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Tips, insights, and musings on teaching martial arts Wiley has collected essays from 26 teachers/practitioners (six men, 20 women)of a wide variety of martial arts. In addition to the essays, the book includes an extensive bibliography of books on and about the martial arts.
The backgrounds of the contributors are as diverse as their martial arts styles, and each has been allowed to develop his/her essay in quite personal and individual ways. The disadvantage of this approach is a lack of uniformity among the essays. For me, though, this is greatly outweighed by the advantage of being able to glean from a single book a wonderful diversity of resources to bring to my own martial arts practice and teaching.
Some essays focus on very practical aspects of teaching: how to begin a karate course in a college or university setting; how to develop self-defense courses for audiences ranging from victims of violence to law enforcement professionals; how to keep drop-out rates among beginning students low; and more. Others address more "theoretical" aspects of martial arts pedagogy (differences in learning style and how to accomodate them; differences between teaching children and adults; etc.); still others describe the effects martial arts teaching has had on those who teach it. I can't imagine a serious teacher (or student, for that matter!) of any martial arts discipline failing to take away valuable insights -- and not just once, but every time s/he returns to the book. This will definitely be a resource I continue to use for years, and I recommend it heartily.