When I started teaching several years ago, I actually didn’t want to. I didn’t think I had anything people would be interested in learning. Although I knew I had some skill, I didn’t think anyone would see any value in it. But my teacher told me that I had more than I realized—and that teaching would make me even better. It turned out he was right on both counts.
One of the first people to come check me out was a longtime martial artist with a background in Liuhebafa, Xingyi, and Baguazhang. He had a streetfighter’s mentality and was a tough, physical guy. Being a professional deep sea diver who had traveled the world on his own sailboat, he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty (or bloody). I was sure that the first time he came out to see me would also be his last. But to my pleasant surprise, after he touched hands with me, I could see from his facial expression that he was impressed and that he knew I had something worth his time. Unfortunately, because of his job/travels, he left Los Angeles after only a few sessions. But from that experience I gained the confidence that I could be a teacher and that I had something others wanted to learn.
Having taught the past several years, I now understand why my teacher said that teaching would make me better. In the field of medicine, doctors (in particular, surgeons) have for more than a century learned how to perform procedures by following a model of learning called “see one, do one, teach one.” Basically this means that to learn, you watch a mentor do a procedure, then do the procedure yourself, and, finally, teach the procedure to someone else. Although this model has its critics and has started to change in the last decade or so, it is still widely used (though sometimes with modifications or supplemented with other learning tools), including in fields other than medicine. Why? Because it works. I had seen my teacher do Zhu Ji, I had done Zhu Ji, and now I teach Zhu Ji. That last step has reinforced what I have seen and done, and in some cases it has even corrected or improved it.
Even if you’re not a formal teacher, you can still reap the benefits by teaching informally, for example, when you’re working with your classmates on forms or drills. Obviously, you don’t want to disrespect your teacher or your school, but in most martial arts classes that I’ve been in, senior students often handle much of the teaching. (Perhaps “see one, do one, teach one” actually originated in the martial arts.) Especially if you’re more advanced than your classmates, you may find that showing them what you know increases not only their knowledge but also yours.
The idea that teaching will take your own learning to higher levels is nothing new. But you might be surprised just how much you’ll learn by teaching. I know I have been very pleasantly surprised.
