This is rant was brewing inside me for a long time, and I’m sure it’ll upset some people and ruffle some feathers. Oh well, can’t make an omlette without breaking a few eggs, so I’ll get over it…
I did the rant in video form, and the full name of that video is “Don’t Bullshit Your Students About Knowing Everything!” which pretty much sums it up!
The humility to admit that you don’t know everything is admirable.
And bullshitting students about a position or a technique you know nothing about is deplorable.
Your ego isn’t more important than their development.
Here’s the video…
Now, some shout-outs…
In the video I start out by saying that one of the coolest things I ever heard a martial arts instructor say was “Ask me any question you have. If I know the answer then I’ll tell you. If I don’t know the answer then we’ll find out together.”
That instructor was Makoto Kabayama (formerly going by ‘Nip) of the Kabayam Bushidokan in Toronto.
And the other instructor I reference in the video – the guy who was OK with my bringing in other teachers to learn Capoeira – was Philip Gelinas of the GAMMA school in Montreal.
If you’re reading then thanks to both of you – you’ve been way more influential than you give yourselves credit for.
If you admit that you don’t know everything then it implies that you yourself still have some learning and growing to do, which is the case for everyone from this year’s Mundial champion to Rickson Gracie himself.
If you’re done with learning you should be in the grave.
Stephan Kesting
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