There’s something fantastic when it comes to teaching seminars. Essentially, it’s the feeling of accomplishment: you now get to visit other BJJ academies (and maybe even travel!) to teach Jiu-Jitsu and to make an income from doing so.
But be it as it may be, there’s a drastic difference between teaching seminars and teaching your long term students. Robert Degle reflected on that difference after his recent seminar in Belgrade (Serbia):
Teaching seminars is not like teaching long term students… Because you don’t usually know at first what level the students are at. In addition, it’s likely the case that your seminar will have some beginners and some advanced students who are going to want different things.
Degle explains how he handles this issue:
I try to deal with this problem by covering only one or two major topics in a 3 hour seminar; and by starting with very fundamental, conceptual aspects of that topic and sequentially moving into more advanced parts of the topic that naturally follow from the beginning portions.
I try to show variations of whatever moves I’m showing which are easy to do, regardless of body type… Except when I am nearing the end of the seminar and want to close with the most technically sophisticated and advanced techniques; which sometimes do require certain physical attributes.In this way, it’s possible to accommodate the desires of almost complete beginners and high level grapplers within the time you have.
Additionally, he always includes a 15-30 Q&A session in the end:
To cover all bases at the end of the seminar, I almost always include a 15-30 minute Q and A; where anyone can ask any technical questions they want (regardless of whether it was covered within the given seminar).
You’re never going to please everyone completely. But I think this formula works pretty well, given the limitations you have as a visiting instructor.
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