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Instructor Eric Naylor writes: Background
I began by trading guitar lessons with a Martial Arts instructor (primarily Chinese styles) which allowed me to get free private lessons (1-2 hours a week) in addition to group classes. I continued with this instructor for almost 6 years while also starting to take classes with other instructors. When I left it was to concentrate on furthering my knowledge. Since then I have continuously taken classes, seminars, and worked out with different instructors. During some years I was taking classes at three different schools simultaneously. I also found myself attending over a hundred hours worth of seminars in a year traveling to Baltimore, Orlando, Chicago, L.A. and Lansing to study with instructors from all over the world. I currently work out each week with instructors from other schools and attend between 60-100 hours of seminars each year. How I Teach Teaching is a skill separate from martial arts. Most instructors teach in the way that they have been taught, and this applies equally to myself. However I learned to teach studying music and guitar, having been a guitar instructor for years before I taught my first martial arts class. Through music I learned many of the important concepts that I teach. For example, increasing speed requires efficiency of motion, relaxation, repetition and perfection in practice. In music I also learned improvisation through the use of fixed patterns such as scales and songs. This is the same in martial arts where fighting is a type of improvisation, and the fixed patterns are forms and preset techniques. A good analogy for how I teach is the saying that if you give a man food, you will feed him for a day. If you teach him to farm you feed him for life. In martial arts you can teach someone a technique (like giving food) but there are endless possible situations in self-defense. This person will always be dependent on their teacher unless they are taught the theory behind the technique (like farming in the previous example) so that they can create their own variations.
Styles Due to my desire to always learn and improve, I've taken classes and seminars with over 60 instructors and read or watched over 700 books and instructional videos (not movies.) I've never been one to believe that there is a style that would be "the" style. Instead I've always searched for variations and more efficient ways to teach my existing material. The following is a partial list of instructors I've studied or worked with. For those who I have left off or their names misspelled, I apologize as I mean no disrespect. This list is in alphabetical order. Some of these people I have studied with for years and some for only hours but all have had some effect on me.
The following list of styles is by no means a complete list. This is for two reasons: First with over sixty different instructors, some of whom taught multiple styles, the list would simply be too long. Second while many styles and instructors have inspired me, and I use techniques and ideas from these styles, ultimately I am teaching my own blend. The list below is intended to give you an idea of my influences. I do not teach these styles or claim to be an instructor in all of them. (This list is in no particular order.)
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Like many people,
my first exposure to Kung Fu was watching Hong Kong movies on TV
growing up. My first class was a Karate class in 1984 while I was
in college studying music. However this was only for one quarter
and then I changed schools and didn't restart Martial Arts until
January of 1990. I consider that to be the point I truly started
since I have studied continuously since.
Since
this is my goal, I teach in a relaxed and casual atmosphere where
questions and discussions of how/why techniques are done are welcomed
and encouraged, grouping techniques by theory (why a technique is
done) rather than by style. I also keep classes small enough that
I can work with each person individually to make sure they are practicing
correctly and understanding the technique. I don't hold anything
back from students and everything is taught in an open manner with
both beginners and advanced students studying side-by-side. As far
as technique, I teach all aspects of self-defense including empty-hand/weapons
striking, joint-locks, throws and ground fighting. I also teach
counters to all of these moves (after all, every move has a counter
and if you understand what it is, this will make your technique
more effective.)