Explaining lines.

One of the challenges with teaching is learning the language of your students.  Imposing your "language" upon them is actually an obstacle to producing an instinctive response.

When I'm talking about language, it's more learning modes and that filter between thinking and doing. I tend to slip into a kinaesthetic mode when explaining stuff with a sword- turning my language into a directly positional one where I know by feeling what is right.

I feel this works as a multi-modal way of explanation. It can provide a visual model for the student to reconstruct. If you place them into the stance, then they have a physical/feeling model to work from. It's got a weakness with auditory learners which can be overcome by repeating the positions, adding emphasis on the descriptions while you correct positioning.  I'll probably be looking at this a bit more in the future.

But, in short, the idea is that you take the knowledge to them- as the "expert" any information exchange should be weighted in their favour rather than yours. Obfuscation and implied authority by long words is questionable in an academic debate and probably harmful in physical learning.

Open and closed lines are one of those things that are really obvious once you get the concept- the problem is that the concept is translated in so many ways.  I've heard it described as doors (which works really nicely with the analogy of closing lines). Some think of barriers. I do something like a venn diagram, possibly due to both hands in use and manuals describing a "compass" of defence... This seems to be a very personal understanding that people uncover themselves. But there's a moment when it just clicks.

Speeding up the internalisation of this concept- something with so many different ways of making sense- is tricky and a great way to highlight one of the complexities of teaching. There is no wrong answer to the question of how to describe lines as long as the result matches the reality. Insisting on your description is a good way to delay this internalisation as it means the students have to constantly translate into something they understand.