I have been helping to teach the kid's class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It's amazing to me how quickly they all learn. They absorb everything like little sponges-granted some of them have really really short attention spans, but that's also part of being a child. When they successfully work a technique or even learn how to do the warmup drills better, their joy is so evident. I am proud that I get to help in their early development as Jiu Jitsu players. I hope they all turn out to be World Champions!
Teaching also helps me with my own technique. It forces me to break down simple moves that I now take for granted. Shrimping. Loop chokes. More shrimping. Scissor Sweep. Cross grips. Push Sweep. I usually teach the more advanced kids, so we are now getting into combinations of the above. Eventually they will be a force to be reckoned with and will make the Redlion competition team proud.
The adult class was just so so for me. I injured my foot somehow during monday's rolls. My toe got caught in a gi and pushed all of my toes forward and something popped. Come tuesday morning, I can barely walk. So I had to skip out on most of the fun warm up activities that I enjoy so dearly. We also drilled passes. Steve has been adding 1 to 2 passes to a series of passes that we've been building on. I am glad that we are always working on fundamentals. Occasionally steve will show us a crazy thing or two, but 90 percent of the time we are drilling basics.
The roll sessions were interesting. I rolled with a newbie 14 year old kid who weighs 185 lbs! Cue spastic arm flailing and vicious elbows. I think he punched me in the eye 3 times and elbowed me at least 4 times. I was initially going very light, but I felt like I needed to teach him early on that this kind of reckless rolling would only lead to a) him getting gassed b) someone less kind than me cranking submissions. When I was telling him this I realized I was the one gassed from trying to hold him down and he wasn't even breathing hard. Damn 14 year olds.
On a completely different note: I recently heard that I have a rep among my classmates as someone who cranks armbars. I was shocked to hear this because I pride myself in never muscling anything. I mean, I simply can't muscle anything because everyone outweighs me. Even the 14 year old kid outweighs me by 40 lbs. So I was wondering at what point does it become my fault when I have executed and locked in a deep armbar and that person refuses to tap? Should I just start letting go? I feel like I am cheating myself and truncating my teammate's growth If I don't match their level of intensity. bleh. whatever. If I put you in a submission and you refuse to tap, I am going to take your arm or put you to sleep. Especially if you outweigh me.
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