Comments on: Personal transmission

By: chessman71

chessman71 — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 00:16:34 +0000

Good thoughts, everyone. I agree about “noise” in group classes. I’ll talk more about that over at your blog.
The $100US rate is extremely high here in Taiwan. You have to really know what is being said to you when you talk about this stuff with teachers. I could tell from the tone of voice and the price, that the answer was “don’t ask.”
Aboroth, I’ll address your other thoughts in another blog post.

By: Aboroth

Aboroth — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 22:57:14 +0000

I’m curious to hear what you guys mean by a “group class”. I have been to 2 different kinds. One where the teacher teaches everyone the same thing and the class progresses only when each and every student has grasped the current material. These classes I find, are great for getting beginner material (form, structural principles) to the students because the main problem beginners have in advancing in skill is not practising what they have been taught. So, if everyone is forced to do the same thing over and over again it has a better chance of sticking. That said, this kind of teaching is the worst thing a teacher can do for their more advanced students. A teacher I know lost both of her best students last year because of this kind of teaching.

The second kind of group class is much more personal, these classes have students of all levels in them and are usually longer than the first example (2-3 hours). In that time the teacher moves between individual students or groups and teaches them according to the level they are up to. I have found it easy to get those little realisations by asking questions or clarifications when it’s my turn with the teacher.

I’m sure that private one-on-one classes are better for the student than the second example I gave because the teacher can show you more but just how many different concepts can you memorise and understand in one class?

When a student is learning something new (as I am learning Da Lu at the moment), I think the most important thing is repetition. So that for next time they come to class they have something that can be corrected, instead of having a poor understanding of the concepts behind it (which, really, can only be understood through experience). If I had daily one-on-one classes with my teacher for the first 6 months I can imagine that the only word coming out of his mouth all that time would be “RELAX”, to which my initial reaction would be “HOW!?”. Because I know it took me 6 months of daily practice to start to get a feeling for what it means to “RELAX” (and now he often stops saying that word and throws in some other teaching )

I think you are right in saying that the best thing for a student is for a teacher to be constantly paying attention to them but, at my level (beginner), I feel that it is impossible for the student to keep their mind on all they should be doing. And it is only through experience that they can “internalise” (call it muscle memory if you will) some concepts so that they don’t have to think about it and can pay more attention to another concept.

I’ll tell you if anything changes when I become an “advanced” student

By: silkreeling

silkreeling — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 20:36:02 +0000

100 USD per hour is the going rate for well known teachers, although i have not taken any private lessons myself.

private lessons means the stakes are up for both teacher and student or it could ve viewed entirely as a commercial transaction.

By: Taking private lessons - shang lee . com

Taking private lessons - shang lee . com — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 15:46:41 +0000

[...] Chessman wrote a very interesting article on personal transmission in Tai Ji. I’ve always suspected that some things are better, or sometimes only, taught personally rather than in a group setting. I’ve heard stories of how other teachers learn and the better ones are those who just practise with their teachers on a daily basis. However, there’s a constant internal struggle on whether I should go down this route. The hotly debated points boil down to the following: [...]

By: Shang Lee

Shang Lee — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 15:02:56 +0000

Thanks for this wonderful article. I’ve been debating internally whether I should go down the private tutor route because of the “noise” I am finding in group classes. I came to the same conclusion that the small corrections are difficult in a group setting. And it’s these small corrections that (i find) is most important to learn to really understand tai ji. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.