[July Training Journal] Learning How to be a Better Teacher
I’d love to be one of those instructors who doesn’t think much about teaching or training and instead just teaches and trains.
Instead, I find myself thinking of ways to improve my teaching so that my students can become the best versions of themselves. Sometimes I think the answer lies in my own improvement but also, I think the answer is pedagogical.
Good instructors torture themselves with new ways to teach. I do this to myself all the time and I try to ease back on the intensity with which I go down these rabbit-holes. I appreciate tried and true methods but I also don’t think jiu-jitsu pedagogy is that simple.
As examples, here are some questions (and everyone has their own, highly opinionated answer):
What’s the best way for students to learn and implement knowledge?
Are warm ups important or should students get right to the techniques?
What is the best class format?
How much drilling should students do?
How much sparring or positional sparring should they do?
These are just 5 of the infinite amount of questions I ask myself week to week as I consider what I’ll have my students focus on.
Teaching and more specifically, how to teach, have taken up most of my jiu-jitsu energy in July.
I’ve not spent much time learning for my own training, focusing instead on learning for the sake of being a better teacher.
With this said, I’m glad I’ve been able to hit quite a bit of classes (Gi and Judo mostly) where I’ve been able to focus on being a student and not worrying about learning on my own.
This last week of July, I trained with more intensity than I have, almost fully confident I’m not going to have another dizzy episode. Plus, I’ve hit some new persona bests in my lifting regimen.
So with all this said, let’s dive into the Four Questions that make up my monthly training journal.
How is Training?
What’s Going Well?
What’s Going Not-So-Well?
What’s the ONE THING that’s going to Move the Needle?
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