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So the guy come on the mat, gets into wrestling stance, attempts a double leg take down and goes flying off the mat. I believe that answered the question "is he really throwing you?"
Generally when one is injured it is considered bad form not to go training anyway and at least watch. The curious thing about my position is that I actually still have a job to do even when I'm off the mat: I'm still the assistant instructor, I'm still responsible for the seniors progress. I find myself circumambulating the mat issuing instructiors and corrections, calling people to the edge of the mat so that brief demonstrations can be made and waving sticks at people.
I find that I'm a perfectionist, which I kinda knew already. I thought though that I would confine my perfectionism to myself not have the courage to demand it in other people but no, I demand perfection. I find it suprisingly easy to achieve: all you have to do is encourage the student to the point where they demand perfection of themselves; if you build in this positive, can do, atmosphere into training the rest is easy and I find I can stop things and be frank about what's going wrong and what needs to be done without it impacting on morale too much.
Actually I think the frank honesty is good it gives confidence that anything positive that's said is meant. The core of it though is to communicate to the student that they can do it and that they are expected to be able to do it and then keep your demands small so that the student is always thinking "Yep, I can do that, yep I can make that correction."
I find myself getting into these formulaic instructions: "Good, we're almost there. Next time....
...More
03-14-2012 04:12 PM 
