mmm.... So what makes a good Sensei?

[mingshi]

In continuating Nodach's thread, I would like to ask for your opinion on this. Especially if you have a few choices, or you moved around to other places often, or tried a few dojos, or you have many Sensei in your own dojo.

:glasses:

[Gorget-the-Frog]

Patience and Compassion for the student.
Experiance and Skill for himself.

[AlexM]

I dunno what makes a good sensei (I've only had one and I know only a few others, mainly by reputation).

Mostly I think that it's:
1) A sensei is a sensei not because of a rank he acheived (BTW mine does have a sensei ranking) but because he WANTS to teach. You respect him because he teaches, and teaches well, not because he is higher ranked than you.2) He must create an atmosphere in the dojo that is conducive to learning (relaxed and "happy").
3) He must be a kendo nut. His enthusiasm and crayzyness must dwarf all others (that one is tough to explain).
4) Kendo must be considered to be secondary to other things in life (this way no real ego problems inside the dojo)
5) One last thing, he should be able to kick your ass without even thinking about it. (also helps with any misplaced ego problems)

I' m pretty much describing my own sensei (and sort describing some of the bad things about other senseis I know).

Feel free to flame this post. (Man, that's a long list)

[cklin]

I don't know if I necessarily agree w/ AlexM's statement that a sensei must create a relaxed and "happy" environment for learning.

There are plenty of great sensei who do not create this "happy" environment. In fact, there are a great many sensei who are downright scary, but who have a lot to offer to their students.

[John W]

I think a sensei must be cruel (with good intentions), one minute and humble and compassionate the next.

Example: We had a 7th Dan sensei visit NZ who gave us some tough training but the advice that came from him, to me, lifted my kendo to a whole new level. He instantly saw what was lacking in my kihon, keiko and spiritual aspects of my kendo and simply gave me the proper advice and somehow it all clicked into place!!

After the training we went out and had a beer, talked about that days training. And later the sensei gave me a calligraphy which he drew I think the callicraphy had something to do with friendship, infact, here is a picture of it. If someone could translate it that would be great:




I think he had all the virtues that make up a good teacher and one day I hope to have. Like a good sense of humour, generous and very humble. If you have a sensei that you admire chances are you are on some level wanting to aspire to the inner qualities they have.

Errr...hope this makes sense. :)

[munenmuso]

For this kendoka:I just choose between a mentor and a tormentor.:)

I noticed that for my 7th dan sensei, the most important part of training under him is the development of the spirit of the kendoka.

But for the other 4th & 5th dan sensei, they emphasized so much on the technic and the perfection of your skill.

Each teacher according to their respective experiences has his own hierarchy of priority or emphasis on what must a kendoka develop first.but the most important is through synthesis, we can combine both aspects of knowledge from different teachers and gain advantage from this. As far as what makes a good teacher, is his ability to recognise the student's talent's and develop it to it's utmost capacity.

[JSchmidt]

One that makes you try your your best.

Jakob

[kendokamax]

for me it's simple:
Someone who is generous of his time and that loves kendo.

[stinkyKote]

I think experience plays a very large in how good your sensei is as well, at my dojo we're very fortunate to have a large variety of sensei available of varying backgrounds and ranks- everytime I get a piece of advice from our senior 8th dan sensei (which isn't very often) it's always as if he knows exactly how much to tell me so that I'll improve, he never overloads me with concepts I'm not ready to chew on- I'm thinking that only comes with years and years of teaching experience-

[mingshi]

Thoughtout training in different dojo around town in the past few months, I had noticed a variety of teaching methods from different Sensei and Senpai... Especially during Jikeiko, where the teaching part is less obvious.....

1) Quiet type: From Onegaishimas to Arigadougozaimas, it's only "bam bam bam bam bam" from both sides.
2) Shouting type: "BIGGER!!!!".... "TEN MORE!!!"... "MOVE AWAY QUICK!!!"...
3) Slaughtering type: Those who would prefer you to fight back when your back is on the wall, or when you are on the floor, or when you are being pushed by strong tai-atari, etc.
4) Motodachi type: After 30 second or so, you would expect to do Men cut, turn, a Men cut, turn, a Kote cut, turn, a Kote-men cut, turn........
5) Pause-and-Play type: Only stop and say, "You are doing this.... but THIS should be like.....". Then practice continues.
6) Talkative type: He actually spent more time explaining than fighting from Chudan

Everybody knows how a proper cut should be, so I don't think there is any good in explaining it in depth during Jikeiko... As a student you should be able to see correct yourself, without Sensei "feeding" you with personal advice. I don't think that if a Sensei didn't tell me to "Cut bigger!!!", he's bad..... I should know I have to cut big, if I didn't it's my fault, not Sensei.

