Re: I’m new and how effective is the training.

[Damian (Instructor)]

Thanks [James Goolsby] and this is probably the MOST frustrating issue.

People’s frame of mind is martial arts and combat sport so they put the SDTS into it and think it must be trained like those arts.

Add to that we’re fighting the institution of martial arts. A good instructor is worth their weight in gold. Even the best instructors are going to make sure that you have all the tools you need to learn better and faster.

Styles aside – most people assume that the content of the SDTS is the same as the local martial arts school – to that I say if you don’t take the time and see the difference, well – I don;t know what to tell you – that’s like saying my pediatrician is the same as my wife’s gynecologist.

There is a good chance your instructor sucks.

We’ve all had good and bad teachers in school. Yet those people have had 4 plus years of college, student teaching, state board certification, etc.

But just because a guy has earned a black belt, opens a school a few miles from your home and is a nice guy, that qualifies him as a great teacher.

The martial arts model is broken.

To survive it depends on enrolling new students and keeping them training longer.

This forces instructors to make you dependent on coming to class and the only way you can learn is by going to them.

Yet in other sports, it’s different.

We use film to analyze our play and the play of our competitors. We use video to learn drills and different tactics and techniques. We talk to other coaches and instructors to see new training methods.

In school we use books and now remote learning platforms just like Insider, to accelerate our learning.

Yet when it comes to watching, listening, pausing, rewinding and asking over the computer a lot of people just shut down.

Again, you’re right – complicated or competitive based systems you need partners and an instructor but even then you STILL use other resources to further your game. It’s only the insecure instructors that tell you they can teach you everything and compel you to be obligated to them and make it seem like they’re doing you a favor by teaching you (regardless of the money you pay them to teach you).