After seeing the number of students drop over the past year, and having a desire to train myself more, I am no longer having a Wednesday evening BJJ class.
As I tell everyone, I never intended to become an academy instructor. I was pleased to train with a partner or two and focus on making myself better while traveling to train with Charles on occasion. In October 2008, a former training partner of mine who had recently been given a purple belt convinced me to begin teaching at First Coast Full Contact in order to prevent his boxing coach, who was firm about offering "grappling" at their new school, from hiring a BJJ fraud. My intention before then was to meld into Jim Smiley's class as a purple belt (he and another man, Carlos V., were purple belts at that time) and get better with their help. For my former training partner's sake, and with the understanding that he was going to be in attendance at each class and train with me outside of class, I agreed.
Four years later, I can say that I am glad that I met and took a few students from there with me, but the business environment at that location was not to my liking. My former training partner bailed very quickly, leaving me to deal with the management, which I will call "skeevy" at best regarding the amount of money owed to me each month. Regardless, I departed from there in December 2009, and they immediately hired the fraud that my former training partner had been so vociferous about keeping out of there.
The problem with teaching in an academy is that the instructor does not get the repetitions and roll time against higher ranks that he needs in order to maintain his skills and get better. Now, it is true that I have been promoted twice since operating an academy (brown in February 2009, and black in October 2012), and the three blue belts I have promoted greatly improved my teaching ability and comprehension of basic techniques, and they have taught me much along the way in terms of how people learn. If I had been training with higher ranking people, as I originally planned when I wished to meld into Smiley's class in 2008, I believe that the black belt would have been earned much faster since I would have focused more on my own training than on teaching my students.
My current goal is to earn a black belt in judo from Greg DiFranza. I will need time to drill techniques and practice against those who have the ability to beat me and exploit the flaws in my game in BJJ. Nader Snober has been extremely kind to me over the years, and I have to admit that he has helped me earn the belt that I currently wear. Nader, in fact, has offered to teach me, regardless of my belt rank, and I feel that I need to take him up on this opportunity since he has made me better each time I have practiced with him. His knowledge of the game is top notch, and I respect his insight. Jim Smiley has, and continues to maintain, an open door policy with me in regards to training. His assistance in my journey has been wonderful, and I am extremely grateful for his friendship.
As I tell everyone, I never intended to become an academy instructor. I was pleased to train with a partner or two and focus on making myself better while traveling to train with Charles on occasion. In October 2008, a former training partner of mine who had recently been given a purple belt convinced me to begin teaching at First Coast Full Contact in order to prevent his boxing coach, who was firm about offering "grappling" at their new school, from hiring a BJJ fraud. My intention before then was to meld into Jim Smiley's class as a purple belt (he and another man, Carlos V., were purple belts at that time) and get better with their help. For my former training partner's sake, and with the understanding that he was going to be in attendance at each class and train with me outside of class, I agreed.
Four years later, I can say that I am glad that I met and took a few students from there with me, but the business environment at that location was not to my liking. My former training partner bailed very quickly, leaving me to deal with the management, which I will call "skeevy" at best regarding the amount of money owed to me each month. Regardless, I departed from there in December 2009, and they immediately hired the fraud that my former training partner had been so vociferous about keeping out of there.
The problem with teaching in an academy is that the instructor does not get the repetitions and roll time against higher ranks that he needs in order to maintain his skills and get better. Now, it is true that I have been promoted twice since operating an academy (brown in February 2009, and black in October 2012), and the three blue belts I have promoted greatly improved my teaching ability and comprehension of basic techniques, and they have taught me much along the way in terms of how people learn. If I had been training with higher ranking people, as I originally planned when I wished to meld into Smiley's class in 2008, I believe that the black belt would have been earned much faster since I would have focused more on my own training than on teaching my students.
My current goal is to earn a black belt in judo from Greg DiFranza. I will need time to drill techniques and practice against those who have the ability to beat me and exploit the flaws in my game in BJJ. Nader Snober has been extremely kind to me over the years, and I have to admit that he has helped me earn the belt that I currently wear. Nader, in fact, has offered to teach me, regardless of my belt rank, and I feel that I need to take him up on this opportunity since he has made me better each time I have practiced with him. His knowledge of the game is top notch, and I respect his insight. Jim Smiley has, and continues to maintain, an open door policy with me in regards to training. His assistance in my journey has been wonderful, and I am extremely grateful for his friendship.
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