The Next Generation

Since I have been flat on my ass and doped to the gills the past four months, Joel has had to take over class. You might remember the post I made on his promotion to full instructor several months ago.

It's rewarding for me to see how far Joel has come in the past ten years, and watching him assume command of my school without hesitation is a sign that I must have done something right. It's also an endless source of amusement to see him struggle to remember the basic drills that I taught back when Christ was a mess cook, since he has had no reason to remember them for several years now. (Something that I stress in class is to divine the skill from the drill you are doing, and apply that in real-time sparring. Once you have a good grasp of the skill, the drill is unnecessary. Unless you plan on teaching later.)

Something else that's funny is to remember the shit he gave me when I was teaching it.

"Dude, I don't get it" "Why are we doing this?" "Why do we need footwork anyway?" "Trapping? What are we, Canadians?" Now he has to dig those old standards out, and try to lead a fresh batch of students to the same well he's been drinking out of for years, and I think it's doing him good. I like seeing my students get his unique take on my material, and it has always made me a little prideful, because I believe I'm responsible for that, at least to some degree.

I interfere WAY more than I actually should. That's not because I don't trust Joel, I just have absolutely no self control. I can't stand seeing people work out & I'm not a part of it. So far, I've screwed my back up about six times. But that's because I'm an idiot.

Not everybody can actually be a teacher. Learning advanced skill has nothing to do with learning how to connect with another human being and show them how to get to where you are. There are a large number of "Martial Art Instructors" out there, and in my opinion a good many of them should be doing something else. I think a real teacher should always be looking for different ways to connect with their students in class, to find alternate methods of instruction when it's obvious the current ones don't click. A real teacher has a goal in mind for his students, and they seek out various pathways to that goal.

Joel seems to be catching on to this, and this morning's class was full of insightful instruction in between hard knocks. He's clearly coming along in his teaching abilities.

Not that I let that stop me from jumping in and going "Oooh! Look at this!"

I think this is the "Weather vane" technique, but what it's supposed to do, I have no idea.