Ofcourse, I completely agree. We do both. Sometimes watch and coach, sometimes spar and coach!

Thanks for your thoughts, I'm a little disapointed that he told me that but I will probably have to have a sit down with him.The sparring mistique thing is a little wierd?? I love to spar and don't plan on giving it up.

SANCHIN31 wrote :
"I'm with Matt on this one! That's stupid. Get in there and spar,you can observe and spar at the same time! What? Are high ranks too good? Mystique? Sounds like fear to me."

Ok. Look at it like this SANCHIN31. In your match the other day, say your opponent was your teacher. You two are sparing and you pretty much ended in a draw. He said after, that you almost had him in an arm bar, you don’t remember, an ankle lock was attempted but the technique was incorrect, correct? So if he is your instructor, for arguments sake, how did that match help you? Were you able to correct some flaws in your technique at the time? Did you know that you had a few flaws or him for that matter? Now if there were two students on the mat instead of you two, the improper application of technique could have been addressed at the time of each attempt and things could have been corrected, that’s if an instructor with more experience was watching, teaching.

The "Mystique" comment is odd but hey whatever floats his boat.

I do spar with my instructor,he is 4th dan I am 2nd. He often shows me things and corrects me when we spar,same with the 8th kyu's.
The guy wasn't my instructor,nowhere close to it.
Did you watch The Ultimate Fighter? Randy and Chuck sparred with them,they didn't just stand around and watch.They taught while they were sparring and watching.

quite right, none said that the instructor should not watch and observe, but I was critisizing the need to create a mystique around the instructor. Its a bit strange and insecure if you ask me.

"yeah but we are not asking you are we? "

Now that I think about it my old Korean instructors never sparred with us. Sure they showed us how to do all the basic kicks and self defense techniques (one steps) but never did they ever put on the gloves and sparring gear and get out on the mat, never.

No disrespect meant, but how did you know how good the were then? (stripes on a belt don't count)

I used to spar with my 5th black Instructor all the time. Students need to get their ass handed to them once in a while to keep them humble.

sounds like political nonsense at your dojo schanne. re-evaluate the whole concept of 'appearences'.