From Kaz's Blog Realizing Mysore
'There's little to feed the ego here. It's all about us and our individual practice. Sharath quite skillfully stays out of the way, appearing only at the most crucial moments. He lets us do the hard work. In fact, we have no choice but to do it, this work that is really ours to do. It's a special sort of guidance. He's present but not. He understands where we are in our practice, most of the time without knowing who we are. His energy is there zigzagging across the shala floor from 4:30 in the morning to past 11am, even if he pays us no mind. His way forces us to take responsibility for our practice and our bodies, for our routines, our rest times, and our self-study. And though he does his best to inject discipline by seeming severe, he doesn't baby us. He treats us like adults--even when we sometimes act a little like children.'
6 comments:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
when you think about it, Sharath has taught so many students for soooo long... no wonder he is so good at it, and students can recognize it...
I think it was Malcom Gladwell in one of his best seller books said it takes 10,000 hours of doing to reach master level at a specific subject, I wonder if we were to count how many hours of teaching/assisting he has...
Folks researching "deliberate practice" (which is what Gladwell is referring to) often seem to cite 10 years for proficiency and 20 years for mastery.
There are specific requirements for deliberate practice to work:
- repetitive performance of intended skill (and, importantly, doing it correctly -- incorrect performance reinforces poor performance parameters)
- rigorous skills assessment
- specific feedback
This is fascinating stuff for a training nerd like myself. :-)
Karen, thanks for the clarification, it is fascinating stuff for me too :-)
Think there's a similar thing about learning a musical instrument, 10, 000 hours.
Gladwell discusses the 10,000 hour rule in his book "Outliers."
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