Max, not every Sensei does Happy Kendo. Sometimes when I heard about the training in the Japan Riot Squad Police I think they're a bunch of Sadists/Masochists :eek:

John W, that's very nice calligraphy your Sensei has. It's actually a part of a quote from a piece of Zen-Buddism writing:- "Moon sets, but not leaving the sky." He'll be back :)

[Charlie]

Most of the senseis I have known attempt to teach physically rather than verbally through jigeiko. They do something specific to you to counteract what you might be doing, whether it's to pick off your kote for leaving it open, for example, or tsuki you in the chest for not dominating center.

[John W]

Thanks for the translation Mingshi!

I knew the first character meant "moon" but as for the rest...

Man, I need Japanese lessons!:D

[munenmuso]

:) Probably the one who can stay all night long drinking beer with his students to strengthen camaraderie and show his superiority and end up the only one who is sober(durability not only in keiko),able to drive them home while students drunk and asleep at the back of the car.

Why not? I'ts usually the post training exercise here, isn't it?

Cheers!!!Kampai!!!!

[Kendoboy]

I think That a good sensei should know when to be relaxed and know when to push you harder.

When I first went to watch a practice before I joined, my sensei asked all of the watchers if we had any questions, and then explained each of them in detail.

During practice, he will watch to see what problems everyone is having, then give a 2 min demo with a senior student, and cover the problems that are being experienced. Sometimes it seems as though he is talking directly to me.

If you are concerned about anything, he is always free at the end of the practice for questions, and then heads out for "pub kendo", where he is again available for questions.

I think that this probably describes many good sensei out there, so the most important things are IMHO:

1. dedication
2. attention to detail
3. charisma (ie if when listening you are bored and can't bring yourself to give a shit about what the sensei says, you're not going to learn much. Explinations that you've heard 100x need to sound as good the 100th time as the 1st.

[Confound]

I do not agree with the 'happy atmosphere'. A sensei should encourage seriousness within the budokan. I have seen the results of a 'gentle', lacksadasical atmosphere and a serious, intense atmosphere. The first produced kendouka who don't even know how to do ashisabaiki, even after two years of study, and the team hasn't scored more than ten points in the last three years of competition. These kendouka take forever to start practice, they show disrespect to their teachers, they are in short, incompetant in the most basic and fundamental ways.

The second group is one of the best teams in this area, and they perform consistently well. They may be lacking a little in the rei department, but that's only because they don't talk much. There's bowing, but no screaming of 'onegaishimasu' and 'arigatou gozaimasu' every three minutes. It's rather nice to return to a place where only bowing and respectful treatment of fellow kendouka is required, rather than long loud displays of verbal respect with no substance.

That said, a sensei needs to know how to communicate and explain. This is an important concept for teachers of anything. A teacher needs to know students and understand what kinds of communication works for each one. The style of teaching that works for one student doesn't necessarily work for another.

A good sensei is tolerant, but expects high standards of students. If someone expects nothing from you, you're not likely to work as hard.

A good kendou sensei is someone who knows the balance between challenging and frustrating a student. This is very important. I've met one sensei who doesn't know this. He'll take the level of the highest person in the class, and teach everyone on that level. Many of the younger students become frustrated, because they can't 'do' anything.

I also disagree with the 'kendou nut' suggestion. Dedication to kendou is good, but anyone who monolitically obsesses over kendou is probably not going to make a very good teacher. They will most likely expect that everyone else shares this lop-sided view of life. Being enthusiastic about kendou is good, but I don't want a sensei who lives and breathes only for kendou. That person won't have a balanced approach to kendou, or to life in general. (These are sometimes the kind of people who have ego problems too.)

Humility isn't necessary, but a lack of overweening ego is appreciated.

that's enough for now.

c

[kendokamax]

eh

By kendo nuts it really doesnt have to mean that you only have that in your life. I really think someone who wants to make people improve as human being using a tool like kendo, i think that person must love kendo.

About the happy kendo thing, it really depens but in our case we have a happy atmosphere and that doesnt mean that we dont take basic practice not seriously. and I have to disagree with the fact that it doesnt work for competition. It worked quite well for me and the rest of my team.

