Master Fighters and Master Teachers: Are They The Same?

Is your martial arts instructor a master fighter? Must an instructor be an expert at performing the techniques he or she teaches their students? This question has been the subject of much discussion and rightfully so. If your instructor must be an expert fighter to be an expert teacher of fighting, this would considerably narrow the field of good instructors. This view of "master teacher is a master fighter" would be true if teaching the art of combat was one dimensional. But it isn't.

Different instructors work with students in different areas and indifferent ways. Some instructors teach discipline, some focus on sparring science, some are best at giving us the confidence we need to use what we have learned from other instructors. It's helpful if your instructor can perform the techniques with an expert level of efficiency and this is very important for younger students who need visual examples. But more advance concepts can be taught on master's level without being an expert fighter, or even an expert of performing the technique. This can be equated with most other sports. Bill Belichick of The New England Patriots is currently the highest rated coach in the NFL and has never played football on a professional level. Similarly, the greatest gymnastics coach in history, Bela Karolyi, only participated in gymnastics on an amateur level. However, both of these men teach the world's top competitors in their respective sports. Belichick cannot blitz or block for a professional running back in an NFL game but that's what he teaches his players to do on an expert level. Karolyi cannot score a perfect ten in the Olympic finals but two of his students have under his instruction.

In the fight game, the best example is boxing. Many of history's greatest boxing coaches were never master fighters. legendary boxing instructor Eddie Futch, who trained such greats as Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, and George Foreman, was never a professional fighter but only a sparring partner to the legendary Joe Louis. Angelo Dundee, perhaps the greatest boxing trainer of all time, never put the gloves on at all. Angelo learned how to teach boxing by keen observation while working for years as a bucket man. By martial artist's standards, he would not be qualified to teach anyone how to fight. But he has taught no less than fifteen world champions, including Sugar Ray Robinson, Willie Pep, and Muhammad Ali, who are perhaps the three greatest boxers to have ever lived. But don't think about training with old Angelo if you want to learn how to fight because he doesn't have a "Grand Master" tittle or a seventh degree black belt around his waist...

There are many great fighters who aren't great teachers and many great teachers who aren't great fighters. If Dan Inosanto fought Mike Tyson in their prime, I would bet the family farm on Mike Tyson because he's a better fighter. But if I wanted to learn how to fight, I would go straight to Dan Inosanto because he's a better teacher. Kicking really fast or hitting really hard doesn't mean you are able to teach other people to do the same. Teaching and fighting are two separate skills that take much talent and hard work to master. Let's not confuse them.