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EdsTeioh
Oct 23, 2004

PRAY FOR DEATH


Man, we have a dude like that in my BJJ school. Dude is I guess like mid-20s, probably 300 pounds of zero muscle, zero coordination and...tbh I don't know how to correctly say this, but I'm 99% sure he's "developmentally challenged?" Is that the right term? I dunno. I've rolled with him a couple of times and he's a LOT of weight to move around, so I just do my white belt duty and "try to survive" (he's a blue belt). So last night, I had to pay the "Bill Tax" and got partnered up with him doing full mount drills and y'all I thought he was going to absolutely kill me. I mean, pressure is good in a mount but got drat I weigh 195 and homes was CRUSHING me and aggravating that rib injury I got last year in that TKD tournament. On top that that, we were doing fairly simple drills of swimming and then transitioning the full mount to an armbar and I swear to god I had to walk this kid through *every* step on *every* rep. Like "hey man, make sure you put one hand over one arm and one hand under the other...ok the 'over hand' is the arm you're armbarring...OK OK please don't roll back so hard; you're gonna dislocate my elbow'" and that type of thing. I mean, on the one hand, it sucked and I almost feel like class was a waste of time, but on the other hand, I guess most every place has a guy like this, and he pays money like the rest of us do, so take one for the team once in a while. Doesn't make my ribs feel any better today, but still.

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Jack B Nimble
Dec 25, 2007


Soiled Meat

EdsTeioh posted:

Man, we have a dude like that in my BJJ school. Dude is I guess like mid-20s, probably 300 pounds of zero muscle, zero coordination and...tbh I don't know how to correctly say this, but I'm 99% sure he's "developmentally challenged?" Is that the right term? I dunno. I've rolled with him a couple of times and he's a LOT of weight to move around, so I just do my white belt duty and "try to survive" (he's a blue belt). So last night, I had to pay the "Bill Tax" and got partnered up with him doing full mount drills and y'all I thought he was going to absolutely kill me. I mean, pressure is good in a mount but got drat I weigh 195 and homes was CRUSHING me and aggravating that rib injury I got last year in that TKD tournament. On top that that, we were doing fairly simple drills of swimming and then transitioning the full mount to an armbar and I swear to god I had to walk this kid through *every* step on *every* rep. Like "hey man, make sure you put one hand over one arm and one hand under the other...ok the 'over hand' is the arm you're armbarring...OK OK please don't roll back so hard; you're gonna dislocate my elbow'" and that type of thing. I mean, on the one hand, it sucked and I almost feel like class was a waste of time, but on the other hand, I guess most every place has a guy like this, and he pays money like the rest of us do, so take one for the team once in a while. Doesn't make my ribs feel any better today, but still.

I agree on everything except if he's actually hurting you in drills you could refuse to train with him. Being dangerous (and/or unhygienic) are the two things you DON'T have to put up with. He could be too big, too heavy, and just dumb as bricks, and you could still put in the time and help him along and let him be a part of everything, but when he's unsafe, that's the crossed line.

We kicked a 17 year old out of our gym after about six months, a few weeks ago. Always rolled too hard, always seemed like he would hurt someone if he was able to (except he weighed 135 and was the worst Jiu Jitsu practitioner I have ever personally seen), never took criticism well, thought he was great, would start arguing with anyone that tapped or pinned him, and stormed out of class more than once.

Out of everything he did, all the complaining, the boasting, the back talking, and the clear inability to follow instructions or learn, the number one thing that bothered me was that eventually, given enough time. He was going to pop the elbow of someone at the gym we actually cared about.

Lol, he dreams of joining the army at 18 and we only kept him for six months because we genuinely wanted to help him grow up. He's fuuuuucked.

Mechafunkzilla
Sep 11, 2006

If you want a vision of the future...

Jack B Nimble posted:

I agree on everything except if he's actually hurting you in drills you could refuse to train with him. Being dangerous (and/or unhygienic) are the two things you DON'T have to put up with. He could be too big, too heavy, and just dumb as bricks, and you could still put in the time and help him along and let him be a part of everything, but when he's unsafe, that's the crossed line.

We kicked a 17 year old out of our gym after about six months, a few weeks ago. Always rolled too hard, always seemed like he would hurt someone if he was able to (except he weighed 135 and was the worst Jiu Jitsu practitioner I have ever personally seen), never took criticism well, thought he was great, would start arguing with anyone that tapped or pinned him, and stormed out of class more than once.

