Friday, March 07, 2008

Empty Class

I'm getting ready to leave for the big city and then out of the country so prepping the house and packing has taken a huge priority. I've also got a cold and I'm pretty shaky at best, but I didn't want to miss my first regular class after 10 weeks.

I get to class there's only me! It's like a private lesson again. Thankfully Little Sister came in and we spend the hour doing katas. I was turning kind of grey by the end and sweating profusely so I packed up at half time. I felt bad for teacher - where was everyone? When I asked him he shrugged non-commitally. "They come and go," he replied.

I guess it seems disrespectful after all the energy I've been putting in try to keep up during my off time, but he didn't seem to mind. It's always been that way - the class will wax and wane as time moves on. Selfishly I keep thinking how this is going to make learning tougher when we don't have more people, but I loved the individual attention.

9 comments:

Meg said...

Sometimes an individualized class results in much better detail to fine-tuning your forms.
Getting one on one attention is a good thing because you pick up on little details that will help you in the long run.

Have a safe trip! I hope you'll be back soon!!!

Mathieu said...

If that can cheer you up, Many a noteworthy sensei's of past days were homeschooled in martial arts and often trained alone.

I do feel the same thing sometimes. My teacher is great and I wouldn't go back to how things were before I met the guy.

Yet, people come 2 or 3 sessions. Then never come back. Their loss, I guess

BSM said...

Yeah it can be a bummer. We are a satellite school (non-profit) at a University. We are attached to a larger school that we often do not get to train at.

Membership is always a struggle. There were times where it was just me and sabum. Then there are times we have up to 10 which is still small compared to most commercial schools.

There are advantages to one-on-one training but there are also advantages to practicing with different body sizes, etc.

Anyhow, hang in there!

Anonymous said...

The way I look at it is that there is no better value than the essentially free private lesson you get if you're the only one that shows.

Michele said...

I have taught large classes and I have taught classes of one. As an instructor there are benefits to both. From my experience, there is more energy in a large class. A large class provides different training opportunities such as partner drills. The nice thing about a class of one is the ability to focus on an individual students material.

Potatoe Fist said...

hmmm, I'm thinking after all of your commments that I should show a bit more appreciation for my circumstances. I'll try do to that in the future.

Mathieu said...

There are pros and cons.

but for the 15 minutes of value-added sparring that you get with a big class,

you get 1h15 of private attention to your techniques. That is invaluable. If you truly miss sparring, there are other places you can go that will teach you a lot of stuff that karate won't. Namely, boxing.

:D

be well!

Mathieu said...

What, no post since march 7th?

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