John Coles provided a nice posting on Sensei today at his blog, i.e. here: http://kojutsukan.blogspot.com/2013/02/sensei.html, that made me think of the often assumed trait that if you teach you must be able to do what you teach. To a degree that is very true in a physical oriented system such as martial arts but then again maybe it is not really necessary.
Truly I would prefer that the person providing me guidance and instruction on any martial system be fit, healthy and capable. The question I am trying to pose in this post is to what degree?
I guess this falls to the applications as they fit toward the type of martial system you practice. I mean is it a sport? If yes, then doing is a large part of what the practitioner must do but sensei are not necessarily top competitors. Often a top competitor takes up teaching with sometimes good results but often not so good results.
Consider this, when you watch your favorite football team compete do you notice the coaches? Are they fit, healthy and capable of doing what the team players do on the field? Not often and even the few players who manage to become good coaches can not actually get on the field and do it with the players. It is possible but often they tend to slack off on the requirements of playing on the field.
Do we hold sensei to a higher requirement in this case? I know of a sensei who has growing physical roadblocks that affect his practice, training and instruction but does this mean that he no longer has the credentials, knowledge and ability to still teach? I think he can as long as his communications are still capable to convey knowledge, meaning and understanding. Using senior senpai of a dojo are excellent appendages to compensate for any losses to that sensei.
Then there is the world of self-defense. Do you assume that if your sense instructs in self-defense that he must be superior in the applications? Do you assume that since he is sensei he must be tougher, stronger and more capable in the actual application of the system than those who receive instruction? A good teacher is not necessarily good at applications.
In the end the ability to apply the skills is determined by the individual applying them for each separate moment where they are needed. Sensei must simply understand what is being given, they must inspire, they must allow us to look: to see: to understand and to come to our own on our own with simple guidance. They must have the ability to help us navigate but in the end our calculations to reach the destiny must come from within, not from him.
Is this all merely an excuse to allow those who cannot do, teach? No, it is another nudge on the rudder that guides your boat across the ponds, rivers, steams and oceans that make up the world of martial systems. In the end, regardless, your the navigator and it is on you, not your sensei.
Think of it this way, there will come a time when a sensei will no longer have the capability to do what they do and must scale it back. Do you stop instruction with that sensei simply because this natural process occurs?
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