Out of everything he did, all the complaining, the boasting, the back talking, and the clear inability to follow instructions or learn, the number one thing that bothered me was that eventually, given enough time. He was going to pop the elbow of someone at the gym we actually cared about.

Lol, he dreams of joining the army at 18 and we only kept him for six months because we genuinely wanted to help him grow up. He's fuuuuucked.

Sounds exactly like most people I know who joined the army

Nestharken
Mar 23, 2006

The bird of Hermes is my name, eating my wings to make me tame.
I think it's important to distinguish between people who are moving unsafely because they're uncoordinated or unused to grappling (and thus have troubling dealing with the fight-or-flight instinct that can provoke) and people who are unsafe because they have a fundamentally bad attitude. In the former case, you can stick them with someone more experienced who has a sufficient combination of size and skill to keep themselves safe while explaining and demonstrating how to CTFO during training and hopefully they'll figure it out sooner or later.

In the latter case... I've seen a few people who are generally well-intentioned but rough around the edges with their attitude get those rougher edges sanded down over time, but I've never seen anyone with that ^^^ kind of chip on their shoulder just magically have a eureka moment where their heart grows three sizes in one day.

Jack B Nimble
Dec 25, 2007


Soiled Meat

Mechafunkzilla posted:

Sounds exactly like most people I know who joined the army

I was never the army but I feel like the whole point of basic training is to learn to function under stress because the drill instructors yell at you a lot, tell you that you suck, tell you're doing everything wrong and to do it again and also to hurry the gently caress up, and generally be arbitrary capricious dicks to you, the point of it all being to get you used to functioning in high stress situations where you just have to grind on despite a bunch of impediments and set backs? I feel like he's going to wash out of that; He can't take criticism and gets extremely frustrated when something is hard.

But maybe that's just my pop culture perspective on it. Actual vets at my school have backed up both arguments, sometimes simultaneously.

Xguard86
Nov 22, 2004

"You don't understand his pain. Everywhere he goes he sees women working, wearing pants, speaking in gatherings, voting. Surely they will burn in the white hot flames of Hell"
Never served but like most things there are probably average soldiers, good soldiers and lovely but not lovely enough to kick out soldiers. Kid might end up the last one.

slidebite
Nov 6, 2005

Good egg
:colbert:

Jack B Nimble posted:

I agree on everything except if he's actually hurting you in drills you could refuse to train with him. Being dangerous (and/or unhygienic) are the two things you DON'T have to put up with. He could be too big, too heavy, and just dumb as bricks, and you could still put in the time and help him along and let him be a part of everything, but when he's unsafe, that's the crossed line.
1000% ^^ this

There is a difference between people that hurt people just because they are don't really know what they're doing and those that train so its an excuse to get into fights and hurt people without being charged with assault.

People that are struggling a bit... learning control and technique should be open to being educated and correcting, learning from mistakes. Accidents might still happen, but they should be less and less. They should be teachable. Even if its slow.

Purposely training to get into fights and hurt others should be fairly quickly picked up on and given an opportunity to change or be shown the door. Typically its the later and quickly.

Either instance, the instructor(s) needs to be notified and the "offender" needs an opportunity to be educated and shown what's wrong in a genuinely constructive way until they know what's going on. There could be genuine misunderstanding of technique, or even just general rules or etiquette. I always try to use the principal of charity in someones actions (assume they aren't trying to hurt you) and not thinking the worse, but it should become clear fairly quickly.

However, even if genuine mistakes keep happening due to not grasping concepts and they cannot learn control/proper technique and continue to cause injuries, there comes a time when a person might need to be asked if the sport is for them. It's probably not just one person that is getting hurt or being uncomfortable in a situation like this and the alternative is having multiple good students not wanting to come to class or move to another school. Neither of which is a desired outcome for a quality school.

We had a student about 5ish years ago (actually a cop) that used to just beat the poo poo out of people half his size, including females and teenagers. And if he was on the receiving end he would throw a hissy fit. He was spoken to a few times, never changed so he got kicked out.

Big tough cop had his wife come in and talk to the masters and ask for him to be let back in (to be fair she probably wanted him out of the house) and it was :lol: not a chance.


