Emotional appeals and cheerleading make me suspicious.

I'd be loathe to call anything I do cheerleading because of associations, but it's all about emotion. If you're not into getting het up, krav isn't the right place for you at all. If an aerobics instructor yells at me emotionally, I'll probably leave. If someone's trying to simulate stress, anxiety, and encourage me to break through my barriers and channel my emotions into saving my life?

Yeah, they can yell. I've found that the contempt delivered in martial arts classes tends to come in a quiet, sneering voice. NSM with the volume.

I can't expect my students to be explosive if I'm not. I'm not explosive all the time -- the krav instructors that spend an hour being UP! UP! UP! are as crap as the ones that are down ... down ... down The key of the effectiveness is in the variety. Pull them in, relax them, startle them, make them laugh, freak them out a bit -- do all that in an hour, and people are engaged in the material, and they remember. We're trying to get past your brain in these classes.

I'm also really pointed about the distinction between yelling at the class and yelling at individuals.

Verbal violence does not necessarily mean intent to harm. I also use it to describe attempts to enforce power, "I'm right because I'm loudest." I doubt I'd do well in any class setting where one lines up before a teacher. I don't follow well. My running into another alpha female is tricky business.

I have heard people say that yelling back in a situation like that feels good, releases energy...

Aimee -- back me up on this -- verbal violence wasn't present in the Sunday class, was it?

No, it was an empowering yelling. And also, like you said, to show that we were breathing right and exhaling on the jab or kick.

Verbal violence does not necessarily mean intent to harm. I also use it to describe attempts to enforce power, "I'm right because I'm loudest."

But I'm including that too. I'm the authority in a class I teach because I know what I'm doing, and I'm here to convey that knowledge to you. And even if you do know more than me, it's important for me to maintain the aura and confidence of it being my room, right now, for the next hour.

Yelling to do that is yielding status. Yelling and doing that is just using the tools in my vocal toolbox. The authority starts with the set of my shoulders and confidence in my words and talent. Volume is so irrelevant.

I doubt I'd do well in any class setting where one lines up before a teacher.

It sounds that most martial arts would set your teeth on edge -- krav doesn't even demand the subservience of most martial arts. Hell, a lot of the Eastern ones demand a higher level of unquestioning obedience (ours is not to reason why), and even something like capoeira involves being put in your place in the pecking order as an explicit part of the testing procedure.

There are reasons I'll never take the traditional Eastern arts again (though some of the Westernised methods of teaching them are just fine by me). If I were devoting my life, my every day, perhaps the drill drill drill routine would be fine. But I want to know why, and in a life filled with other things, I don't have the patience to wait years to find out what the use of what I've been learning is.

I have heard people say that yelling back in a situation like that feels good, releases energy...

One of my favourite parts in any class is when I'm getting people to learn punches, and they have to yell on each punch. I'm screaming "Go!" at them, and they're responding with whatever the hell they want with each yell of mine. And it's just as fun if I'm the one punching, as if I'm the one exhorting.

I doubt I'd do well in any class setting where one lines up before a teacher.

Not even where the teacher knows something you really want to know? I definitely have trouble if I don't respect the teacher, but if they have something valuable to offer, I don't mind making it easy for her to give it (having been a teacher myself) and making it easy for me to learn it (because I loves learning me some new stuff).

For example--I love our dog training class where all the owners and their various dogs line up in front of the teacher. That way he can see all the dogs, to gauge their progress, plus, the guy's been working with dogs for 35 years, I've had one for a month--I want to glom as much of his knowledge as I can.

I have no input on yelling, except that I seem to do it a lot.

I (1) am home sick with a cold, drinking hot beverages; and (2) want this t-shirt: [link]

But I want to know why, and in a life filled with other things, I don't have the patience to wait years to find out what the use of what I've been learning is.

This very thought cured me of an aikido fantasy years ago.

This conversation has really got me thinking about what I'm so afraid of in myself. Someone else yelling at me can have only the effect I allow it to. So what am I expecting?

I'll look foolish? Well. That's assured. So why bother worrying about it?

Someone will be angry with me? In this context, unlikely and even if...so what?

I might unleash something unexpected in myself? Now that bears scrutiny.

Someone else yelling at me can have only the effect I allow it to. So what am I expecting?

That's a very interesting question.

Not even where the teacher knows something you really want to know?

Not if it's a gung-ho, everyone-get-excited type of situation. Teacher to scholar is a different situation. Whenever my college instructors tried the "let's get excited about this!" techniques, I rolled my eyes and waited till they done and got back to business. The teachers I liked best obviously enjoyed their subject, were enthusiastic about the class learning it, but managed not to let the class devolve into a motivational speaker type circus.