Originally Posted by
Josh Reyer
I can only speak for the particular koryu that I do, but the above is the exact opposite of what the procedure is. There is no "teaching" per se. The instructor models what is to be done. The student then practices it. Then the student must find how to do it themselves. There are kuden -- the hints and signposts along the way, but they don't actually tell what to do or how to do it. Really all the teacher can do is tell you what you're doing wrong. They generally can't tell you how to do it right, because it's your body, and only you can figure out the alchemy of sensations and visualizations that lead you to doing the technique naturally an easily: a full, personal understanding of what the teacher has modeled, rather than just a mannered copy.
From my own experience, this has been a frustrating experience for many Westerners. I suspect it's frustrating for Japanese, as well, but they don't tend to share their frustrations with me. Interpreting for the non-Japanese deshi, though, I've found that all too often they will ask the teacher or one of the old men of the ryu a precise technical question; "Should I move my foot first, and then cut?" or "Please teach me correct tenouchi." And the answer will be "Don't worry about things like that, just move with your whole body." Or, "Tightly with the pinky, not at all with the forefinger and thumb, and in between for the other fingers," basically what they were already told the first day of practice, and not the guide-manual answer they were looking for.
To be sure, some students get frustrated and walk away. But what can you do? Only they can figure out how they can do it. I think this is where the phrase, "Welcome any who come, chase after none who leave" comes from. Any and everything that a teacher can explicitly impart to the student generally is imparted to the student. It's all the other important stuff that the student has to figure out for themselves. To an extent, they have to reinvent the wheel, a wheel just perfect for them.
These days, more than in the past I think, there's a bit more explicit explanation, and yet the constant refrain we hear when we start doing uchidachi is "Don't try to explain. Show, and make them do it."
My job is teaching, but more and more I've found that the style above informs my regular job more than my teaching experience avails me on the dojo floor. And also that many of the newer pedagogies are moving closer to the old ways. Provide objectives, provide a structure for students to experiment, and let them figure it out for themselves. The knowledge is more internalized, and knowledge discovered is twice as sweet as knowledge given.