Should an instructor have all the answers?

That’s a good question, should they? Just take a minute to think about it……

OK, my opinion is that no, they shouldn’t, however they should have enough information to make a judgmental decision to push people in the correct direction.

There is always something that can happen that has never happened before. Every day in our lives something will happen that has never happened before. What will happen is your ability and experience to be able to deal with that situation will be better.

Let’s take something ordinary. The road you travel on everyday is closed for roadworks? That’s fine, you know the area, you know that if you turn left here, then right, then right again and then left you will avoid the closed road. Experience has taught you that. What if you were 200 miles away though, the sat nav is not telling you an alternative, do you panic? No not really, you apply the same principle again and more often than not it works. If it doesn’t, then you stop and ask somebody and their local experience will help you.

It’s the same on the mat, in fact in life; sometimes you need someone to guide you on the correct path, to point you in the right direction. Over a period of time, you then will become the person doing the guiding. You will be the one helping someone else find their own way.

An instructor should not be a giver of the truth, merely a signpost on the way to the truth. It’s over there, if you want it, go that way, keep going, I will be there to help, it’s your journey.

That is why the Martial Art is a metaphor for life. It’s the work you put in, yet it is the guiding hand of the instructor that will help you get there……