please be nice......................

Im interested in peoples expierience of regular training on a one to one or very small group (3-4) basis with an instructor.

i have always really enjoyed training in a small group, although it has never been a consistent option for me, as its not really avalaible to me.

My feeling is that it is more specific, more personal. You can cover more, or less ground in greater depth than being in the line (of course line work has its place as well as does standard dojo practise).

Would be very interested in anyones karate expierience in this area, from an instructors or students view

The class I went through was pretty private.It was always outside and was on invite only.There were never any fees and the students were always few.This has now been passed down to me,however I am not the head instructor.
I think the instruction is better in small groups.I remember when I was in basic training with alot more people and wishing we could break down to smaller groups for better understanding.
We continue to practice this way.Once a class begins we only take new students for the first couple of months.Everyone is taught the same thing at the same time and continue to stay the same rank throughout the class.It moves along very smoothly.Right now we have four students.One of whom is my wife.

sounds like a nice way to train !

Private lessons can be very beneficial. I was lucky enough to go to many private lessons with instructor, who was learning from one of the top guys in out style.

He showed details that made some techniques I never liked into moves that were now practical and usable. He also showed us to look more deeply into the underlying concepts of given techniques, instead of merely mirroring the move.

At our school, we always tried to break the class down into smaller groups (2-4 or so), and go around the room to check everybody out.

I am in favor of smaller groups for lessons.

If I may jump in...

A lot of dojos in Japan are not commercial dojos, and are generally very small to begin with (cut your normal storefront dojo in half and you've got the idea). The most people I've ever seen at any of my karate dojos at one time was 12 people, with the average being closer to 5, though sometimes it's been as low as one.

Practice isn't always more personal because it's smaller, but it does always address areas your instructor feels you need work. Being able to work on these things with people always feels good, because you end up helping each other.

When working kata, we work as a group. When doing kumite, we break off in sections. The truth is is's not that much different from a regular class.

I have been fortunate to be invited to private Sunday classes of two-four, At these I learnt alot more than normal and seemed to get the hang of techniques quicker, I also got the advantage that sensei could look closely at me and work more on what I needed. It would be interesting to me at least to know the average cost of private lessons per hour. regards maki

My teacher and I frequently work together in remote locations. There is a lot of boredom on thes assignments and lots of time to train.

I would say that in the last 16 years 85% of my personal instruction has been private with just my teacher, and maybe 1or 2 others.

Definately a good way to learn.

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Thankyou all for your valued input, as you have proberly guessed im looking at this subject as a student and also as an instructor (in the future).

Its fair to say that im convinced personal/small class tuition is of the most benefit to students, i also think that standard dojo time has its place (mainly for drilling) but also the social and character building aspects of our arts. ie being a part of a larger group and the interaction that takes place in a traditional dojo.

when I was in class, I always preferred nights when fewer people showed up. the classes were more intimate and you could work on stuff that was harder to do with large classes.

I only teach small group now.

It really depends on what I'm working on. For forms I like small classes because of the obvious personalization factors...after all, an instructor can't watch 30 set of feet at the same time.

Line work is line work, and since I'm only thinking about my own technique at that point, I could really care whether 1 or 100 people were in the room since neither would bother me as long as I had space to move around in.

However, I find that people who want to be good fighters (as a rule...there are of course always exceptions) tend to be from larger dojos. People tend to have certain fighting styles, and if you only see one or two people fight ever I feel that you adapt to those one or two styles rather then developing comprehensive skills. For example, there are a lot of lower belts at my club right now...very few of them can head kick effectively. So I get up against better people at tournaments I sometimes forget to guard my noggin as much as I should.

Plus, there's nothing for training cardio like being able to fight a fresh opponent every two minutes.

In the end I suppose it's all about what you like.