Sunday, October 5, 2014

You're called a Guru? When a new student enters a class, one of the things a student sometimes gets confuse with at the start is the Term "Guru" this word sometimes summons up images of a monk like figure, who lives in a completely holistic world, free of all the trappings of a modern society, a place where money, work, family, stress etc doesn't exist for him. Some students sometimes place this concept of their own making onto the role of the teacher, and then get upset when he or she cannot live up to that role, often expecting more of the teacher, then they themselves would prescribe to do. 

However in our art the word Guru is used to describe the manner in which a student is taught. The concept of my and my seniors who teach, is instead of giving intensive technical instruction, the student learns and develops through combat experiences. At the beginning, the student simply has to copy, what he / she is shown and then as he / she becomes more confident, they can bring their own expression to the techniques. By learning through combat experiences, the student will develop greater skills, which they can use in a rapid changing environment of the street. They can adapt quickly if a technique doesn't work, and move to another, because they face that problem in class. The student learns to think and be constantly interacting with danger presenting itself.

This concept of learning at the start, can be very hard for some adults, who are used to be told what to do, and not have to think themselves, buts its the core learning ability of children, and something which we push away to the deep inner core of our brain as we leave childhood behind. To understand Silat or Kali, all we have to do is go to class, watch and repeat and with a good teacher, he will guide you, in times when its needed and in others he will let you learn by your own mistakes.. So if your concept that the Guru will be like the image below, you may be disappointed as you won't find that in our class. But if your concept is the Guru will be a ordinary person like yourself, who will help you to the best of his abilities by creating the best learning environment for you, then the benefits from training will be great...We have weekly classes for Children, Teenagers and Adults if interested, send me a message or call / text 087 9956569

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