teaching new guys

Monday night's class was fairly big and mostly guys with one stripe or less. Plus to brand spanking new guys
who were there for their first class.

So the class was split into several small groups. There is a grading on Saturday, so everyone got to practice their stuff for the level they'll test for, supervised by someone senior.

Together with another four-striper, I scored the two new guys. We demod and explained the major positions and started teaching two of the basic drills which teach transistion from side control to mount and back, back control with hooks in, how to bride, how to hold mount etc. The whole hour passed very quickly.

It wasn't quite as much fun as rolling, but sometimes it's fun to teach stuff, too. I marvelled yet again about the tenseness and awkwardness of the guys, while knowing full well that (not tooooo long ago), I was just the same. Simple little things like being able to stay on the balls of my feet and pouring pressure into my victim's chest, that they found difficult. Even maintaining that "plank" :-) Oh, and being guys, they felt ever so awkward putting weight on me, and every time someone bumped me, it was "sorry!". Ah well, they'll learn :-)

I like to actually demonstate stuff for them to watch, and then have them on the receiving end of the technique, so that they not only see it, but feel the pressure and the weight, and the shift during a transition. That seems to help.