Do you remember who taught you what you know?

Memory has several virtues. It let us store information, remember events, avoid repeating errors and if it’s properly handled we can check our evolution.  Human beings’ point of view inevitably varies over time. Our sight of the world is not the same at puberty as in adulthood and we are amazed at the difference when we become «older» adults.

Generally speaking, we can say that there is no item that escapes the previous description. Taekwon-Do being part of many people’s lives, it is necessary to understand that growth within the Art requires the use of memory. All knowledge is evolutionary. This truth is checked over time. That is why we must not rush the grades.

Each grade requests maturation as a catapult to access the next level. Of course, there are some whose greed leads them to ignore such a process, considering it unnecessary. Without memory, you will never be aware of your evolution because you will have forgotten the details that made your growth possible. Without memory, you are prone to repeat errors.

As they say, no one was born knowing. Since this is an unquestionable truth, it is necessary to remember those who have taught us, because they made our evolution possible. Nowadays, training bypasses the place of those who teach, who instruct. As the sports side has prevailed, the Instructor has become a coach. Taekwon-Do’s capacity comes from an Instructor, who transfers to his student the knowledge he needs to get a better management of his self-defense. A coach establishes the necessary steps for that student, to acquire the rhythm demanded by the sport. These two facets are sometimes combined in the same person. Instruction requires knowing the Art and the student (his/her fortitudes and weaknesses) in order to give him what he needs. Coaching requires that the student already know. You can’t train someone who doesn’t know.

Therefore the Instructor teaches what the student doesn’t know and the coach puts sports rhythm to the knowledge already incorporated and taught by the Instructor. The student owes those who have taught him what he knows. When this doesn’t happen, the word ingratitude tarnishes the action.

Confusing the Instructor with the trainer or coach is common currency. As I said, sometimes both tasks are combined in the same person, however, and when this is not the case the student should not be unaware of who has taught him what he knows. In Taekwon-Do, no one is self-taught. Whoever thinks this way will be recompensed accordingly.

Regardless of how many years a student was with an Instructor, it’s very common for some students to say «I was training with fulano or zutano» without giving to the Instructor the recognition he deserves. In other words, they didn’t learn from them, they only were in the class, without understanding that no one took them there at gunpoint, they went there to learn and by their own decisions. Every Instructor gives his best when he teaches. Please acknowledge them and recognize that you have knowledge because of them.

It should be clarified here that I am referring to the student’s regular Instructor (direct Instructor) and not to those who give a seminar or course. The latter are only those that set the general parameters to follow. The student owes his knowledge and the implementation of it to his regular Instructor and not to those who give an occasional course. Memory is not only necessary to evolve but also to recognize.

 

If you want to read the virtual Reflections book written by SGM Ricardo Desimone, just go to the link below

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1n8_5_z3Q1VZyPABp2Mu7t-KtFrWO3GUK?usp=shari