The Revision Tool

Teaching is a very useful revision tool. I used to make the guys teach each other to see if they got the movements right. This is because I believe that if the person has grasped the entire mechanics, he should then be able to teach this to another person. The interesting point is that the one who does the “teaching” has to rewind and playback the information unconscious of what is going on in the brain because of being engrossed in a different task. “Teaching” causes this side effect and it is this side effect that helps the learning process.

According to the dictionary, to teach means to impart knowledge. That means whoever does the teaching simply imparts the knowledge available.

The classic scenario is when I have a student come over and study for a week and then go home for six months before returning for more instruction. I often suggest that he finds a friend to become his training partner to help him do his “homework”. He now has to “teach” his friend the “game” and in so doing he goes through the “revision tool” syndrome. Often such “students” start accepting more new friends in his “homework” sessions and a new “kwoon” is born.

When I first started “teaching”, after I had “finished” learning the “whole system”, I had still not digested and assimilated all the information accumulated over the years of apprenticeship. I still had a lot of rewinding and playing back to do and mistakes to make, hopefully from which to learn. I was extremely lucky to have the same group for many years with whom to do my “home work” and they in turn were lucky to be actively involved in the evolution for such a sustained period. Looking back, we were simply having a fantastic time! I certainly wasn’t thinking of becoming a great sifu.I was enjoying myself getting everyone to a good enough level so that I could get my “homework” done.

My entire life has been one “accident” after another, some very pleasant and some not quite so. The way my homework got done was an accident, so if someone were to ask what my method was, I usually answer “yes!” or I could say “the method of no method”, but that’s lame.