Unrelated: I fully taught both adult and kid classes last night. Both fairly large. Kid classes were ~22 kids and adults about 28 iirc.

I had it pretty much all planned out with a lesson plan I worked on over the weekend. On my way to the club to teach yesterday PM I had an epiphany... so genius me basically reworked the entire class.

Mistake.

Just didn't go as well as I hoped. Not smooth, instructions I gave weren't super clear and I had to go back and re-explain. Just not great. Did a quasi team sparring over 2 rings for the last 10 minutes of class, just didn't go over as well as I hoped. I could have accomplished much of the same thing just by splitting into separate teams and switching out bodies each time we stopped, would have been smoother and natural. Instead it was just clunky and awkward.

That said, I didn't get any really negative comments but I could feel the "vibe" wasn't quite right. Afterwards, my master basically said "Yeah, sometimes you just want to do the basic stuff. Nothing wrong with a really good basic class." and yeah, that's probably the way to go. Maybe change up 1-2 things but not most of them which I sort of did. When I am more experienced teaching everything I can probably more wing more of the entire class.. but I am just not quite there right. I recognize that as a shortcoming.

EdsTeioh
Oct 23, 2004

PRAY FOR DEATH


I mean, he's not intentionally hurting anyone; he's like Pvt Pyle from Full Metal Jacket before Hartman destroyed him.

Slide, I'm glad to hear that you've jumped into teaching so much. Even with rough days, man, whatevs; just keep on and you'll nail the vibe.

ANYWAY I had a major anxiety attack at work today and ended up leaving. I'm on the fence if going to class tonight is a good idea or not; we'll see.

slidebite
Nov 6, 2005

Good egg
:colbert:

E:
Sorry my apologies I wasn't clear. I didn't mean to imply this guy was purposely. Just kind of going over the circumstances of people chronically being an issue in class ... Those that don't on purpose and those that kinda do.

You should still let your instructors know especially if you're uncomfortable training with him. Do you think you're the only person that has a concern with him? You're a paying student too and shouldn't have to seriously worry about getting hurt each time you spar a specific dude. But that's just me.

I find if I have a rough day (tho maybe not anxiety) I always feel better after training.



Instructing is... different. I do believe I'll get more comfortable and more natural the more I do it. I mean, it wasn't a train wreck or anything and the classes I've partially done before have been OK, if not super awesome... but really good feedback.

Coming up with lessons and driving the bus is pretty different though. It's kind of fun, but I do find it a little nerve-wracking because you want it to go over well and have that "Hey, thanks for that great class" comments at the end.

slidebite fucked around with this message at 06:19 on Aug 2, 2023

VulgarandStupid
Aug 5, 2003
I AM, AND ALWAYS WILL BE, UNFUCKABLE AND A TOTAL DISAPPOINTMENT TO EVERYONE. DAE WANNA CUM PLAY WITH ME!?




A lot of military people I’ve trained with have been complete tools and I got the nudge from the owner to hurt them a little. This was at multiple gyms. That said some are fine, but you have to remember that being in the military is to be indoctrinated. Some are able to see what it is and others drink the koolaid. I imagine cops are the same, although most cops I’ve trained with have been fine.

Morter
Jul 1, 2006

:ninja:
Gift for the grind, criminal mind shifty

Swift with the 9 through a 59FIFTY

Morter posted:

is Wing Chun good for a schlubby beginner to take up?

Just wanted to report that after 6 months of Wing Chun, mainly 3 hours a week, and some at-home training/exercise: I've earned my 3rd belt (Grade 3, where Grade 10 is black belt) I've lost ~30 pounds, gotten noticeably skinnier by everyone's account (and once snug clothes are BAGGY!), and I'm having a lot of fun learning techniques and doing them in class.

Because I work in an office job, I talk about it sometimes and it's now become a mild part of my identity (I'm the team 'jock' lmao) and it's a nice thing to share with others and demonstrate simple things.

Also, slight health issues I had (elevated liver enzymes) went away likely due to me actually doing activity and eating a little more consciously.

Wing Chun/Martial arts has been a marked improvement in my life and I'm happy i took the leap. Thank you for all who encouraged me. :shobon:

Jack B Nimble
Dec 25, 2007


Soiled Meat

Morter posted:

Just wanted to report that after 6 months of Wing Chun, mainly 3 hours a week, and some at-home training/exercise: I've earned my 3rd belt (Grade 3, where Grade 10 is black belt) I've lost ~30 pounds, gotten noticeably skinnier by everyone's account (and once snug clothes are BAGGY!), and I'm having a lot of fun learning techniques and doing them in class.

