Class structure versus informal training

A parent recently asked me about classes and wondered why her son like studying from me at the playground last year but did not seem interested in signing up for martial arts at a formal school. (Not with me btw. And this is a subject for another post, but I notice that a good amount of my Kung Fu outreach, as it were, is actually just free advertising for your generic Martial Arts place.)

But having just watched a slew of performances on You Tube and also teaching a new class at Nativity Prep I am comparing the movements and the spirit of the movements in my mind between someone who is trained in a class setting and someone who is raw and untrained.

For instance, the most athletic kids in my class can do some back flips and stuff like that. From a performance perspective these are my guys. They can perform a part of the show right now and look awesome. We have to work on pausing and Kung Fu movements and get the feel for Chinese rhythms and body structure... but for the flips they already got it.

Thing is to get that structure you have to a) line up...

Now before I even get to Jam Jong and basics and ding lik and all that we are still at lining up. Because the most athletic kids cannot stand or sit still. They are constantly in motion.

So they get an "A" in the performance section. If I was just training them we could just jump right in. But for teaching the entire class Kung Fu...I almost want to kick them out. That's because of the setting. It is a formal class.

Now there are other kids that are fantiastic at lining up. Some are physically athletic too. But they are more calm. Less raw.

You know you can see a difference between kids forced to do a routine over and over and then become good at it and two kids wailing on each other with sticks. The energy in the play fighting is different. There is no holding back. It's more lethal and without any practice.


Many forms, done together as a routine look gelded. It's the difference between a mustang and a race horse with one testicle. The race horse will have better endurance and run around in a circle. The wild Mustang is much faster but will not even allow a person or a saddle on his back.

Of course there are those that can have the structure of the form and the raw power of the natural fight.

So how do you find balance when teaching a class?