Mr. Hayes often reminds us at training seminars that we should have a personal training question we are trying to answer. I have found many people have a difficult time with this idea. They ask things like, “Can you show me this kamae?” or “I want to learn about this historical ryu.” or “How do I throw a jab?”. While these are legitimate questions they are very general. Your questions should reflect your training.
To come up with a question that will take your training to a new level you need to do some homework and answer some questions.
- What have you been working on in your own training?
- What results have you been getting?
- Are they positive or negative results?
Answer these questions for yourself then you can format a question for your teacher, the online community, or if you’re lucky enough Mr. or Mrs. Hayes.
If your results are negative and you’re having problems the format would be:
“I have been working on ______________. This is what I have been doing and these are the results I have been getting. Would you have any suggestions to get better results?”
If your results are positive but you don’t know what to do next the format would be:
“I have been working on X. This is what I have been doing and these are the results I have been getting. Would you have any suggestions on where I could go next?”
Many times just going through this process to get your question you will find the answer you were looking for. Then you can move on to the next question. This format allows the instructor to know where you are in your training and what would be the best direction to help you move to. So before you ask a question do a little homework and you will get a much better answer.
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