Lately, I’ve spent quite a bit of time in China, helping our friends — coaches and canoeists from Guizhou province — improve their approach to preparation and competition.
In my imagination, I often see myself as a 教練 (Jiàoliàn, coach), meticulously teaching my students with care, respect and discipline. This type of teaching raises an interesting question: What happens when such a personalized relationship takes place? How can we differentiate it, for example, from the work of a swimming instructor supervising 14 seven-year-olds during a class from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.?
Today’s reflection focuses on distinguishing between knowledge transmission and mastery. The former is a component of the latter, but mastery goes beyond mere knowledge transfer.
Michel Foucault observed that institutions such as schools, prisons, and factories share the goal of normalizing individuals within society. Specifically, a school can be likened to a swimming pool filled with young children from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., where the objective is to deliver knowledge uniformly. This process is often simple and standardized.
But what about my vision of being a 教練 (Jiàoliàn)? This enters the realm of mastery, where the relationship is not that of teacher and student but rather master and apprentice.
The Master-Apprentice Relationship
This relationship is fundamentally different from what occurs in a classroom or a swimming lesson. Why?
Because while knowledge transmission focuses on general rules that apply to everyone, the master-apprentice relationship emphasizes exceptions and particularities. It’s in these distinctions that an apprentice can excel beyond rivals who have only been taught through generic principles.
The master-apprentice relationship is characterized by experiential learning, distancing itself from generalized theories and prioritizing practice. It’s a bidirectional process: both master and apprentice observe, analyze, and adapt continuously.
Challenges of Implementing This Model
However, there are two major challenges when attempting to apply the master-apprentice relationship in sports institutions:
1. Low Scalability of the Model
The master-apprentice relationship requires a low ratio of apprentices per master, making it difficult to scale. While many organizations can structure systems around efficient knowledge transmission, replicating the intimacy and depth of this relationship is far more challenging.
2. The Recruitment Challenge
Teaching through knowledge transmission is a skill that many people can develop without fully mastering the subject they are teaching. For instance, a math teacher might teach geology for an entire course without being deeply knowledgeable about it. In contrast, creating a master-apprentice relationship demands unique and unmistakable qualities, such as experience, empathy, and a profound understanding of the field. This makes the skill harder to find and, therefore, more valuable.
Final Reflection
In the near future, we might see artificial instructors delivering lessons to students, optimizing knowledge transmission. However, it’s hard to imagine artificial intelligence taking the place of a good master in an apprentice’s life. Mastery, with its combination of humanity, intuition, and experience, seems far beyond the reach of machines.
