Watching Carefully

The ability to observe the way other people move and to offer constructive criticism about it is one that is integral to our system of Kung Fu.  We believe that all students should learn to teach as they go up through the ranks.  It helps them with their own physical training and it builds helpfulness into the community of students.

Learning to watch someone do an overhead squat (as in the left side of the photo) or watch someone do Sui Wan is much the same.  To be able to see correct and incorrect movements requires each student to make an image in their head of what things are supposed to look like.  Most of the time, this causes some reflection, as in it makes people think “how well am I executing that move?”.  Plus, when someone else is actively watching a student move (if it doesn’t make you too nervous) it usually makes them think “what are all the steps I need to do to have this person give me the thumbs up?”  Thus teaching helps students improve their own movement and it builds positive social connections between students (if criticism is delivered in an emotionally neutral way).

As an added bonus, when classes get big, students who have been around for a while get opportunities to teach, which for many kids is very empowering.  They get to show other students how much they have learned and that the teacher trusts them enough to let them pass on that information to someone else.