a simul.
But that’s not the end of the story.
My teaching even improved more after that…
Well, I had to. I’ll tell you why.
During the simul, I always record all the games...
I often give group lessons, most of which are three
people as one group.
(At an iGo school every week I played 18 simuls or 20
simuls every week, which always drove me crazy...
Once I played a 25 simuls...
Well, I once did 30 simuls in Portland, Oregon. It was not too
difficult to play with those go players at the same time. All I needed was just playing.
In fact anybody could do this kind of simuls if you start
playing Go as a child and keep studying intensively.
So playing simuls is no problem for me.
What made me difficult was the following:
At this school, I not only played simuls, but also gave
advice and record all the games at the same time.
I ran all the time, to record all the games, gave advice to all
the students, answered all the questions, and showed variations
if necessary during a simuls...
After the games, I wrote down all comments and advice... I was
always exhausted...
I continued this teaching for many years...
But after a while, I got soooo tired and quit that iGo
school.
Instead I started teaching three iGo students as one
group. That was much easier to teach. And I could remember
their common mistakes much more easily!
So I couldteach them much better!)
Most of them like my even game teaching style, so
we play an even game.
Most of them like my style of giving advice in the
middle of the game, so I give advice whenever I feel
I should.
And we have a limited time, we can never finish a game.
A game often goes somewhere between 50 moves to 80
moves, depending on how quickly they play.
But that's okay. It's a teaching game.
Some people like to learn the middle game and the
end game, so we continue the game that we had played
a week ago.
After the simul, I start writing down my comments
on my recording sheets.
I write down their common mistakes, my advice,
and some variations on the sheets.
It usually takes me about 40 minutes to write all
the comments for three people. (Having three students
is nice... 15 students is very tough!
)During that time, my students just take a rest
or read Go books or review the game.
Some people start playing a game.
In fact, I continued this way of teaching for a while.
But one day some of my students say:
"Well, I've attended your lessons for a year.
I had heard that you were a very good Go teacher.
But I never become strong. I'm not learning any.
So I quit."
Sadly, they did quit.
To be continued...
