"I'm an enthusiastic student, not an expert. I'm hot on the trail of mastery, still with more questions than answers and much more to learn than to share."Since my chosen profession is communications, however, I do know a thing or two about training methods. There are some universal concepts that apply regardless of the skill or subject being taught -- math or piano, motorcycle safety or personal defense.
At its simplest, learning is a journey that begins at ignorance, passes through knowledge and proficiency, and pursues mastery. We can, of course, define that journey by tracing the path itself -- and because most students want the answer and want it now, the world is full of lazy instructors and, as a result, robotic graduates who can’t find their butt with both hands.
In my experience, both as a student and as a teacher, I've had more success by defining the elements surrounding the path to mastery. Among others:
- Hardware & software
- Social culture & human nature
- Physiology & psychology
- Intellect, interest & aptitude
- Barriers & advantages
"The real cycle you're working on is a cycle called yourself."In the realm of personal-defense training, I've found at least one instructor who shares my approach to education. I've never trained personally with Rob Pincus, but my wife and I have been exposed to his teaching through the “Combat Focus Shooting” DVDs. While watching a video is no substitute for a live-fire training course, we've incorporated Combat Focus techniques into a method that works for us.
Over the last year or so, I've read many of Rob's posts in various Internet forums, and we've exchanged a number of e-mails and private messages. The following, as much as anything else I've read, sums up his approach:
"Instead of an old model that presumed we can teach people to do complex and unnatural mechanical things under stress, Combat Focus takes the position that we can teach people to shoot very well and very efficiently by working with the things that occur naturally."Coincidentally or not, Combat Focus mirrors the way we drill our teenage spawns on our family emergency plan: Natural, Consistent, Efficient.
Recently I read something that Rob wrote as a "guest blogger" on Breach Bang Clear. Entitled "Respectful Irreverence," it opens with this assertion:
"When any person, idea, technique, school, piece of gear, team or tactic is put on a pedestal, we risk stopping progress."The word "progress" reveals Rob’s goal for his students as well as his preoccupation with becoming a better instructor by advancing the art of defense. He goes on to outline four principles of learning:
- Success breeds complacency: "History is full of examples of 'best ways' that were bested through innovation, experimentation and critical thinking."
- Avoid absolutes: "If someone says 'always' or 'never,' it is your responsibility to find the exception."
- Ask (& answer) the "Why?" questions: "Dogma has no place in this arena."
- Context dictates curriculum: "Spouting content blindly without regard for the realities of the student is simply lecturing, not teaching."
In training for dynamic, life-and-limb disciplines like high-performance driving or defensive tactics, there's always a lot of grumbling about "that guy" -- the student who "doesn't belong." Sometimes it's the fault of the student, sometimes the instructor is to blame, and often both are true.
Each and every one of us is "that guy" -- always. Failing to approach learning with that attitude is an illusion called ego.
Everyone has something to learn. Everyone has something to teach. Every experience, every discipline carries lessons. There's value in maintaining openness to those lessons, both for student and teacher.
The ego-illusion also breeds "sacred cows" or what Rob Pincus calls "absolutes." Nothing blocks learning as completely as the presumptive acceptance of a single, immutable answer to the exclusion of all others. It mistakes arrogance for excellence, freezing progress.
When a student comes to class clinging to his absolutes, he leaves no wiser than he arrived. When an instructor traps students in his dogma, he's failed them before class begins. Each is obligated, respecting the integrity of the learning environment, to challenge the other.
Learning not only requires progress -- true learning is progress. To advance the art, whatever the art, we need to set aside carefully tended "truths" and rise above ego. Ultimately, that's how we learn.
