group dynamics

**Nina** · 01-27-2007, 19:38

What do you think is the best size for a group that trains together, despite the fact that there might be limited space?
How much people train in your dojo together and did you ever had the case where potential practioners couldn`t join the club?
Is your group more or less "uniform", e.g only children, students...?
Does your group meet regularly outside the dojo?

**Eliz** · 01-27-2007, 22:17

10 adults is about my ideal for both training and teaching.

We do meet off class time to spar and there used to be a larger group that got together on weekends to spar.

Our classes are uniform in regards to age and ability for the younger students.

**Nina** · 01-28-2007, 08:40

You spar outside the dojo?

**Eliz** · 01-28-2007, 09:05

Originally Posted by Nina

You spar outside the dojo?

That weekend group used to meet up with another group in another school.
We stopped meeting as our own weekend family committments grew.

**Altoman** · 01-28-2007, 09:11

I train in a group of 20 (including instructors). We meet regulary after the clas to comment our skills and to chat. We have an "age" range from 15 - 28. And we get along great...

**drivica** · 01-28-2007, 15:19

My school has 30 students, age 9 to 40. They have both separated and joint classes. The best classes are when there are no more than 12 or 15 of them. Less than 8 is also a bit depressing. I use my black belt assistants to help me with begginners, bt I try to give a personal tution to every new student in every parto of our training/testing program.

Mondays I teach them jujutsu. Wednesday - kenjutsu. Saturday is a sparring day - both arts, sport formats of chanbara, sport kenjutsu and sport jujutsu. Children age to 15 learn both arts within a unified program, called Shinbudo. After they reach brown belt, they can select between jujutsu or kenjutsu (and take separate black belt exams), ir take both exams for separate black belts. Senior begginers are allowed to learn either one of these arts, or also study under unified Shinbudo curriculum. Because of limited space, I sometimes have to reject new students. Also, since Shinbuikan is a school if someone fails the exam (which is free of charge) several times or is not applying to be examed at all - I ask such students to leave. I am not a professional teacher, our school is a non-profit one, so I do not like to lose my time and time of other students. For example, if someone is lazy to learn how to make a proper mawashi geri after 3 months of training (and doing almost only mawashi!), it is in my opinion lazy student. Especially when knowing that I do not demand any high kicks, any special physical skills or any special talent at all.

**sheb** · 01-28-2007, 18:38

Originally Posted by Nina

What do you think is the best size for a group that trains together, despite the fact that there might be limited space?

i think an important point is that there are at least 4 practioners for each grade to practice grade-specific techniques well.

**basher** · 01-28-2007, 18:42

I joined a kung fu class a couple of years ago and left after a month primarily due to there being too many people--from 25-30. The dojo was so crowded I kept bumping into people, and I didn't feel I was getting enough attention--so I quit.

**BlueDragon** · 01-30-2007, 08:46

Originally Posted by Nina

What do you think is the best size for a group that trains together, despite the fact that there might be limited space?
How much people train in your dojo together and did you ever had the case where potential practioners couldn`t join the club?
Is your group more or less "uniform", e.g only children, students...?
Does your group meet regularly outside the dojo?

We usually have around 10 students training in our kwoon but it has peaked at 18 on the occassional busy night. We can easily accomodate more if we need to, we have 2 instructors and usually 2 assistant instructors in the class.

Do we meet regularly outside classes? This is my favourite question. To me my kung fu group is like a second family. We have barbeques, camps and dinners as a group. Apart from that they are also some of my closest friends that I would catch up with outside of class so I am always surrounded with kung fu buddies

.

**Nina** · 01-30-2007, 12:25

Originally Posted by BlueDragon

To me my kung fu group is like a second family. We have barbeques, camps and dinners as a group. Apart from that they are also some of my closest friends that I would catch up with outside of class so I am always surrounded with kung fu buddies

.

That is happily more or less the same in our dojo.