Being a Student, Instructor, and Being Both...

I have been a jiu jitsu practitioner for just a couple months shy of 4 years now. One thing I have noticed during this time is, that as time runs its course and the student gains his or her experience the line between being a student and teacher blurs.

You might be asking yourself, what does he mean by this?

Its clear for starters that once you begin your jiu jitsu journey that you are the student. However, once you've garnered enough experience, usually signified by getting your blue belt, you begin assisting in helping others gain an understanding of whats going on after the initial instruction given by the head instructor.

It personally helps improve my understanding of concepts and technical details, when I engage in practice with lower ranking students. When I think of how to do what my instructor has told us to do, but in my own words and critical rational it allows for a deeper and easier means of remembering what is being done. And then pass along that information to my training partners, giving them a couple different ways of verbalizing and eventually performing the required techniques.

Jiu Jitsu is complex and in a way never-ending. It is unlikely that anyone will ever truly learn every technique and combination of techniques. Another way of thinking about that concept is, there is so much to learn that one should always be a student.

So, if your always to be a student where does the instructor come into play?

Well that's just it, I'm of the mindset that once you are an instructor you are just balancing the giving and taking in of knowledge a different way than when you are just the student. This where the blurred line of differentiation is.

I will be starting a endeavor as the head jiu jitsu instructor at another martial arts school very soon. This made me realize that there is going to be a time when my main focus during training is solely on teaching versus learning. I will spend time outside that class specifically developing what I've learned and learning even more for an instructing purpose. This is the only separation between the two I see.

When training with others no matter the rank, you must continually be learning their styles and habits. Mixing up all the different training methods and working on making sure there is a well-rounded approach that involves being comfortable in all positions in the positional hierarchy. It is when you are doing this that I believe one has become both the instructor and the student.
Til next time and good day.

I just found this quote and I like
it.
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