Tweet
Originally posted by Andrea
View Post
Definitely true 
. Yet to answer the initial question if a choice between style and teacher has to be made, I would consider the following two points:
1. A genuine teacher will teach you skills. And those skills are likely to be transferable to any martial arts style, as well as to your life beyond martial arts. A mediocre or low level teacher will teach techniques. But techniques without skills are not very effective and can be learnt with the right skills. I believe this is also the reason why advanced practitioners of our school can easily learn the essence of another style within a few days. Thus I'd say the teacher is more important if one has to choose.
2. As for the style. There are martial arts that are complete. Shaolin Kungfu is certainly one of them. It offers such a wide range of specializations, that everybody will find a "best" option, fitting one's personality, body style, ability and preferences. Thus when choosing a complete style such as Shaolin Kungfu the style might be less of an issue. Other styles however, which focus on certain aspects only, might not be suitable to all or even harmful. Yet if the teacher is genuine he knows what is best for the student. And even if the students makes the wrong choice of style, I believe he is not going to see any harm, if he is a dedicated student and follows the advice of his teacher.
Andrea
. Yet to answer the initial question if a choice between style and teacher has to be made, I would consider the following two points:1. A genuine teacher will teach you skills. And those skills are likely to be transferable to any martial arts style, as well as to your life beyond martial arts. A mediocre or low level teacher will teach techniques. But techniques without skills are not very effective and can be learnt with the right skills. I believe this is also the reason why advanced practitioners of our school can easily learn the essence of another style within a few days. Thus I'd say the teacher is more important if one has to choose.
2. As for the style. There are martial arts that are complete. Shaolin Kungfu is certainly one of them. It offers such a wide range of specializations, that everybody will find a "best" option, fitting one's personality, body style, ability and preferences. Thus when choosing a complete style such as Shaolin Kungfu the style might be less of an issue. Other styles however, which focus on certain aspects only, might not be suitable to all or even harmful. Yet if the teacher is genuine he knows what is best for the student. And even if the students makes the wrong choice of style, I believe he is not going to see any harm, if he is a dedicated student and follows the advice of his teacher.
Andrea
very good post.. I like to add and agree that a good teacher teaches among other things SKILLS not just techiques. I would also agree that basic skills are transferrable generally.Some skills are specific to certain styles so extra training is required. My self i don't believe in a complete style or system as needs change so do systems of MA. Even if you have a complete art on paper the person is not perfect so he will always have a flaw or weakness and and a good MA will take advantage of that.
Comment