Not my regular class, not my regular methods.

Tonight (Monday night), I ran a stress-reduction class for campus RA's. Actually, I ran 2 sessions. Since they knew no kenpo, and the purpose was stress reduction, I talked briefly about ways martial arts reduce stress, made sure they all sweated a lot, and taught them a few basics and had them do the basics on pads and on each other. In the second session, we also had time for some wrestling-like activity. This was kenpo related only in that the basics were kenpo basics. Otherwise, this could have been any martial art.

I found that I was searching for ways to make the class more interactive and to pair people up. Our regular class has a structure conducive to constructivist methods. And, the regular students have a base of information and a knowledge of class structure that allow more constructivist exploration. Finally, the regular students are used to working on each other, opening lots of options for constructivist methods.

With a bunch of beginners doing a slightly non-standard format, I did not have as many options for using constructivist methods as I usually do. I was limited to having them do 2-person stretches, practicing punches and parries on each other, and some wrestling. We did not have options for the cool interactive drills, or the usual exploration that comes with learning a self-defense technique, and so forth.

But, I did have 2 regulars come to class to work out and help, and they both told me they were great sessions. This suggests, again, the value of doing basics and repetitive drilling, and argues against some of the more cognitive stuff, and constructivist stuff. I'm starting to wonder if a push for more constructivist approaches might weaken rather than strengthen what we do.

Peace,
SGB