HANDS-ON

 by Phillip Starr

I believe that one of the main reasons for the decline of the neijia (internal martial arts) is the lack of “hands-on” training/teaching. When Yang Chengfu popularized the Yang form of taijiquan, he acquired a good many students; he had so many that he simply couldn't hope to provide hands-on instruction to all of them. Consequently, they learned the “outer shell” of his taijiquan but the inner core was missing. Many of them went on to teach taiji themselves and, well, you get the picture.

The same is true of karate. Once in Japan, the new art acquired a considerable number of enthusiasts and many old photos show an instructor leading a huge class! Although the teachers no doubt enjoyed their new status and the substantial increase in income, there was a problem; there were simply too many students to handle. Corrections couldn't necessarily be made and many of the “little tweaks” (which can make a real difference in technique) couldn't be shown because they really require a “hands-on” approach. The student(s) must be shown the small details, the intricacies, of a given technique by the instructor who is standing right next to him. That's pretty tough to do in a class of 50 or more...

So, pupils who showed themselves to be devoted students of good character might be accepted as “closed door” students. Their numbers were kept quite small so that the teacher could show them the sophisticated, obscure intricacies of the art. Many teachers would have only one or two such students.

The teacher of a young kenjutsu student was told that he should be able to name each student not on sight, but by the sounds of his student's footwork and breathing technique. “If you have so many students on the floor that you can't do that”, the instructor said, “then you have too many students!”

For those teachers who rely on student tuition as their main source of income and/or keeping the doors of the school open, this would seem to pose a quandary but it needn't. The idea of “closed door” students can allow them to provide detailed, “hands-on” instruction to those who have what it takes to train that much harder and keep the true art alive.