At one of my teacher's classes, the students have asked to start learning taijijian. I am helping out there every once in a while, and was about to start teaching them when my teacher stepped in.
He started off by teaching the students how to hold the sword. How to hold it using the left hand when preparing to start, how to transfer it from left to right hand, how to do a "sword greeting". How to even grip the sword hilt properly.
All these are very basic movements, things that never crossed my mind, things that I never thought of teaching them (I actually knew all these from the days I learnt wushu, long long ago). But looking at the students, seeing how awkward some of them actually are when holding the sword, I realised that my teacher was right to start from such basics.
This little incident taught me an important lesson. Start from the basics, don't assume that the students know.
He started off by teaching the students how to hold the sword. How to hold it using the left hand when preparing to start, how to transfer it from left to right hand, how to do a "sword greeting". How to even grip the sword hilt properly.
All these are very basic movements, things that never crossed my mind, things that I never thought of teaching them (I actually knew all these from the days I learnt wushu, long long ago). But looking at the students, seeing how awkward some of them actually are when holding the sword, I realised that my teacher was right to start from such basics.
This little incident taught me an important lesson. Start from the basics, don't assume that the students know.
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