Instructing Styles

There are three basic styles of instruction

• Traditional (usually based on repetition), the most prevalent
• Creative (which invents new exercises to perfect a skill or teach a principle)
• Intellectual (based on verbal explanation and rational understanding)

Since most students have only had one instructor during their Taekwondo training, most instructors use the same style of instruction as their instructors use.  Some seek out or stumble upon different styles that more efficiently help them reach their goals. Each instructor should be aware of the different instruction styles and adopt the one that most fits their personality.

Traditionally,  no one questioned the style of teaching. The style of instruction and the art of Taekwondo were considered synonymous. Since the Taekwondo was Korean based on warriors, the instruction style must be similarly Korean and warrior based. Classes consisted of long periods of exercises and drills were followed by even longer periods of step sparring and forms practice, long sparring sessions without benefit of modern sparring safety equipment, and culminated in a long period of meditation. The instructor would show how to do a technique and the class performed it. If someone did it completely wrong, the instructor would step in and demonstrate again with one of us with little talking. This was a military discipline meant to challenge the student’s will power. The instructor use techniques as an instrument of self-discipline. Power was gained by repetition, form by imitation.