I mentioned this post, about our senior student ("G") at the karate dojo leaving on sabbatical. I talked about having to step up as a teacher. One thing I didn't realize at the time was how my training would also be affected.
When I came back to the dojo after a 10-year hiatus, I trained until I had caught up with the requirements for my belt level, which at the time was the first of three brown belts. As I got to know G better, we talked a lot more before and during classes. We would also spar a LOT more before class started, mostly out of boredom. In the first year or so of that sparring, I got my ass handed to me on a regular basis. I was spun around as my kicks were deflected, I was steamrollered by barrages of punches, my shins and ribs and chest were bruised throughout the week, and I could hardly land anything of my own on him.
Then one day, about two years later, I realized something. I wasn't being spun around anymore, I was avoiding the pummeling, I was bruised much less often, and I was getting in shots of my own. How did that happen? There was skill-building in those years of training, to be sure, and I got to know G's moves better, naturally. Still, by training with someone much better than I initially, my skills were quickly increased.
Bruce Lee's first kung fu teacher, Yip Man, is rumored to not have practiced with anyone of less than his own ability because he thought it would dilute his skills. Is there truth to that? If you're the least-skilled among a group, are you forced to improve to maintain your affiliation to that group? What if you're the best in that group, does associating with a group of lower-skilled individuals sully your own abilities? What about teaching, doesn't teaching make you understand something better? Does being the senior student in a class benefit a person or hinder them?
I don't have the answers, just posing the questions...
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