an indication of quality. As in most martial arts, some small understanding (not skill) in taijiquan is normally the only criteria for teaching. Most classes are small scale and without long term planning.

For me what constitutes successful teaching is the progress students make in gaining skills. This requires a range of skills, both in taijiquan and teaching but starts with understanding the students’ understand, skills, motivations and needs. We will come to this shortly.

Teaching Motivation:

For most would be teacher, beginning to teach taijiquan comes as a ‘next step,’ following on from some years of study, coupled with a perception of gaining some skills and not finding much of a learning challenge within their teacher’s environment. For some it is an opportunity to make money. For a few, it arrives as a response to a new location and the lack of a place and people to practice with. Frequently, it is an opportunity for ego aggrandisement which tends to lead to an abuse of position. Frequently it is a combination of several of these. Failure to recognise and understand this motivation is not much of a concern initially but can be seriously detrimental in the medium to long term. Failure to recognise the problems of teacher motivation leads to fundamental problems in the structure, methodology and detail of instruction as well as failure to meet the needs of the student.

It is not my intention to analyse or judge the reasons people choose to teach, particularly as the psychology of teaching is an enormous topic. It remains true that parts of it have truly significant implications on the performance of any given teacher. I refer in particular to those elements of psychological understanding that make the relationship between student and teacher truly effective. For a small number of people some of this understanding is naturally derived in the course of their upbringing and these people are generally referred to as ‘natural’ or ‘gifted’ teachers. They are very rare. For the rest of us the more some understanding both of our own psychology and the psychology of the classroom are critical elements to becoming a successful taijiquan teacher.

Student Motivation

It is my experience that the student’s motivation is the principle element in determining the progress they make.

In is also my experience most students (more than 90%) come to taijiquan with little or no interest in ‘quan’ or fighting skills. They are interested in better health, de-stressing, relaxing, non-strenuous exercise, injury recovery, pain management, longevity and similar aims. These are all admirable and achievable objectives of a taijiquan student. Understanding how taijiquan can practically and successful meet these goals and needs is a major requirement of any would be taijiquan teacher. That is understanding and meeting the needs of students is the single most significant factor in teaching taijiquan.

This is not to say that taijiquan is a panacea for all ills or that the objectives of taijiquan are far broader and more demanding than those described above. However if the immediate needs or motivations of the student are not met then it is very unlikely that the students’ motivations will evolve into a broader desire to understand more about taijiquan and the gaining of its skills.

The burden of teaching lies on the teacher. The teacher must explain how taijiquan practice and understanding will allow the opportunity to reach their goals. For many teachers this is not possible because they do not know it themselves. The body mechanics (shen fa) of taijiquan provide a cogent theory and path to progress for these very goals. They also offers the path of progress to taijiquan and power. It is the same path.

Teachers can have both positive and negative impacts on progress. Since the students monitor the behaviour (words and actions) of the teacher towards themselves and other students – this is a factor. It can be the major factor in a student making or not making progress.

Teaching Progress

Most teachers do not look at or analyse the progress they are making as a teacher because they do not think about it. Some of them do not look at it because they are not making progress. Some teachers think that income size or number of students is the only measure they need care about. I disagree with this type of thinking, i.e. I do not think it is effective either philosophically or financially. In my opinion making progress in the art of teaching can be measure effectively in a number of simple ways. If students skill improves then teaching is occurring. Over time more students gain skills and the skills they gain improve. Then I think the teacher can congratulate themselves on making progress.

Progress is of course a relative thing. 1%, 10% and 100% progress are all progress. So the path of progress can also be looked at and improved. Until the teacher’s motivation includes the desire to understand what taijiquan and gain its skills and these goals are achieved, significant progress is unlikely.

Student Progress

Of course the student will not make progress regardless of their motivation or efforts if they do not have a good teacher. So for the overwhelming number of taijiquan students they will never gain the skills of taijiquan because they do not have a good teacher and consequently they do not understand even intellectually what the skills of taijiquan are. With a good teacher each student should see discernable and verifiable improvement.

The path to this also is quite simple. It involves three steps:

1. Understand where I am in terms of skill / body movement
2. Understand where I want to be in terms of skill / body movement
3. Recognise whether I have progressed in my path between 1. and 2.

If a part of my body was stiff and could not move, then sometime later it can move, then clearly my body has become looser and more relaxed. If I can concentrate better, am in less pain, deal with stress more effectively etc., then clearly progress is being made. The responsibility of the teacher is to create a format for the student to recognise their progress and to measure it in terms that they can recognise.

Other Teaching Taijiquan Articles you might be interested in:

Teaching Taijiquan 1 – Some Observations and Analysis (2 page article)

Teaching Taijiquan 3 – Suggestions for Beginning Teaching (5 page article)

Teaching Taijiquan 4 – Why does it commonly not work (1 page article)

Teaching Taijiquan 5 - Effective Teaching Methods (1 page article)

Teacher’s Training Outline (3 page article)

Six Stages of Training Taijiquan Skill (4 page article)

A Good Teacher (6 page article)

Good Understanding (3 page article)

Good Practice (3 page article)

 

More detailed technical information can be found in the first two parts of my four part series

Gaining Taijiquan Skill – Part 1: Theory (10 page article)

Gaining Taijiquan Skill – Part 2: Beginning – reaching Level 1 (10 page article)

 

There is a great deal written about teaching and coaching on the web for example:

http://www.mentalgamecoach.com/articles/CoachingQualities.html