Since there is the worst, how about the best student (or teacher) experience?

I was not yet a BB and hadn’t started teaching; I did however have a project student. Watching this kid do anything made me want to tear my eyes out, he was awful. For some reason though I decided to pull him aside and work with him; I wasn’t asked I just did it. After almost every class we would work on this or that; it really was no big deal I would have stayed anyway. After a month or so he started to show some improvement. Then there was a tournament, he registered for forms as well as sparing; I was never much for the tournament thing so I had no plans on going. The next time I saw his dad in class I asked how his kid did. I was amazed at the answer I got, all he could do was thank me. He commented that when he went to congratulate his son (he did well but I can not remember where he placed) his son told him that it was all due to me working with him and he owed it to me. I was maybe 17 years old at the time and was totally taken aback, I had never had anything like that happen to me before and honestly had no clue what to say. Here his son had just done well in his events and all he could do was thank me.

This was hands down the most profound MA experience that I have ever had, it was about 17 years ago and it still blows me away just thinking about it.

-JBC-

JBC,

I'll post something later on this, but for now I just wanted to say that this is an excellent idea for a thread.

Much more uplifting than the usual. Good work mate.

Ditto...great idea. I've only had one teacher, but have a hard time picking out a single instance; the past three years for me have been packed with some really profound changes as I went through a very trying period of personal upheaval. Many instances too personal to share.

All I can say, for the 'teachers' on this forum: sometimes 'just being' is the greatest gift you can share.

Well, I haven't been around martial arts long enought to have too many stories like this, but I can certainly be thankful for what I've had. In a time when some many instructors have more respect for money than for the art and its students, my instructor has always been the opposite. My Sabum Nim always spends extra time to work with us, or ask questions, and an inner circle of us have a tradition where at the end of each year, and sometimes twice a year, we go out to a Korean restaurant to eat with him. We usually try to pick up the tab for him, but sometimes he catches us when we don't have money on us, and treats us, as it was after an event last spring, when he treated us to pizza. You're right, sometimes, just being is enough.
What's more, the GrandMaster of our style, who was my master's instructor, is quite an anomaly to me. For example, where in some arts, you don't even speak directly to the Master, ours is so friendly. Don't get me wrong, when he enters the room, we all turn and bow. The reverence is still there, just as much as anywhere, which is what makes our GrandMaster so great. He's Korean, he's the real-deal (he is, after all, the GrandMaster), but the thing that makes him so neat is that at the larger events that we attend, he has come up before to shake my hand, and will ask me how I'm doing. Sometimes he even remembers me, and I'm just a nobody in the TKD world. To me, when someone in his position treats someone in my position so well, that says a lot.
Apologies for lack of brevity.

I have a few but this one made me very proud of my student’s accomplishment. This student started with her husband and two kids, the kids were in the children’s class and the adults were in mine. Neither one of the adults were very social. The female student was very shy and self-conscious but both of them were very attentive and dedicated. That class was small, about 5 to 8 students. My class size grew to at the most about 35 students in a few months and they all worked hard.

One thing I wanted to work hard at was to make each student responsible for their rank and the higher the rank the more of a leader I wanted them to be. Well I was close to achieving that goal and everyone was borderline in the leadership department. I would also remind them at the beginning of class sometime on being a leader and not just a follower. I would hang around the door to the work out area for a bit in hopes of the senior student lining up the class instead of me walking in to get things started. Well this went on for a few weeks and I could tell this student was getting frustrated at the other student of the same rank “ brown belts” not getting things going. Then one day I guess she had enough and started it off and got the class in the right frame of mind and lined everyone up! Now she is a BB and is one of the best leaders in the school!

For me I have no stories about working with another student because our dojo just opened and we are just now getting students. I started training at school in an After Hours program and one of the activities was karate and I took one class and fell in love with it. Since then my Sensei has been working on getting a dojo going while training me and my best friend on the side. For 4 years it was just me,my friend and my Sensei. I was very grateful to have her continue to teach me with only 2 students. We only paid like $48 a month (had to help pay for space) and we got 4 leassons a week 2 hours each leasson. I only hope that one day I can do what my Sensei did to me. Teach! I was also very greatful for her oldest daughter. She helped me with so much and she trained me for free. When I asked her why she said it was because of my passion for training. She said I was like her when she was younger and she had high hopes for me. Since then she has moved away but she helps me when she comes home. Ohh and my Sensei and I were doing kata together and you could just tell how long we have been working together. We were so sycharniced that are breathing was exactly the same. It was really an amazing thing to do. It just shows how much of a relationship me and my Sensei have. She is not just my teacher she is one of my friends.Sadly though she is getting old and she is talking about how when she gets to old she is leaving the dojo to me. It is painful for me to even think about it. I value this relationship so much that I put training abouve school. I had a chance to go to college at the age of 16 but it would have taken up my training time so I dropped out. Yeah so Peace out!

Kaibo 101

Thanks for the suggestion. After a year of thinking about it, I did finally send him an email. To his credit, he took it well.

Bump

I hope you guys who find meaning in your training actually find a way to express it to your teachers. I'm reminded of a letter, written by a potential student, about why she wanted to train. Communicate...because teachers...and students...won't always be there:

http://www.bethlochtefeld.org/aikido.html

My sensei pushed me beyond endurance at times, to the point where I sometimes hated him. This would goad me into working even harder, just to prove to him - and myself, that I was worthy of being a karateka in his dojo.

After I graded for my BB, I gave him a big hug and thanked him for pushing me as hard as he did. I also told him that one of my goals heading into the grading was to be a credit to him as my sensei. He gave me a simple "thank you", but those two words continue to mean more to me than any BB could ever signify.

I believe that my best repayment for his guidance, patience & sometimes enigmatic approach is to continue to try and be a credit to him.