I began my formal martial arts training at the age of 13. Prior to this I had some basic instruction in boxing from my father a former boxer in his youth.

Back then the karate club I attended had only a very rudimentary teaching system in place. Most classes consisted of doing hundreds of press ups, duck walks, squats and horse stance with blocks and punches.

Twice a week I would push bike 15km to class, spent two hours training and then push bike home again. Needless to say the 15km bike home on the old one speed push bike was a challenge after such classes.

I stayed with this club for a year until the Instructor moved away. Then I found another club a little closer, only about a 5km ride on the bike. I thought I was in heaven as I got to practice what I thought were more real martial art techniques with kicks and sparring. Only about thirty minutes of each class was dedicated to calisthenics and the rest of the time was spent on actual technique.

Some three years and one torn knee ligament later I changed to a Taekwondo club run by a physical fitness instructor from the local Woodbourne Air Force base. Here I learned the value of a well run school with attention to proper exercise technique, a progressive well documented teaching plan and plenty of encouragement to go along with the sweat.

From my time in Taekwondo I learned that Martial Arts are best taught using a progressive learning method where movements are broken down into their component parts and then the individual parts are put back together to form the whole movement. This approach focuses on teaching the individual components of the move before putting it together. It conditions participants to pay attention to technique while emphasizing the correction of movement patterns, this approach works especially well for beginners.

In 1987 I started my own martial art club and since that time my classes have focused on teaching using this approach. Each class has a well documented teaching plan that specifies the skill set to concentrate on for each technique taught. This along with the special rotating teaching plans at each level result in a consistent and progressive learning experience for every student regardless of natural ability or lack of.

I would encourage anyone learning martial arts or indeed any activity look at using the progressive teaching model to accelerate their learning, try it as it really works!