Seminars

What is the importance of going to a seminar? Why pay the cost of a month's tuition to someone for a single afternoon of training? What can this person teach me that my instructor can not? Is my instructor deficient in some skill? Why go to a seminar? Is it even fair to ask me to attend?

These types of questions are often asked by new students in a martial arts program. Sometime a martial arts instructor will not even suggest going to any seminars, or seeing other instructors. I find that teachers who refuse to even suggest to their students to go see other instructors might have something to hide, not the least of which might be their ego.

Unless you know everything there is to know about a particular martial art; then there is always something new you could learn. Unless your instructor knows everything there is to know about their martial art, then there is a gap in your learning sphere of total knowledge concerning your chosen martial art.

There is always someone who knows more than you do, and a seminar allows you a chance to pick up the skills that they can teach. Seminars cost more money for a number of reasons: the cost to get an instructor to a location, per diem costs, the time the instructor spends away from his family is worth something, and finally the skills they have to teach. There needs to be an exchange, and so the cost of a seminar often equals what you pay for a month's worth of instruction.

It does not mean that your chosen instructor doesn't have things to teach you, or that there is some huge skill gap. It means that everyone can learn, even your instructor. In some dojos there is an actual number of seminars per year that the instructors want their students to attend. Now lets take the abstract and make it personal for the teisatsu dojo.

By the time you are a fifth kyu you should strive to attend at least one seminar a year, by the time you are a first kyu perhaps two or three seminars a year, and by the time you reach your black belt and beyond the number should grow to as many as you possibly can, depending on your life circumstances. Once you stop attending and learning from others your skill set will slowly start to cave in on itself, becoming only those things that you like to practice. It is also the sign of an ego that's starting to get out of control when you think that you no longer need to study with other instructors because they have nothing left to teach you.

The martial arts are not for everyone, but everyone could learn them if they so choose. There is a cost for the transformation from the masses into a martial artist. If the cost of seminars are too much remember that the monthly costs here are as low as they are anywhere in this city, so perhaps putting extra money aside would the be the proper thing to do. Is it too much to expect students to attend a seminar? I really don't think so, and if I didn't think it would be worthwhile I would not suggest them. I try to bring in people that have something useful to teach.

When a visiting instructor comes to your dojo and less than half the 'normal attending students' don't show up, it's kind of rude to that instructor. I understand that life happens, trust me - I understand. It's just food for thought.