Because I work in an office job, I talk about it sometimes and it's now become a mild part of my identity (I'm the team 'jock' lmao) and it's a nice thing to share with others and demonstrate simple things.

Also, slight health issues I had (elevated liver enzymes) went away likely due to me actually doing activity and eating a little more consciously.

Wing Chun/Martial arts has been a marked improvement in my life and I'm happy i took the leap. Thank you for all who encouraged me. :shobon:

That's the stuff right there! That's awesome! Have you made any new friends by doing it? I know that and health are like the two things that drive people to our gym, and it does both.

Morter
Jul 1, 2006

:ninja:
Gift for the grind, criminal mind shifty

Swift with the 9 through a 59FIFTY

Jack B Nimble posted:

That's the stuff right there! That's awesome! Have you made any new friends by doing it? I know that and health are like the two things that drive people to our gym, and it does both.

I'm not very social outside of work so I don't have anyone there I see outside of class, but i definitely have a nice rapport/attitude with plenty of people there--no one I have beef with. It's definitely a pleasant social experience for sure, and my seniors are always helpful when learning/partner-drilling.

ImplicitAssembler
Jan 24, 2013

Morter posted:

Just wanted to report that after 6 months of Wing Chun, mainly 3 hours a week, and some at-home training/exercise: I've earned my 3rd belt (Grade 3, where Grade 10 is black belt) I've lost ~30 pounds, gotten noticeably skinnier by everyone's account (and once snug clothes are BAGGY!), and I'm having a lot of fun learning techniques and doing them in class.

Because I work in an office job, I talk about it sometimes and it's now become a mild part of my identity (I'm the team 'jock' lmao) and it's a nice thing to share with others and demonstrate simple things.

Also, slight health issues I had (elevated liver enzymes) went away likely due to me actually doing activity and eating a little more consciously.

Wing Chun/Martial arts has been a marked improvement in my life and I'm happy i took the leap. Thank you for all who encouraged me. :shobon:

That is awesome. Congrats!

slidebite
Nov 6, 2005

Good egg
:colbert:

Yeah man. That's awesome! Losing weight does so much more than the obvious physical. Good for you :3:

Is that progression speed pretty typical or are you going full out?

Morter
Jul 1, 2006

:ninja:
Gift for the grind, criminal mind shifty

Swift with the 9 through a 59FIFTY

slidebite posted:

Yeah man. That's awesome! Losing weight does so much more than the obvious physical. Good for you :3:

Is that progression speed pretty typical or are you going full out?

I'd say typical. For belt progression I can only do a max of 3 classes a week anyway and I don't have too much energy. Some people do morning classes as well so they show up twice a day--and good for them! I probably would do 4 or 5 if it wasn't a hassle. So I'd say I'm doing typical progression. But still, it being my first physically-based endeavor (the last being Dance Dance in my teens), then i'm happy i'm making decent progress and that it's both showing and quantified. It is hard work and I'm proud of it.

But it wasn't so much to brag as much as it is to show that despite my hesitations and worry, it is very doable and rewarding to 'start from nothing' and get into martial arts. That's the takeaway. That, and the gratitude for this thread.

EdsTeioh
Oct 23, 2004

PRAY FOR DEATH


I did end up going to class on full rear end panic attack day. Got partnered up with one of the guys that I really connected with early on, had a great class, made each other crack up laughing the entire time, got some *really* good rolls and drills in so I feel like a thousand percent better. I love BJJ so much.

Man, also, though, I got a new gi recently, 450gsm gold weave from Inverted and man that thing is like wearing a horse blanket. I really need someone to make a "Florida Weave" lolol

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


I have a 950g judo gi and it's cooler than others because it doesn't stick to the skin and air flows through it. My default judo gis are 650g and they're pretty good that way too.

