The importance of passing on knowledge to colour belts.

As a Black belt or as a senior belt there are several reasons why it’s important to pass on the knowledge that you have accumulated over your own years of martial arts training to colour belts. In my opinion these are the main reasons.

• Teaching the next generation
• Different way of training and learning
• Duty to club
• A new path for your martial arts journey

Teaching the next generation
One of the best parts of being a martial artist is being able to share the experience with other people. You can share this knowledge in a few different ways such as teaching, assisting in classes or just partnering with another student to teach them a specific technique or pattern. Passing on your knowledge is a great way to open up other avenues for your own learning as well though.

Different way of training and leaning
Passing on your knowledge actually helps you with your own journey. While teaching techniques to other students is useful for the other student, it is also useful for your own learning. When you are teaching others you are having to focus on, what you are doing, how you are doing it and why you are doing it. It cements it in your own mind at the same time you are teaching someone else.
Lets for example take a look at if you were performing a Dollyo Chagi (turning kick); It’s not just, kicking with the top of your foot on a sidewards angle. We can break down what we are doing into 5 individual moves;

• Lift knee as high as you can, and on a slight angle out.
• Pivot your base foot on your toes and ball of the foot with a hip pivot.
• Extend the kicking leg, and hit your target.
• Retract the kicking leg at the knee first, and pivot hips back original position.
• Place kicking foot one ground.

While you are talking about these components with a student you may also talk about the following;

• Lift your knee high as the higher you lift your knee the higher your kick will be.
• Pivoting your base foot, allows your hips to open, and reduces the risk of knee damage.
• Pivoting your hips when kicking helps with the power of your kick.
• Retracting your foot first allows you to do a second kick if required faster.
• Placing your foot down where you want it, sets you up for the next move or kick.

When we go through the steps and talk about other details with someone else, we actually improve our own techniques and become better martial artists. So with your teaching, its not just about the other person, you are actually still training and learning, just in a different way.

Duty to club
Doing your duty to your club I feel is very important. It’s a way of thanking your club for the time, effort and resources that they have used to help get you to where you are now. Most students will hopefully find that their martial arts training has helped in other areas of their life as well. Dloing your duty is also helping your club become better as while you’re helping one student, it frees up your head instructor time to help other students on a more in depth level or allows them time to run the club better.
Doing your duty to your club also shows that you care about your club and the students in it and this will help you in becoming a better teacher. It will give you a stake in the achievements of the other students so when they achieve, it feels like you achieve as well.

A new path for your martial arts journey
As mentioned above, teaching others allows you to analyse your own techniques and improve them.  It also brings new components to your training, a new angle of focus and patience is needed as different people learn at different speed and in different ways. Being able to change and adapt to this and to different situation helps you with your own martial arts journey. Teaching others also helps with your own self-confidence and abilities. Being able to stand in front of a group of people takes a lot of guts and can be nerve wracking but you need to have faith in what you have learnt and achieved and know that you wouldn’t be asked to do it, if your head instructor didn’t think you were able to do it.

Ben Tuckfield

Ben holds the rank of 3rd Dan in Taekwondo and is part of the leadership and instruction teams at Zone Martial Arts servicing the Sutherland Shire area from the Taren Point

location.