Kyusho suffers

from many delusional practitioners and instructors... as all arts or styles do.   So how can you protect yourself when looking for an instructor?

Language - First listen to the instructor, is the language they use foreign to you?  Will you need to learn a new language to understand about the science?  Excessive or incomprehensible  jargon is one of the sure signs that the instructor is more involved in mimicking someone rather than helping you learn the science of Kyusho.  If the session is more discussion than training and especially using many different paradigms... ("this will work as an destructive cycle, and a diurnal cycle, also possible a mother and son relationship), then this is not an absolute.  There must be a common underlying and exclusive paradigm that is based on common understanding and language for you to really learn the subject.  If they begin to then throw in special directional, postural or positional language on top of all that you are in real trouble... your learning curve will dramatically slow down and you will be wasting your valuable time.

Also listen to what they say carefully, is it more about themselves or the science... there are instructors that will try to impress you with their demonstrations, their accomplishment or their position (cover later in degree to a higher degree), than help you learn as you learn best.  In short if they talk more than train, get outta there.

In education it has been found that people only remember about 1% of a lecture... that is a waste of time and resources for any student.

Dress - Now this may seem like a touchy subject, but the way an instructor dresses must be addressed.  Really do the have more patches than body weight? Are they dressed to impress or train?  Are their belts hanging so low to imitate a physical lacking?  Are their belts so wide and special colored that they are obviously their to impress not denote skill.  Do they tout how many degrees they have in so many arts it would not physically have had enough time in their life to have accomplished all of these legitimately?  Are they trying to portray themselves as a superman with snappy dress and are more concerned with them self, or are they more concerned on how you train, how you learn, how you move, how you do everything?

This is still only in the lecture stage and you will gain only minimal benefit with 1-2% retention.

Sales - Is the training session a sales pitch, do they have so many DVDs, books or other items to sell than they do related material in the session?  Are they always talking about this DVD or Product that you can find the information in, or are they teaching you that information?  Honestly a training session can not be totally remembered by anyone and resources are good for support... but only for what they have taught you and with a limit.  

In the learning structure people will only remember a small portion from these tools... Reading 10%, Audiovisual 20%... is that alone enough to make it worth your while?

Training - Does the instructor demonstrate more than help you train?  Again more self interested than helpful to you, does the training session, seminar, class contain more talk (with jargon or without) or is it physical?  Have you ever been to that training session where the instructor talks for 20 - 30 minutes, lets you try something for 5, then has another 20 minutes of talking?  That is not training, that is more of a lecture... the time must be reversed so that at minimum you train 50% ofthe time, listen 50%... optimal would be an 80% training to 20% lecture.  Now this does not include when an instructor comes over to you while yu are training and tries to explain a more efficient, effective or expedient way to improve your capabilities... this aspect is crucial.

In the structure of learning humans only retain 30% from demonstration, but will quickly regress to 10% if they are inundated with talk (especially jargon based)... and again not the most productive training session for your time, effort and expense.

Discussion - After each training session does the instructor query the participants on what they found?  If they have any questions, observations or experiences they just went through that would help ingrain that information (for all)?  Are the participants urged to discuss and solidify their training as discussion will help raise the retention rate to 50%...now the seminar or class may have been a good expenditure in your time, effort and expense.  If not you will just be thinking of what to eat, drink or start your journey home.  A good instructor will train you long and hard, refine your personal performance and then plant seeds in your mind at the end for your further development or research... this is how to help a person bring worth from the experience.

Practical Application - Is the training 75% of the total session, where you are presented with a goal and then asked to apply it, unless it is a straight lecture most probably yes... but there is a caveat:

If you see people try something once or twice, then stand and talk, it is a clear indication that they are confused, it did not work or that the information was so minimal that it is easily assimilated and not needed to be trained.  As example the instructor weaves a great tail of their accomplishment, baffles you with 20 minutes of jargon and shows you how to hit he back of someones arm.  They then say to the participants "Try That" at which time the participants do, accomplish the simple single task quickly (be it successful) or it did not work and they then stop trying.  Or are the participants primed with the plan to experience the point, then train to access it in motion, differing movements and challenges so that they can find how or ifit works for them?  Kyusho isnot a static training, it must be a dynamic... or again the participants learn 1 - 30% which is an inefficient use of their participation.

Practical (not static) application yields a 75% rate of retention, but not only that, it more fully ingrains the information and empowers them as they see how they can assimilate it into their body motions naturally, not in set techniques that they are forced to mimic someone else (like the instructor... a ploy long time used to boost the instructors ego... "look at my fine students how they can perform just like me").  If you are not allowed to assimilate a task into your natural ways, we will not be natural with them is stress or real conflict.

We will have been indoctrinated into a delusional mindset or worse turned from further training.

Grand Delusion - So become aware of the instructor and training methodologies, use your time and resources wisely and search for the training that is not based on simplicity and practical application.   If you believe you have learned just by watching the show you have, but so minimally that it is of little and diminishing value.

-ep