The light fabric skinny cut gis that people like for BJJ are actually the hottest because they get sweat logged and glom into your torso

EdsTeioh
Oct 23, 2004

PRAY FOR DEATH


NINE FIFTY??!?!?! My main is an Inverted 350 hybrid pearl weave; the one linked below. I really love the fit of it and it's not nearly as hot the gold weave one. They have a newer "ultra lite" one that's like 280 pearl weave; may grab one of those as a backup.

https://rollmore.com/products/inverted-gear-hybrid-bjj-gi-white-green

kimbo305
Jun 9, 2007

actually, yeah, I am a little mad

CommonShore posted:

skinny cut gis that people like for BJJ

For either sport, are there regulations on fabric or how tight it is to you? Particularly on the sleeves, not being able to easily pull the fabric away from the skin to get a grip would be a disadvantage right? Worth making a rules-skirting gi for? The tighter, I imagine the more stretch threading would be needed to keep you from turning into a mummy.

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


kimbo305 posted:

For either sport, are there regulations on fabric or how tight it is to you? Particularly on the sleeves, not being able to easily pull the fabric away from the skin to get a grip would be a disadvantage right? Worth making a rules-skirting gi for? The tighter, I imagine the more stretch threading would be needed to keep you from turning into a mummy.

Judo has mega regulations on the cuts for gis - can 't be too tight, cuffs can't be too far away from the hand, etc. They even sell special official IJF measuring tools for if there are disputes. I think there are some regulations for BJJ but they're much foggier and more permissible from my perspective.

Not sure about the fabric. I think that most people in judo tend toward heavier fabric, and I've never seen a judo gi lighter than 450g. Most competitive ones are 550+.

kimbo305
Jun 9, 2007

actually, yeah, I am a little mad
From an outside perspective, I find it odd that they haven't standardized securing the gi and the belt in some way. It seems almost a part of each person's style how quickly their gi will come open as the match goes.

Jack B Nimble
Dec 25, 2007


Soiled Meat
I can tell you that when you wear a Judo Gi to BJJ class, you can get pretty tired of giving everyone else a hands breadth sized cuff to grab when they're all in nearly skin tight sleeves. My plan to only own Judo gis to keep things simpler was quickly abandoned.

Nestharken
Mar 23, 2006

The bird of Hermes is my name, eating my wings to make me tame.
The IBJJF has very specific definitions for gi measurements and uses a tool that looks something like this to check them for every competitor as they're being weighed in, but as with many things, the strictness of their rulings depends largely on how Brazilian you are. They also have a rule going into effect next year that requires gi jackets to be between 380 and 650 gsm and pants between 220 and 300 gsm, although I have no idea how they plan to measure that on the spot.

Outside of the IBJJF, I've never heard of anyone getting DQed from a BJJ tournament because of their gi.

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


kimbo305 posted:

From an outside perspective, I find it odd that they haven't standardized securing the gi and the belt in some way. It seems almost a part of each person's style how quickly their gi will come open as the match goes.

well it is kinda standardized - tie the gi with the obi, right over left. It's actually in the rules in more or less that phrasing. There are just a ton of variables for how secure it'll stay. And if your poo poo comes too loose too quickly too often, there is a possible stalling penalty.

kimbo305
Jun 9, 2007

actually, yeah, I am a little mad

CommonShore posted:

There are just a ton of variables for how secure it'll stay. And if your poo poo comes too loose too quickly too often, there is a possible stalling penalty.

How often does the penalty get used? And if a competitor is trying to secure thing is good faith, what could they do differently?
Or is it more deciding how you want to play it within the rules?

If the belt went through possibly dangerous-for-fingers loops, would that not be enough to keep the gi from coming open?

Jack B Nimble
Dec 25, 2007


Soiled Meat
A dude at my gym was saying the new IBJJF gi requirements 1) invalidate a lot of existing gis and designs and 2) align exactly with the official gracie Jiu Jitsu gis, to the point that you'd just be buying those right now if you wanted IBJJF gis next year.

Edit: when you go to IBJJF matches right now there's an official that gives your gi a once over, and they mostly care about sleeve length and color.

My last tournament I did two matches in a white gi with a blue panel gusset and a third ref decided it was an illegal gi when they became my ref. Nonsense.

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


kimbo305 posted:

How often does the penalty get used? And if a competitor is trying to secure thing is good faith, what could they do differently?
Or is it more deciding how you want to play it within the rules?

If the belt went through possibly dangerous-for-fingers loops, would that not be enough to keep the gi from coming open?

