Seminars are a great way to learn new and valuable information in a condensed and focused manner that you wouldn’t necessarily receive during regular training. Attending seminars has many benefits including additional or new understanding of a topic, meeting and working with new people, learning new material, and receiving alternate points of view from a different or specialized instructor. Visiting other schools for training is the same concept as seminars. There is one issue, however, and that is many people do not understand “how to seminar”…
We will visit this concept from a martial arts standpoint although it can easily be applied to learning anything, even attending regular class.
New Instructors
This is a very important factor. No matter the topic, consistent learning from a respected and knowledgeable source is the best way to enhance your martial arts. It provides consistency in training and someone to monitor your improvements and progress. Having too many instructors at once can be detrimental to training, depending on your level of experience and understanding, as they may contradict each other at times. A great instructor will forever be learning and evolving their style and knowledge so this idea of tapping-out all information from your instructor may be slim. There are times, however, the information you seek is not available through the normal channels (your school), hence the reason instructors host seminars and visit other dojos.
Personally, as an instructor, I understand there are decades worth of information flowing through my head for the martial arts I practice. I regularly train and study to further my own skillset and to supplement my teachings. I also understand my limitations as an instructor to provide my students with everything they may want to learn.
The martial arts are a journey and it should be fun, exciting, fulfilling, and life-altering. This journey should be in a healthy atmosphere and with people you admire and respect.
The fact is, nobody knows everything. This means that no matter who you learn under, you may want to learn something they cannot teach. It’s also a known fact that we all have specific teaching styles, terminology, habits, methods, and viewpoints. I believe it’s important and vital to mix-it-up a little and introduce students to variety of approaches regarding training. Additionally, if I know someone who specializes in a certain topic, I will be consulting and training with them until I’m able to teach it myself. But until I can teach it competently, I happily provide my students with the opportunity of guest instructors and visiting other dojos.
Every instructor interprets information differently. Some have emulated their teacher’s every movement and some have developed their own style by incorporating several influences to modify their training to meet their needs and expectations. Either way, how they articulate and demonstrate the information is almost always unique to them. Analogies, personal experiences, shared stories, or ways to illustrate particulars and give direction will be individualized. This is why branching out and undergoing new tutelage will present you with variety. Keep in mind that the more proficient we become in martial arts, the more information we can gather and sort through without confusion.
Keep Calm and Shoshin
Shoshin is a Japanese Zen concept which translates to “Beginner’s Mind”. It encompasses the idea that when studying or training, one should have an open mind, willingness, and eagerness to discover new information, as well as to challenge any preconceived notions.
At even the highest levels, we should all strive to maintain Shoshin.
A beginner student walks in to a martial arts dojo with zero knowledge. When learning a Karate strike, for example, they do not have prior training habits challenging the new information. While learning an Aikido technique for the first-time, you simply just do as they instructor dictates. Beginners have the ultimate opportunity and that is to start doing everything correct straight out-of-the-gate. This is opposed to learning a technique one way from one person and a different way from another. You will always have the first instructor’s ideas in your form, as well as your own. Learning to overcome this is and only perform it the new way is a byproduct of Shoshin.
Shoshin is practically a prerequisite for any seminar or when visiting another school. This is particularly difficult for many top-level practitioners and instructors. When we have experience or become blackbelts and instructors, most of us realize that training is never over and that we do not know everything. The issue, however, is that we now have so much information flowing through our heads that it’s amazing to comprehend. Although fantastic, all of this knowledge can cloud our vision and cause us to overlook or disregard a potentially important nugget during instruction. To have Shoshin is to put aside all of this information you know to be true and pretend as though you know nothing about it as if learning it for the very first time.
Why is this so important? Because when the instructor is demonstrating a technique you are already familiar with and you shrug it off saying, “I already know this…”, then you may just miss out on a variation or little tip to improve your current understanding of that technique.
YOU MAY MISS OUT ON A TIP OR TRICK THAT CAN IMPROVE YOUR TECHNIQUE! PAY ATTENTION!
As mentioned before, every instructor has their own experience with technique. With this experience comes potentially helpful tips we can all use to improve our own version of the same technique.
I’ve personally witnessed this exact scenario at a couple seminars in San Francisco, CA, with Aikido instructor Christian Tissier and another in San Diego, CA with Doshu Moriteru Ueshiba (pictures can be found HERE and video found HERE for reference):
While attending these seminars, I had the opportunity to meet and practice with all levels of Aikido students from all over. It was exciting, fun, and educational in many ways. These instructors are well-known in the Aikido world. I flew across the country and paid money to do one thing, learn a new approach to Aikido. I was already a 2nd degree Aikido Blackbelt with 16 years of experience and commitment to the art so you can imagine how many habits and naturalized movements I already possessed. But as usual, I went in there with the most humbling mental state of Shoshin I possibly could. Working with many people of varying skill levels and “ranks”. It was observed, however, that the more experienced Aikidoka tended to be less receptive to the instruction. While working together, they quickly reverted back to their same ole’ technique. How do I know? Well, through communication and asking them but also noting that they were not doing what was taught. Foot placement, hand movements, direction of tenkan, etc. It was quite perplexing why someone would spend hundreds of dollars and not at least try the proposed method.
