9.
“I teach martial arts, so I get students of all ages — this student was a 50-year-old woman. She was friendly, but very timid and shy. She eventually confided in me that she had a horrifically abusive upbringing, and I could see it had seriously affected her life. She was a slow learner and didn’t have a natural aptitude for the art, and I had to be very careful with what I said around her. She had a tendency to read things into my comments and critiques that I did not mean. However, we eventually developed a good rapport. She had a work ethic second to none — she knuckled down and worked all the harder. She was always eager to learn and seek out my help. She once confided in me, in tears, that she felt like she was wasting my time and that she was a bad student. In response, I said that showing up to class each day ready to learn and putting her utmost effort into her training made her an exemplary student.”
“She had the most gratifying growth for me to watch, and I learned she was timid because she had stage fright. I routinely make my students demonstrate their techniques/kata in front of the class, as it helps them get used to the process and makes it so testing isn’t quite so nerve-wracking.
Well, when she first joined, she hated doing that and would get so scared that she would try to hide in the bathroom if she knew demonstrations were coming up.
It took some doing and a lot of gentle encouragement, but she eventually got past this and then some. About five years after she joined my class, we went to a regional tournament with 500 spectators, and she participated in a lunchtime demonstration for the whole crowd. I could not have been more proud of her.”
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