So I taught my first class...

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[Josh Astridge]

Yeah.

only about 5 of us turned up.

Me
two green belts
yellow belt
and new comer.

I'm only a white belt but apparently Sensei wanted to see how far my knowledge extended as a grading is coming up next week, and asked the two green belts to take mental notes.

I'm keen to see what he thinks of how I did.

Wednesday is usually open and allow, but i decided to do 1 hour of open and allow and 1 hour of practical.

It went great and it gave me a huge buzz.

We did tai no henko ikkyo for open and allow
for practical we did

Shihonage against punches/knives
Iriminage against punches/knives
Kotagaeshi against punches/knives

think it went great, despite only being a 6 month learner.

[Voitokas]

Good for you!

[ninjaqutie]

Glad you enjoyed it. Sometimes teaching can be a blast and other times... it can be nerve racking. Glad to hear your first time went well. :)

[mathewjgano]

think it went great, despite only being a 6 month learner.

That is great! One of the best ways to learn can be to teach. It added a whole new dimension to the way I approached my training...definately upped the ante!

[RED]

Cool man. I don't know about you but I get nervous just being asked to be uke for a demo, never mind actually teach a group of people. lol

[Bob Blackburn]

Great experience.

The first time I had to teach was during a test. At least I didn't have time to get nervous. I passed so I guess I did OK.

[JO]

Sounds like you had a good experience. I was nervous the first couple of times I had to sub for my sensei. But I have come to really enjoy teaching as I have gained confidence, even though I don't get that many opportunities (substituting in our dojo usually follows the orde rof senior person present).

[caelifera]

Congrats.

Maggie: Now that I know, I think I'll burn the nervousness out of you with my stare. He he.. XD

[RED]

Stop Judging Me With Your Eyes!!!!!!!! 0_0

[CarrieP]

Wow, that is definitely cool that you got to teach a class like that.

My background is in education, though I don't practice in that field, but I know for sure that you get a lot of learning out of teaching to others. Any weak points in your technique or understanding become apparent right away when you are teaching, and there's certainly a confidence building aspect for you there.

I would love to be able to be good enough at aikido someday to be able to lead a class or two. I don't see that happening anytime soon, but until then I'm taking mental notes of the things that my sempai (and sensei of course) are doing when they teach that I like.

[Carrie Campbell]

Josh, congratulations! I'm with Jonathon on this one. I was nervous and still feel a little weird about leading class (substitute teaching for sensei). I finally let my classmates nudge me up to the front; I had preferred to stay in line with everyone else to rei in. Hopefully the confidence will come, but I would much rather learn from sensei than attempt to teach aikido.

Carrie P, the education background does seem to help with organization, timing, and transitions between themed warm up exercises and techniques.

[Maarten De Queecker]

There's a chance I'll be doing the kid's class this saturday. Already have a little plan about what I'm going to do, but still I'm a bit nervous.

[Rob Watson]

There's a chance I'll be doing the kid's class this saturday. Already have a little plan about what I'm going to do, but still I'm a bit nervous.

Good luck with the kids. I always found teaching kids way more difficult than 'regular' folks. I'm not talking about the technical stuff but the added burden of responsibility - they are just kids after all.

[Voitokas]

Good luck Maarten!

[Maarten De Queecker]

Thanks! I still kind of hope the instructor will come, but he doesn't I think I'll focus on falling and ikkyo in various forms (aihanmi, hyakuhanmi, and perhaps shomenuchi). I'm going to let them spend some time on searching how ikkyo works, let them search how to unbalance uke with ikkyo.

It's a good bunch though, and some of them are really talented.