Teaching is difficult. It rips you from your own, personal training for the betterment of others. Verily can it be described as self-sacrificing! However, one must constantly improve to give new insights to their students. Realization cannot be achieved via laziness. The support a master gives must be such that the students should surpass the master.
In my perspective, there are two paths one may go on in teaching:
A pure, traditional path. Or a mélange from different arts, movements, blended into a single fighting style. Simply put: the traditionalist or the practical one. One cannot be fixated on things otherwise the picture will be missed.
Look not to my finger but to what it is pointing at. Pick what works, not what looks good.
Again, we come to the query of: what is the goal? What is being learnt? And for what?
A lot of people emphasize this idea of self-defense. I personally don’t understand it. I don’t understand what all this preparation is for. An inevitable fight? A fight that may or may not occur? It is akin – in my eyes – to those people who ready themselves for a zombie apocalypse or government takeover. Granted, there is a more higher probability of a fight occurring in one’s life as opposed to the latter two, this explanation reeks of paranoia to me.
If one states that they wish to preserve one’s spirit, one’s mind, I am able to find such an answer to be rationale. Do it for yourself, not for any other reason. And this reason has to be clear to boot.