Something teaching and competing have in common is they both force me to identify and improve my weaknesses in a way that casual training does not. I have learned from competing in Jiu Jitsu that if I neglect improving my weak spots then I will get beat there every single time when it counts. For example, I probably lost 5 matches by guillotine before I started spending significant time on the mat trying to figure out why.

What I’ve learned from teaching kids is they need to learn certain positions and techniques whether those things are part of my game or not. If I only taught them techniques that I like to do I would be failing them as a coach. For the last few weeks I have been teaching spider guard in the kids class. It has been really cool to see the kids learning and using the guard and also seeing where they are struggling with. Their struggle gives me the feedback I need to see where I need to improve my knowledge of the position. As a result, I use a lot of my own training time to drill whatever I am currently teaching the kids. Doing so helps me identify details I need to point out in class. The process has also been helping my own Jiu Jitsu a lot because I get to practice it on my own, explain it to a class and watch them practice the movement.

This process has been one of my favorite parts of teaching. I really enjoy studying Jiu Jitsu with a certain goal or purpose. It would be really easy to stay in my comfort zone and only practice positions and techniques that I like if I didn’t have to teach. Teaching gives me a feeling of urgency to learn more and improve faster, similar to getting ready for tournaments gives me a feeling of urgency to be in the best shape I can be and sharpen my gameplan.

As a result, I am contstantly analyzing a position or set of moves that I probably would not spend much time on. Spider guard is a really good example of one of those positions. I don’t really play spider guard and am not very good at it, but I’ve been forcing myself to use it and figure out the best way to teach it to kids. The results of following through with this process have been pretty amazing. Not only are the kids getting the hang of the movements and position but also my ability to sweep from spider and pass spider have improved significantly in just a short period of time.

Coach Danny