Naturally, some people have egos, don’t know any better, or are just plain awesome at what they do. They win competitions regularly and have a ton of students idolizing them. Egos are either the most detrimental or powerful tool you have to utilize. It will either make someone too arrogant to learn new things or will encourage them to maintain and improve status by training as much as they can. And trust me, you will find arrogant and overconfident students when visiting or attending seminars.
How do I get to a state of Shoshin:
- Realizing that there is ALWAYS more to LEARN. Nobody is ever a “master” of a martial art… NOBODY.
- Clear and focus your mind. View the instruction as though you know absolutely nothing. Literally pretend like it’s your first day on the mat.
- Don’t assume anything! The moment the instructor mentions or demonstrates something familiar, your mind will automatically assume it knows what the the next thing will be in the chain of events. Notice the extra “the” in the last sentence? The problem is that we often stop paying attention to the details when we recognize the topic, especially if we think we “know” it already. The details and finer points are what we need to improve and evolve.
- Understand that there is more than one way to approach a fundamental or technique. How you and someone else perform the same technique can and will vary. Learning the details to their successful application or ideas of approach may or may not influence your perspective.
Training With New People
Meeting new people is one of the best consequences of attending seminars or visiting dojos. As we regularly attend classes at our home dojo, we naturally work with the same crew over and over again. This is not problematic in any way. Students at any one particular dojo tend to have similar styles during their training until upper-levels of understanding take hold. Training with a new group of people allows you to experience tactile feedback which may differ from what you’re used to. Everything from movement, attack patterns, strength, agility, form, intensity, and technique can be observed.
Work with as many different people as possible… especially the less experienced since this is where the most opportunity to improve exists.
Another benefit will be that of viewpoints and philosophies. As stated before, every practitioner will have their spin on a particular matter due to life experiences or any other influence. We can learn from this and adapt it as needed or disagree and have civil discourse. At the very least, listen to what others have to say about training methods, practical application, etc. We need to maintain an open-mind and hear what they say and process it; it may just change your outlook. An example is when working with a new person at one of the seminars mentioned above, he guided me towards getting a rather simple technique to work better for me. I will admit I did not have Shoshin during this technique. The gentlemen, an Aikido instructor from Hawaii, helped me understand kokyu-ho in a way not previously taught, which made all the difference.
It’s All In The Details
Visiting schools can be just an hour in length or can persist over many days. Seminars can be a few hours to several days. You may be new to the martial art or experienced. No matter the situation, you will have a ton of information to sort through. How and when you do this is up to you but it’s extremely important to organize.
For beginners, I recommend simply attending and being in the moment. I say this because like a baby being born into the world, they do not know what anything is by sight or sound. They cannot distinguish a car horn from a cat’s meow or a car horn from a cat for that matter. A beginner in a martial art cannot distinguish the minor movements and differences between techniques on their own, but like the baby, they will learn in time. Will such an influx of information, it’s difficult for an untrained brain to sort and prioritize it all. It’s normal. Taking notes during training will, in my opinion, distract you from observations and the experience. You will only read the notes later and realize you didn’t quite know how to articulate the information enough to process it. So instead of tactile training and audibly absorbing information, you were scribbling. If anything, meditate on the material AFTER class and take as many notes as possible to refresh your memory and file it away. I recommend for more experienced and mid to upper-level students to do exactly that.
For high-performing and upper-level students, blackbelts, and instructors, I strongly recommend taking notes during. We already have enough things to remember and one minor but important detail may not stick in our minds throughout the session. Come prepared with a way to document those “A-ha” moments or noted intricate details.
But how to find these tidbits of information?
Simply, keep Shoshin and focus. Do not become distracted, do not talk or wander. Scrutinize by looking and listening for anything and everything they are doing different. They are there, you just have to comb the desert to find them.
As a martial artist who studies multiple arts, I rarely see anything “new”. I see variations, mainly, but rarely get that, “wow, let me see that again” reaction. So then why do I attend seminars or learn under new teachers? It’s not always about what they are doing, it’s “when” or “why” they are doing something or “how” they apply it to get a specific response. I may know a plethora of techniques, transitions, and movements, but do I know every way to apply them and for which reasons and when? That’s a definite no. Will their explanation help me? Maybe. That’s what I look for in teachings. I comb through and filter out all of the familiar information that is already ingrained into my soul and when I sense something that is different, I take instant mental note and write it down ASAP. And of course, I practice it and ask questions, as any student would during regular class. Sometimes what I learn takes a place in my style and sometimes it does not.
How To Seminar
- Introduce yourself and work with as many people as possible.
- Don’t work with someone you know (unless no other option).
- Pay attention to the instructor and emulate them as much as possible. The entire reason you’re there is to learn what they know and to perform just as well.
- Keep Shoshin. Do not let existing ideas or understandings cloud your vision. Literally pretend it’s your first-time learning the material.
- Be the hardest training person there.
- Take notes and practice or incorporate what you’ve learned into regular training.
- Talk, share, and discover ideas with the like-minded people in attendance.
- Leave your ego and all expectations at the door. Ain’t nobody got time for dat!
- Have fun! Learn and share your experience with others, good or bad. Martial arts is a journey and including others with you is a great way to reinforce information and bond.
- Be respectful. Take part in the customs at another school or under a different instructor. If unsure of anything, just ask.
