My latest whinge...

Zebee Johnstone wrote:

In aus.bicycle on Fri, 12 May 2006 10:35:11 +1000
Tamyka Bell wrote:
Damn straight, and a big thumbs up to you for it as well. My boxing
coach was just like that - everyone was important regardless of their
talent, provided they wanted to be there - and everyone who went wanted
to come back, because the encouraging atmosphere, where everyone was
important, was great!

My fencing master the same.

He loves teaching beginners, and makes people happy to do the drills.
He is also full of stories about how he took ages to learn things.
He's very patient and encouraging, and will do the same thing over and
over and always smiling.

And he teaches all his students who show interest how to teach in the
same way. He's convinced (after over 20 years teaching) that teaching
a physical skill is something you have to be taught how to do. and
that teaching it well takes a lot of time and effort.

Most talented people don't know what they are doing, they jsut do it.
When confronted by someone having trouble, it's hard to work out where
the start of the problem is unless you have a very good understanding
of the body mechanics and how people do things. I have had to teach
male fencers who were teaching female fencers about boobs and their
effect on arm movement If they were looking, they weren't looking
at the arms maybe....

It was interesting to me that the sporty kids at school went on to be PE
teachers and I wonder if that propagates the bad atmosphere in school
PE. I remember getting told to run faster and asking how to do it, and
getting a blank stare as if it was obvious, and I should just run
faster...

It took me 4 sessions with a podiatrist, in which he took me through
better running technique, to massively improve my running, and make me
run faster. There's a technique to every activity no matter how simple
or natural it seems, and being shown the technique can make the
sport/activity far more enjoyable and less frustrating/difficult.

A music teacher would never expect students to just know how to play an
instrument... a maths teacher would never expect students to just know
how to integrate if they've never been shown... why should sport be
taught differently?

Perhaps because, like you said, talented people don't know what they are
doing and they just do it. They haven't a hope in hell of explaining the
how and why. Which I think is why I make a pretty fine
running/boxing/other sport partner - I started as someone who couldn't
do it, and learnt how. And even if I can't make my body do what someone
else may be able to make theirs do, I have a good chance of being able
to explain the patterns of motion anyway.

Tam

In aus.bicycle on 11 May 2006 18:17:26 -0700
Bleve wrote:

I almost could kayak to work too, the Yarra's not -that- far from here
and
it runs right past my day job office's door! Bugger of an uphill
paddle home though ...

That;s what the dog's for. Take it in the kayak going to work, and
have it running along the bank pulling you upstream....

Zebee

Tamyka Bell Wrote:


Perhaps because, like you said, talented people don't know what they
are
doing and they just do it. They haven't a hope in hell of explaining
the
how and why.

Tam
Perhaps some of this gets back to disparaging remarks such as "those
who can, do; those who can't, teach"?

My mum taught primary school all her working life. During that time
she taught my brother and I to swim along with 100s of other kids in
'sports' class.

To this day she can't swim a stroke. Scared of water She
may have never been able to swim, but she sure could motivate, and she
could certainly teach!

ali


--
alison_b

In aus.bicycle on Fri, 12 May 2006 11:09:48 +1000
Kathy wrote:
Not picking on you Tam but at least a few people would consider martial
arts as the ultimate competetive sport.


No, it's an art. Martial sports is competitive sport.

Our school had wednesday elective sport too. my Judo teacher never
considered it a sport, to him it was an art. As fencing is to my
fencing master.

The bods who went surfing saw it as an art too.

I am less sure about the ballroom dancers....


Zebee

Zebee Johnstone Wrote:
In aus.bicycle on 11 May 2006 18:17:26 -0700
Bleve wrote:

I almost could kayak to work too, the Yarra's not -that- far from
here
and
it runs right past my day job office's door! Bugger of an uphill
paddle home though ...

That;s what the dog's for. Take it in the kayak going to work, and
have it running along the bank pulling you upstream....

Zebee

or in Bleve's case - guinea pigs! mush little ones mush!


--
warrwych

Zebee Johnstone wrote:

In aus.bicycle on Fri, 12 May 2006 11:09:48 +1000
Kathy wrote:

Not picking on you Tam but at least a few people would consider martial
arts as the ultimate competetive sport.




No, it's an art. Martial sports is competitive sport.

Our school had wednesday elective sport too. my Judo teacher never
considered it a sport, to him it was an art. As fencing is to my
fencing master.

The bods who went surfing saw it as an art too.

I am less sure about the ballroom dancers....

You can argual that martial arts are arts and not sport I guess In
fact you can argue that what they derive from isn;t sport.

But war sure is competative

Dave

"Zebee Johnstone" wrote

I find that with fencing. I love fencing,

I've done quite a bit of fencing. I have my own wire strainer, fencing
pliers and clip crimper. The fence is still there.

Oh!

Theo

In aus.bicycle on Fri, 12 May 2006 13:27:15 +1000
Tamyka Bell wrote:
Perhaps because, like you said, talented people don't know what they are
doing and they just do it. They haven't a hope in hell of explaining the
how and why. Which I think is why I make a pretty fine

This is why for a few hundred years there have been separate
associations of fencing teachers. It was formalised a long time ago,
and in Italy at least if you want to be taken seriously as a fencing
teacher you have to prove you can teach, and that usually means
apprenticing to a teacher and being good enough for them to sponsor
you to take the exam.

Which takes most of a day, and involves an oral examination on theory
of fencing and of teaching, and teaching individual and group lessons
in 3 weapons, plus taking a lesson yourself to see how well you can
absorb instruction, and fencing several bouts in different weapons
too, so they can see how well you move and how you think.

When my fencing master took his, there was an internationally rated
fencer taking the exam because he wanted to make a living from his
sport. But he failed, because although he was a fine fencer, he was
a lousy teacher (He wasn't sponsored, he was allowed to take the
exam because of his international ranking)


running/boxing/other sport partner - I started as someone who couldn't
do it, and learnt how. And even if I can't make my body do what someone
else may be able to make theirs do, I have a good chance of being able
to explain the patterns of motion anyway.

That's helped my teaching a lot too. I am not talented so I had to
learn it all the hard way. I also have a lot of empathy for people
having trouble because I had so much trouble. Plus I can explain what
I found worked for me. I still have trouble with people who have a
majorly different build to me, I have to make sure I'm working with
them not against them.

Zebee

In aus.bicycle on Fri, 12 May 2006 13:50:16 +1000
warrwych wrote:

Zebee Johnstone Wrote:

That;s what the dog's for. Take it in the kayak going to work, and
have it running along the bank pulling you upstream....

or in Bleve's case - guinea pigs! mush little ones mush!

Guinea pigs? Make a paddlewheel!

Zebee

On 2006-05-12, Bleve (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Tamyka Bell wrote:
Bleve wrote:

snip
The way I look at it is that a bike race is not a zero sum game (or in
the case of bike racing, less than zero sum!). You "win" in a race
when you achieve what you set out to achieve, and that's not
necessarily first over the line. How you set your goals is a key.

Ah, how many times did I try to explain that to hippy...

One of the aboc "secrets" is how to do that

You teach a course in how to explain that to hippies?

--
TimC
Radioactive cats have 18 half-lives.