Sad thing is I really dont think it's something we can talk/write about on a forum. you must experience it

[Iviro]

http://www.mcgillkendo.ca/eng/index.html

McGill University, the Happy Kendo Club!

2000-2002 achievements

-------------- JCCC Ontario Senior Tournament 2000

Mudansha :

1st: A. Taylor, McGill Kendo Club

1st and 2nd Dan :

1st: H.B. Kim, McGill

------------- JCCC Ontario Senior Tournament 2001

1st and 2nd Dan :

2nd: H.B. Kim, McGill

------------- 14th National Canadian Kendo Championship

Senior Kyu :

2nd place - L. D'Orangeville, McGillU
3rd place - M. Cardinal, McGillU

Team :

3rd place - McGillU

-------------- University of Waterloo Tournament (July 2002)

Senior Kyu :

1st place - Maxime Cardinal, McGill University
3rd place - Tuan Anh Hoang, McGill University

-------------- Quebec Open 2001

Senior Kyu :

2nd place - J. Hidaka, McGill

Women :

2nd place - Y. Watanabe, McGill Univ
3rd place - J. Lin, McGill Univ

Team :

2nd place - McGill Univ


-------------- Halifax Kendo Club OPEN 2002

Mudansha :
1st - Loic d'Orangeville
(McGill University Kendo Club)
2nd - Maxime Cardinal
(McGill University Kendo Club)

Dan :
2nd - Minwoo Park
(McGill University Kendo Club)

Team :
2nd - McGill A
(McGill University Kendo Club)

[AlexM]

I'll explain further on the subject of kendo "nutyness". I didn't mean that someone's entire life should be solely dominated by kendo (your life should be entierly devoted to fly-fishing ;) ). And that isn't the case for the people I know. It's just a way of describing people who talk about strategy among friends, order things like kendo videos (admit it, it's weird paying money for amateur video that isn't porn), drive 14 hours (back and forth) to go to far off tournaments, practice footwork in the subway (discretely), etc. Just a measure of that kind of thing. The behaviour I've described isn't exactly "sane". This is true for senseis and kendokas. Being "nuts" is just a measure of enthusiasm.

As for the "happy kendo" thing. It works for us. We laugh at practice, at tournaments even (some people even break into laughter while IN a finals match...right Max?). I just think that having a relaxed attitude in the dojo, not some tense pseudo-samurai atmosphere, helps people learn and helps them enjoy kendo (hasn't really helped in my case, I'm awful). We're all adults, we know when to be serious and when to have fun. That's happy kendo. Crap, I'm off topic.

I await your flames. C'mon, lemme have it.

[AlexM]

Yikes.

Iviro (whomever you are),

Thanks for the help. Always nice to have someone on your side. Appreciate the effort. However, I'd like to point out that although we are proud of our record we don't want to flaunt it (no real reason to, it's not very impressive...In fact, the website also has the numerous tournament results where we came back empty-handed. I invite you to go check it out...shameless plug). Having good shiai kendo and technicaly sound kendo are sometimes two different things (I'm sure I saw that somewhere else...).

[chidokan]

Mine just works you into the ground...seriously he asks for questions all the time, which REALLY puts you on the spot as in the previous five minutes he has answered all the questions I had ready just by demonstrating what he wants us all to do.
He then confounds us all by saying he wants a particular waza doing a particular way. One which comes to mind is when I was in Japan last year. Sensei quoted his thee favourite instructors and chose their particular point for Uke nagashi in the tachi waza from MJER. He then showed us what he wanted us to do, emphasising these three points. None of us could do it the way he wanted, we could do one or two but not all together. Bear in mind there are six or seven Japanese 7th dan students in the class, its not just the westerners struggling here...he likes to call himself a 'devil' when he teaches and can lose his temper etc., although I have seen him go to great lengths with a very junior student to make sure she could cut properly. Thinking on this he uses many teaching techniques to get the best from his students and is always thinking about how we can be improved. He is already planning what he wants us to do in May for our next visit! I've had a few teachers over the years but he is probably the best I've seen, I cant wait to go back!

Tim Hamilton

[Nishi]

All good instructors have individual teaching styles, however, I feel a good instructor takes his student to their limits, and spends the rest of the class there. There are hundreds of attributes, but this one benefits me greatly as a student. I also agree that kendo class is serious buisness, every effort be given in practice.