When a total beginner wants to start to practice, no matter the chosen martial art or his / her level of dedication: if the instructor is the wrong one, that inevitably makes all the difference; the reason is that from him / her depends:
The quality of the knowledge (theory)
The quality of the training and the training partners (practice)
The choice of our guide is the most important step: to follow a bad teacher could mean wasting our entire martial life and never reach not only ours but also any goal.
To become able to immediately recognize poor instructors, in this article, we want to compare 5 behaviors of a good one with 5 of a bad one.
A note by Master Kongling – The idea is to give, even to the less experts, a few realistic parameters of evaluation (if instead we are slightly more prepared, let’s read Is your instructor harming your martial growth?, here we are slightly more technical).
The 5 characteristics to focus on
These are (in random order) the characteristics that anyone can analyze, no matter the level of preparation we have.
Naturally, we should not be too severe in the evaluation (no one is perfect), we could say that:
Recognizing only 1 negative of these parameters is certainly not enough
If we match 3-4 negatives, that is for sure a red flag, an alarm bell of unreliability
If we match 0 negatives, we have found the right one
A note by Master Kongling – How can these characteristics be correctly evaluated? How long does it take? It depends on the cases but never without having tried at least a few lessons (read Is it legit?).
1. Humble or arrogant?
The good master:
He / she has self-esteem
He / she does not hide his / her limits
He / she never claims to be an expert
…
The bad master:
He / she directly / indirectly exalts himself / herself (because he / she is unsure of his / her skills)
He / she directly / indirectly exalts his / her martial art comparing it (inadequately) to the others
…
2. Respectful or disrespectful?
The good master:
He / she respects his / her long-term master(s)
He / she respects his / her students and their (past) paths
He / she encourages those who have difficulties (sincerely, extolling only what is truly correct or improved)
…
The bad master:
He / she talks badly about his / her long-term master(s)
If not done with him / her, he / she totally refuses the past path of his / her students
He / she subdues / humiliates his / her students (with insults, derisions, out-of-scale claims or worse, false compliments)
…
3. Great or miserable?
The good master:
He / she knows how to be heard
He / she is also able to listen to his / her students’ needs
His / her final goal is to make them better than him / her
…
The bad master:
He / she transforms each lesson into a personal exhibition
He / she never listens to his / her students’ needs
His / her first objective is to keep his / her students inferior to him / her
…
4. Active or inactive?
The good master:
He / she has a wide cultural baggage
He / she always tries to improve and never feels arrived at the end of the path
He / she lives for martial arts (not as an obsession but giving it a high importance)
…
The bad master:
He / she knows only a few things and poorly
He / she lives in (his / her) past and he / she is not able to keep abreast
He / she lives for money (trying to take as much as possible before we will understand his / her limits)
He / she is vague, wanders often, wastes time (trivializing the practice) and misleads questions
…
5. Practical or theoretical?
The good master:
He / she is open and concrete
He / she does not hide anything (sources, causes, effects, mechanics, limits of functionality, necessary premises, weak points, etc.)
He / she focuses the teaching on true abilities, applicable to real and practical contexts
He / she is clear about combat efficacy (eg. “you fight, you learn to fight, you do not fight, you do not learn to fight”)
…
A note by Master Kongling – Regarding the last point, as we always do, it is important to stress that Kung Fu (and many other martial arts) can be studied not only with the idea of practical combat (eg. for wellness / health, self-improvement, etc.) but this must be clearly said: nothing is more dangerous than thinking that we can fight, when in reality we are not capable at all.
The bad master:
He / she is obscure, generic
He / she does not explain / demonstrate anything
He / she uses tricks and legends to delude his / her students
…
Final notes
A few conclusive thoughts:
As we have already said many times, there is always something we can learn from anyone but let’s try to maintain a certain distance from the wrong people, they influence us even if we do not immediately understand it (maybe we may follow only certain seminars for example, read Bad martial arts instructors: the real consequences)
The best thing is to have many sources of knowledge to have as much as possible parameters of confrontation; let’s focus on the choice of our primary master, he / she should be the most mentally open, a sort of coach (read The characteristics of a true master)
Let’s stay away from the ultra-belt ones (read When a belt becomes a blindfold), usually when the title is too incredible, cumulative and / or full of unnecessary frills, it means that there is little substance; this is not valid in all cases of course but in front of such people let’s be very careful
Here we can download the infographic file of this discussion (that we can download in PDF format or share in PNG format)
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