Everyone Has Something To Teach

As I have already written, I am lucky and grateful to take part in Sijo's

special monthly class.  Besides having the opportunity to train with the

best partners that Fang Shen Do has to offer. We also get to learn from the

experience from Sijo

One topic that he spoke to a few months ago was the fact that you can learn

from everyone.

Sijo was talking about his mentors and people who have achieved a high level

of success in their respective fields.  These are the people that he looks

to for motivation and teaching.  He went on to discuss that everyone has

something to teach you; that everyone has something that they can do better.

It is the astute student of life that watches for such opportunities and

implements them.

I have noticed that many students do not always seize the opportunity to put

this into practice.  The Fang Shen Do handbook states that you should train

with as many different people as you can

The obvious reason for this is to better prepare yourself for a real self

defence situation.  If you are a female student who only trains with other

females,  you are serious limiting yourself to prepare against a real live

attack.  Prepare yourself against heavy opponents, stronger opponents,

faster opponents, taller opponents, shorter opponents, aggressive opponents,

etc.... or as I have heard Sijo mention... a clumsy opponent (they can be

extremely dangerous)

Coming back to Everyone has something to teach you...

Where I notice this the most is when a new student comes in to try a class.

When it is time to select a partner, you can see who has internalized this

lesson.  It is these people that welcome the new student and offer to help

them through there first class. Our MMA fighter, Danny, was always great at

this - he realized that you get better when you help others get better.

On the other side of the coin, I have observed "experts" of three months who

seem to feel that their training would be held back by training with someone

not as "advanced" as them.

Just this week, I took the opportunity to train with a very nice man who

came into our school for the first time.  He had a great attitude and I

enjoyed teaching him.  Although he had done a martial art sport before, this

was the his first introduction to a reality based system and he kept an open

mind.  While I was teaching  him, I was watching how he moved and was

planning strategies to help him get better.  Because I took the time with

him, I got a little bit better at teaching that type of student.  I do hope

he comes back for another class, as he has good potential.

Our takeaways?

Train with as many people as you can to get better; learn from everyone; you

get better when you help someone else get better

Stay solid

Sifu Scott

Posted in: Personal Development