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Warrior Wednesday - Teaching

[caption id="attachment_11040" align="alignright" width="300"]sword Image created using Bitmoji[/caption]

There is a lot of change going on in my life recently. Not only have I started a new job, but I've started teaching my first student with the blessing of my sensei. I didn't go searching for it; it found me.

Teaching is interesting. Right now, I feel like I'm just trying to figure out what works best for this student. But it challenges me in a way that other training doesn't. I have to try to remember what it was like when everything was new for me.

I don't believe in a one-size fits all approach. Each student has different challenges. I have trouble with my posture from playing roller derby and problems with my ankles too. I also need more frequent water breaks than most people.

Some are dealing with different injuries. Others have trouble focusing. Vision, hearing, spatial, and many more things can make the journey different for someone else. Some want to do as much as possible quickly. Others are more than happy to do one kata for a long time.

But beyond challenging me to try different ways to get the information through, interacting with him is enriching my life in other ways as he is also a writer and musician though in different ways from me. His worldview is different enough that it makes me check my own, but similar enough that I can jive with it.

We're taking it pretty slow. I pull some ideas out from my karate days and from the other senseis I've had along the way.

It's pretty hard at times. I'll look at how he's doing something, know it's off, but have difficulty figuring out exactly how it is wrong. I guess that's part of the whole point though. It's forcing me to learn it all at a higher level.

R~

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