Loops wouldn't help imo

The belt/uniform penalty comes up often enough that nobody bats an eye at it, but not so frequently. It's usually when someone is like super gassed and "oh no my belt came off again I need to take a really long time to fix it again while I suck wind". Nobody is getting penalized for having their gi torn open by an opponent. I've seen people get penalized for unsecured hair too.

Xguard86
Nov 22, 2004

"You don't understand his pain. Everywhere he goes he sees women working, wearing pants, speaking in gatherings, voting. Surely they will burn in the white hot flames of Hell"
It's kind of funny because you see old time photos of the gi and it's so different from both judo and bjj. Bigger but also shorter.



Edit: also just realized that the belt is different. Looks like just the standard Japanese belt, an obi.

kimbo305
Jun 9, 2007

actually, yeah, I am a little mad
Pretty interesting, low intensity cross-style sparring.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmmWEerKaAU
Jeff Chan is former low level pro who does a lot of gym visits / sparring sessions.
Kevin Lee does a ton of stuff but has gotten a small profile as someone who puts Wing Chun to use.

Here he spars using Savate and JKD techniques, and then does a round of BJJ. I've always thought the kick feints and transitions in Savate were really slick.

Termyie
Aug 18, 2022

Always choose violence.

CommonShore posted:

I have a 950g judo gi and it's cooler than others because it doesn't stick to the skin and air flows through it. My default judo gis are 650g and they're pretty good that way too.

The light fabric skinny cut gis that people like for BJJ are actually the hottest because they get sweat logged and glom into your torso

I honestly prefer the BJJ gis for the sole purpose that they do not destroy the drum of the washing machine when you clean them.

Count Roland
Oct 6, 2013

slidebite posted:

Mistake.

Just didn't go as well as I hoped. Not smooth, instructions I gave weren't super clear and I had to go back and re-explain. Just not great. Did a quasi team sparring over 2 rings for the last 10 minutes of class, just didn't go over as well as I hoped. I could have accomplished much of the same thing just by splitting into separate teams and switching out bodies each time we stopped, would have been smoother and natural. Instead it was just clunky and awkward.

That said, I didn't get any really negative comments but I could feel the "vibe" wasn't quite right. Afterwards, my master basically said "Yeah, sometimes you just want to do the basic stuff. Nothing wrong with a really good basic class." and yeah, that's probably the way to go. Maybe change up 1-2 things but not most of them which I sort of did. When I am more experienced teaching everything I can probably more wing more of the entire class.. but I am just not quite there right. I recognize that as a shortcoming.


These will happen. As you said in another post they'll improve over time, though there will still be some duds. And the classes that have a great vibe, where people come up and compliment you, those are elusive and not totally dependent on how you're teaching. What the individuals bring to class that day has an effect, too.

In my experience (1 year of teaching BJJ fundamentals classes x3 a week) last minute changes to your lesson plan are a bad idea, especially those of the epiphany sort. An epiphany by its nature is a personal realization, and these will often be difficult to translate into lessons for others. In my opinion the only time a lesson plan should be altered last minute is if you find a mistake. So lets say you show up to class early to try some of the stuff you're teaching. As you're going through your lesson you find something that doesn't flow together or is awkward. That's a good place to make a change if you have a solution.


One thing I do that has helped me over time is detailed note-keeping. I write down all my lesson plans ahead of time, even though I don't usually need the notes in class. But the notes really come in handy 6 months later when I want to teach the same technique/sequence. I just find in my (digital) notes where the lesson was, copy-paste and boom, that's most of my lesson plan already completed. Having a solid skeleton of a lesson gives you more time to think up sparring games, or interesting warmups, or other addons. Teaching the same things over and over will also decrease your nervousness and generally make the classes flow a bit better.

kimbo305
Jun 9, 2007

actually, yeah, I am a little mad
Having your curriculum written up is also good if you need a sub and the sub is willing to do exact continuity of the lesson plan.

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


I haven't updated it in a while but I used to have a spreadsheet printed off that gave broad suggestions for what to do on any given day for a beginner class. It was basically a calendar that made sure that generally all major positions would be taught in a 3 mo cyclw

Count Roland
Oct 6, 2013

CommonShore posted:

I haven't updated it in a while but I used to have a spreadsheet printed off that gave broad suggestions for what to do on any given day for a beginner class. It was basically a calendar that made sure that generally all major positions would be taught in a 3 mo cyclw

Would you mind sharing that?

