With the arrival of the new year, almost all of us take stock of the past year and set goals for the new one, in the hope of being able to take a step towards the better, in whatever way we perceive the best for each of us.

However, there are some things that remain unchanged over time, and that no matter how many years pass, we will often encounter them in front of us, in the field of martial arts. So I decided to write the tenets of “NOT A GOOD TRAINER” a collection of stories from friends, practitioners of other martial arts, fellow trainees, and of course some things from my own experience as a trainer and student.

So, starting the new year, I hope that all of us who are involved in the capacity of instructor – coach – teacher, as each one thinks, can position ourselves, to become better for the good, not only of our students but also of the arts we practice.

THE TEN WORDS OF A NOT GOOD TEACHER

When a student decides to take the big step in his development within the art to spread his wings by creating his own school, he will ask us the following question. “Am I ready to open my own school, teacher?” The correct answer is not, “wait until you get 4 Dan and then maybe you will be ready” The correct answer is tell me how I can support this effort of yours, what do you expect from me so that you can move forward in your own steps.

When a student comes to us to take an exam but is not ready (the reasons vary depending on the case) we do not sell him particularly to “get ready to take the exam”. We support him with an advanced student who will work with him for the period until the exam, in addition to the preparation that is done every time during the exam period.
When a student is “unable” financially to come to a seminar, we do not prevent him from taking the exam as a means of pressure because at the moment he cannot cover this expense. We support him by telling him “you can come for free this time and I know that the next day you will make your effort to be typical”.

When a student over time becomes very good at what he does, the instructor also makes sure to build his character, so that he can be an example for the rest of the school. We do not “abuse” him by lifting him up like a uke to show him who is in charge at the school”. On the contrary, we give him a beginner student to be responsible in his first steps and in this way to learn to contribute to the school in his own way.

When a student does not come to classes (and the reasons are varied, a baby in the family, increased demands at work, a bad period, etc.) “we do not delete him after 2 weeks and then ask him to re-register”. The same applies to injury, from personal experience after a fracture in my leg during training, after I returned with almost 2 months, I was asked to register in full for the two months I was absent.

When seminars are announced from other schools with teachers from abroad. “We do not make an announcement that anyone who participates in a seminar of another school puts themselves outside the school, i.e. we expel them because they want to see something else.” On the contrary, we also announce seminars of other schools and if we can, we also accompany our students.

Whatever the line that our school follows (i.e. the teacher who is responsible for the Dan exams is Greek, European or Japanese), “we do not tell our students that if they leave our school they will find themselves in an uncharted land because our school is the only one that has a Japanese teacher and the rest simply do not know what is happening to them.” Personally, after 4 trips to Japan and 13 to Europe, I can say with certainty that there are equally good and perhaps sometimes even better instructors outside of Japan, but this is purely a personal perception. And that usually those who are mentioned in this argument have not even visited Japan for serious training.

When a student from another school decides to intensify in ours having already a degree of independent level belt, “we do not inform him that the degrees he has are not valid in our school because we do them differently or because we know better or whatever else everyone digs up to lower the value of the new student”. On the contrary, we should see what level he is at and how long he has been involved in aikido (there are also people who have stopped and decided after 2-5 years to start training again) and if he had stopped, we should make a passage together in some of the techniques at the level he is, so that we can see where he is technically. In no case do we cancel the course of a practitioner wherever he comes from.

The school is a fairly complex undertaking with many extensions, many times there are students who help voluntarily in this, e.g. cleaning at big celebrations, support in some part (e.g. transporting guests from abroad) in seminars. We do not force our students to help us in any way (I have even heard of cases of supermarket shopping, babysitting, etc.) and if they do not do so, they fall into disfavor, whatever this entails. We simply mention the need for support from our members and if there is a response then our school is united as a team, if not, you must work on it as teachers.

Finally, a teacher or trainer should have clarified the type and quality of the service they provide to our society, especially when it has to do with children in addition to adults, which can be summarized in the short phrase: “Students NOT Customers”.

Panagiotis Agrios
Athens bushido center
Chief Instructor 6th DAN