Hokutou Ryu Teaching Philosophy
Introduction
The philosophy of the Hokutou Ryu is of success through skill rather than physical superiority. Since greater skill cannot be gained without proper study and practice, we must first examine how and what we teach.
Hokutou Ryu identifies five main areas that are essential to the style; Technical, Attacking, Core Combat, Situational and Non-Physical. We provide these through our Senseis, mentors and the grading structure.
With this article I aim to introduce these aspects of our style, commenting on why they are included, what is involved and what is typically expected of the student.
Technical
In the process of learning, we must study particular techniques in particular situations. These situations vary as the student progresses, allowing them to develop a greater understanding of the principles involved. When tested as part of the grading, we expect a very high proportion of successful attempts with a demonstration of the principles involved.
Attacking
To base a style around self-defence without teaching your students how to attack is a foolhardy enterprise. Not only is this essential to allow accurate self-defence practice, it is also a tool for self-defence in itself. Whilst the training punches resemble typically powerful unskilled attacks, our atemi techniques are employed in the spirit of the style; accuracy and skill over strength and speed.
Core Combat
Core combat tests the students ability in a controlled, but unpredictable situation. As the student progresses they will be faced with attacks of increasing variety and intensity. This tests how the student copes, and whether they are still able to execute recognisable techniques under pressure.
For each defence the student can achieve one of three possible grades:
- Pass; Student deals well with the attacker
- Scrappy; Typically this is the result of grappling with an attacker, which took too long or poor execution
- Fail; The attack succeeds; either the student was either hit (or the strike was pulled) or they are dragged to the ground
To pass the Core Combat examination, the student will receive about 20 attacks and the grading panel expects at least 5 passes and no more than 5 fails.
Situational
The situational tests allow the student to be challenged in a more aggressive, but again controlled, scenario. These are designed to test the student with a variety of circumstances, including multiple attackers, reduced reaction time and greater psychological pressure. Clear lines are drawn between pass and fail under an examination and a majority pass rate is expected by the grading panel.
Non-Physical
A vastly underrated subject in many Martial Arts, topics not directly related to on the mat training are essential for a students development. Topics that include the history and background allow a greater understanding of the style and its development. Combat philosophy is covered to help the student understand and control what is happening in your opponents mind, whilst mentoring and sport psychology aids the development of the student and the club as a whole.
The Grading Structure
Typically, most martial arts develop their syllabus from the ground up, adding more techniques and increasing the difficulty for each grade. However at Hokutou Ryu, our syllabus was developed in reverse. We started by examining what we expected our Brown belts to achieve for their Dan grading. Then we could progressively work through each of the grades below, ensuring they would have the skill and experience to advance safely.
Mentoring
In a perfect world, the students first port of call for support would be their Sensei. However in the real world this is not always possible due to the typical ratio of students to Senseis. To help ease the situation, we have a mentoring hierarchy in place.
To begin with, their mentor is a friendly face, the first port of call, helping them integrate into the club. As the student develops the mentor becomes their coach, to help, support and motivate them.
Sensei
Many Martial Arts equate a skill in the style as a skill in teaching. This is not always the case and is identified within the Hokutou Ryu. The rank of Sensei is separate of the grading system and must be trained for independently. This can begin once a student has achieved their Dan grade.
The training covers many areas including sports psychology, personal development and supervised teaching. Once a student has distinguished himself or herself as an instructor, they will be awarded with the title and the right to open their own club.
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