I've been actively thinking about exactly this sort of scheduling lately. I'm quite interested to see how others have approached it.

EdsTeioh
Oct 23, 2004

PRAY FOR DEATH


Y'all, I think I've got a pretty bad case of bursitis in my wrist that's creeping down to my ring finger. Anyone ever dealt with this? Any good non-surgical treatments?

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


Count Roland posted:

Would you mind sharing that?

I've been actively thinking about exactly this sort of scheduling lately. I'm quite interested to see how others have approached it.

I'll post some screenshots of it because it's woefully out of date anyway, and I'd heavily revise it if I brought it back.



The basic idea is to make it so that any new person gets a mix of positions and offense and defense in those positions, and so that any blue belt who finds themselves leading the class because the black belt is sick and the brown belt got called into work will know the listed moves. Everything, up to the time breakdown, is intended as a prompt and a suggestion, not as a clear curriculum.

Looking at it now I'm even seeing in-jokes from our club - "wristbreaker" is our nickname for the overhook trap and roll mount escape.

Count Roland
Oct 6, 2013

Thanks for sharing.

I see you cycle through 4 major positions. What about other positions like turtle, standing, leg entanglements etc?

(I'll probably have more questions later)

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


Count Roland posted:

Thanks for sharing.

I see you cycle through 4 major positions. What about other positions like turtle, standing, leg entanglements etc?

(I'll probably have more questions later)

This was specifically for a beginner class, and we weren't doing legs in that class at the time. Every class would use a stand-up technique as warmup.

For the rest it's like those positions are variations on the major positions. Turtle can be back. Scarf and north south are side control, etc.

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slidebite
Nov 6, 2005

Good egg
:colbert:

Count Roland posted:

These will happen. As you said in another post they'll improve over time, though there will still be some duds. And the classes that have a great vibe, where people come up and compliment you, those are elusive and not totally dependent on how you're teaching. What the individuals bring to class that day has an effect, too.

In my experience (1 year of teaching BJJ fundamentals classes x3 a week) last minute changes to your lesson plan are a bad idea, especially those of the epiphany sort. An epiphany by its nature is a personal realization, and these will often be difficult to translate into lessons for others. In my opinion the only time a lesson plan should be altered last minute is if you find a mistake. So lets say you show up to class early to try some of the stuff you're teaching. As you're going through your lesson you find something that doesn't flow together or is awkward. That's a good place to make a change if you have a solution.


One thing I do that has helped me over time is detailed note-keeping. I write down all my lesson plans ahead of time, even though I don't usually need the notes in class. But the notes really come in handy 6 months later when I want to teach the same technique/sequence. I just find in my (digital) notes where the lesson was, copy-paste and boom, that's most of my lesson plan already completed. Having a solid skeleton of a lesson gives you more time to think up sparring games, or interesting warmups, or other addons. Teaching the same things over and over will also decrease your nervousness and generally make the classes flow a bit better.
Thanks for the effort post.

Coincidentally, I was chatting with my GM last night a little about this. I can already feel myself much more comfortable then even just a couple months ago, but the hiccup sucks.

I find now when I attend classes for my own training, I pay more attention to the seasoned instructors and not just the drills the are having us do, but listening to how they explain them and the instructions to do them. That's where a lot of the comfort in teaching is and I'm sure the students pick up on it. Clear, concise, and no need for a lot of questions.

I do have a notebook that I write my lesson plans in, but I should make a point of writing notes like that down too instead of just keeping it my rapidly aging brain.

And yeah, using an epiphany and changing an entire lesson plan at the last minute is definitely something I am going to resist, unless it is something crazy, blindingly obvious. Lesson learned for sure.

It sounds like I'm probably going to be doing more teaching in the coming months. As we re-open to our normal schedule in the fall, the branch schools come back on line and we lose those instructors. But our main branch school lost a couple of instructors (one had a kid, the other moved away) so us 1-Dans are being asked to fill in where we can.

I did feel a little bad from my last class I lead warm ups last week though. We had a female BB come back from a month in Africa and she had the misfortune of coming to my class as her first since July.

I decided we were going to do a lot of cardio with a bit of a core focus for warm ups that day. 3 sets of 4 rapid fire exercises with a 30 second break in between sets.

She missed the next 2 classes because she was too sore :(

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