What films do you reference in teaching (and why)

The the four films I reference most in teaching are.

kung fu panda 1 - the importance of applying what is available in the moment. There is no next technique, the dragon scroll is inaccessible, there is only what you have right now.

Kung fu panda 2 - the importance of inner piece. maintaining an inward focus on centre and connectivity as well as an outer focus on the opponent.

Kung fu pand 3 - as a visualisation of the spiralling connectivity of muscles in dragon techniques.

Gross point blank - as an example of a good drop knee broom-handle sweep and as an example of letting your enthusiasm lead you to bad desiitons. The assassin was winning in the standing fight so he should not have got carried away and followed his opponent to the ground after the sweep.

 

Dead Man's Shoes - the use of verbal and non verbal threats

 

The prison killings in "breaking bad" are a good example of what knife defence needs to deal with. Horrific.

 

None, because drama uses the actions of protagonists and antagonists as storytelling devices, and they never reflect the messy, random nature of reality. Even documentary footage only gives you a snippet of one perspective, presented and edited with bias.

I avoid analogy as much as possible, and never indulge in allegory. I find contriving exercises whereby students get to experience things for themselves, or at least get enough of a taste to appreciate how that might work or feel, is far more effective as a teaching device. If I do use analogy, it will be from experiences students have had themselves, rather than works of fiction.

Occasionally I might reference the Karate Kid, but only as a joke

 

Karate Kid - Most notably when working on Tensho Kata

Karate Kid 2 - When talking about Tai Sabaki

Dead Man's Shoe - Posturing (specifically that pool hall scene!)

Enter the Dragon - Jokingly referring to line work and group Kiai

Predator - The odd spine ripping reference, when dealing with anything neck/back cranking/breaking...

...and I'm sure there is more!

Travess

 

It goes without saying - but I will say it anyway. obviously the only way to consolidate learning is through directly pressure testing the application of technique. Testing is a vital part of the learning cycle but it is only one quarter of it There are many ways to theorise, contextualise and test understanding that do not involve getting someone to punch you in the head.

If a student can improve their understanding from seeing a technique executed well in film, why not give them the opportunity? In sport, in a movie, or on the street good mechanics is good mechanics. If a student can get a different viewpoint and a better grasp of an idea or principle from watching a movie. why not give them the opportunity?

 

"They mostly come at night. Mostly."

- Me, quoting Aliens, when talking about ninjas.

 

I assume you mean the original not the remake. Although my students say it is actually quite good I refuse to watch the remake. for me their can be only one karate kid. well only one karate kids, 1 and 2 - I reference the drums a lot when talking about relaxed hip rotation and power generation.

could you expand on what you refer to when working on Tensho kata.

 

I'm not knocking it if it works for you, just giving my reasons why it doesn't fit how I do things.

Personally, I can't think of any film where I've seen something and thought "that's how I want my students to move", or any that have been particularly evocative of how any aggressive situation really feels, that I have experienced.

Choreographed, idealised, glorified aggression and violence, including unrealistic portrayals of the associated motivations and emotional content, are ubiquitous. The more that students come to realise how divorced from reality these portrayals are, the better, IMHO.

But, again, if it works for you then more power to you.

 

agreed. our ideas of violence are so skewed by popular culture. at least mma helps to lessen the delusion--not i said lessen not eliminate--as does training in arts that seek to address the reality of violence versus the joke of movies and magazines. i suppose that without actually being in it, we'll never have an accurate view of violence.

sadly, too many arts promote a glorified view and the training matches.

 

This floor is freezing.

 

Everyone says "sweep the leg" right?

 

I'm annoyingly quoting everything during anything I do.
After Despicable Me. I cant say the word "banana" properly ever again.

 

Well. Yeah. Its movies.

The main aim is, what looks good on film. Practicality is a far 2nd place.

There's always snippets of a bit of reality because it still has to be based on it.

A lot of my friends are martial artists and stuntmen and when I used to be in that industry, we would be on set joking/mocking the choreography. But we all know what the job is.

 

Oh but of course I mean the original Karate Kid, in fact, if anyone mistakenly assumes that the comments are in reference to the remake, they could well find themselves doing laps of the Dojo, with the Heavy-Bag on their back!

Both the vertical and horizontal wrist movements of 'Paint the fence' and 'Paint the house', respectively, are found within the Kata... (all be it over a shorter range of motion)



...If you look at the way Higaonna Sensei moves his hands between 25s and 35s of the video, then you'll notice his actions first mimic an upward, then downward 'brushstroke', which is then immediately followed by the 'side-a-side brush stroke' - This is repeated again between 50s and 1m (and again later with both hands in play)

Travess

 

You could argue there's "wax on" and "wax off" in Tensho too. Mas Oyama's favourite kata.

 

Again you have missed my point. it is not about what works for me as a teacher. it is about what works for the student as a learner. It is after all a fundermental tenant of good teaching practice to accomodate the different way that different students learn into teaching.

 

I do agree with this point. I do not, however, agree that referencing films while training must necessarily make this problem worse.