A community of practice of which i have belonged to over majority of the last year is the Universal Martial Arts Association. Several people meet together at arranged times usually 7-9pm twice a week to learn the fundamental forms of Wing Chun. There is a shared interest to learn and gain more skills in this particular practice despite the fact that the members may have different motives from learning. A social gathering is evident when the members of UMA meet at the Grandstand Community Centre during the week. The uniforms requested to be worn at training demonstrates a sense of unity and 'togetherness' representing a group of members who engage and learn in the same area of practice. When applying more of Wengers guidelines for a CofP the Universal Martial Arts association contains students studying at different levels of ability each wearing different coloured belts to identify their level of understanding in the practice.The main teacher or as we call 'Sifu' is seen at the top of the heirachy having more than 24 years of experienced teaching Martial Arts. There are a wide variety of members, some who return after long periodes of being away, newcomers to this particular form of martial arts (Wing Chun) and beginners who learn from eachother as well as the more experienced students and also others who have never studied martial arts atall. Exclusions may be applied to people who attend one or two classes to get a breif introduction of whether they wish to continue enrol or not, furthermore not seen as a member or able to mentor any other individual.
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A nice breakdown Daniel. Do the students also learn from the more experienced students (on an informal level) as well as from the formal lessons? And is there any other means - aside from attaining belts, that you could rise in the hierarchy?
ReplyDeleteStudents do in fact learn from students on an informal level. Through forming frienships most of the students often meet up and train outside of the class in a more relaxed casual enviornment. There are other ways of rising in the heirachy besides attaining belts as grading is optional if a student doesnt want to go for a belt he or she doesnt have to. Despite this a student can train at the club for years without grading for a single belt although their experience and skill level will still be recognised and respected.
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