In any team, you have to always make sure the fundamentals are in place. A team must be able to have ways where the members are learning teamwork, communication, compromise, encouragement, reliability, and responsibility. That is for ANY team. Otherwise, the team has no worth and no common goal for the betterment of any of the members. I find in any sport or activity, if these fundamentals are missing or not addressed from the beginning, the team fails. I see it all the time.
When I began my own school, I personally did NOT want any Demo team. It was stressful nerve racking, and I wanted to use my time with the students to better them as martial artists and not become egotistical showy-offs. However, I was persuaded by my very own Frankie Peracchio. Frankie was very passionate about the Demo Team. He demonstrated creativity and coordination that martial arts does provide and wanting to create a show to do so for my school. So I gave it to him to do.
We began a Demo team, and it was truly a rebuilding time. It was brand new, we had brand new students. Some made full commitments, some were wishy washy, some didn't stay. I ended up in the middle of the duration of the team got more involved, something I didn't want to do but once again got sucked into, and we formulated a nice looking show.
I am very strict, probably more strict in Demo classes than a few others because it is a show, it is a performance, it is a representation of what we do inside the dojang. I may be snippy, but it makes them sharp and good. I think of my choral director from high school. She was loud and stern, and snippy, but it made us fantastic musicians! The synchronization, the communication, the learning, the caliber of the performance is present. So we do the same with the Demo Team in martial arts.
We did a few Demos at the school for tests, the anniversary, practices, here and there. This past summer, we had a small group of the members perform for the Sunrise Assisted Living in Paramus, NJ. The older crowd absolutely enjoyed seeing the kids perform, and were happy to have something very different vs their tradition violin players come for entertainment. Well, we definitely provided DIFFERENT! LOL
I was proud because they were spot on, they performed well, and it was interactive. They talked to the elderly people, they shook hands, the older team members were polite and sociable, the younger team members were too busy being cute to the elderly members, and truly this entire performance was made by THEM, the team. I gave them all the credit, they deserved it.
So We are about to enter the year 2013. There is a huge wave of change coming ahead, but I have made a year plan for the Demo Team to take on. I have made final arrangements of our members and our routines and music. I am taking charge of uniform plans. Every month from January to June I am going to have one demo a month for them to perform. Between the June to September season I already have 9-10 demos planned for them. I have it all on paper and if it isn't written it isn't so. Then from October to December monthly demos at a few planned events, then there is a special Korean Taekwondo event where the Demo Team will perform in February that I have heard of. It will expose the students culturally to Taekwondo and other interaction of new students, and by that time, we will be changing the ENTIRE show once more for a brand new year. Plans are good!
So it gives the team direction. NOW we have a purpose. NOW we have goals to fulfill. NOW we have intention, and pure intention behind our team. And we wait to behold what the future brings! Good luck TMAFC Demo Team, and a job well done from the Demo at Sunrise Assisted Living! Well done! (BOWS)
Yours in service,
MASTER A TRENTO
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