Learning Style Clash

Had a bit of an adventure last night.

My brother-in-law has had to put up with all my Jiu-Jitsu enthusiasm, and also reads my blog. Although he's almost as ancient as I am, he's been thinking of giving it a try.

The safest of the JJ types would be good, old Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, but there are none of their schools in Victoria. Others might be equally grand, but no way to know.

I am visiting right now, so the two of us headed over to a place called Fierce Jiu-Jitsu, which has a great, downtown location. Their web page is far better than most, and actually makes clear that their emphasis is on competition; sport Jiu-Jitsu.

I like this, as many places claim to be all-things-for-all people, which is never the case. It would be as if somebody came by our academy looking for high-level competition training, and if we claimed we can prepare them for that. Our focus is self-defence, not sport.

So their online info is honest. Good. The next thing would be to eyeball them for real. If you ever want to try any martial art, and they won't let you have at least a single trial lesson, or won't let you watch from a sideline, politely walk away.

The friendly people at Fierce invited us to join in, but didn't mind that we wanted to just watch either. Full marks.

We were introduced to that evening's instructor, and he seemed very nice and professional.

We really scored big when an absolute beginner showed up to train. We got to see exactly how new people are treated. Can't get better insight than that. Right off the bat, he was assigned a Blue Belt student to be his partner for the session and to show him the ropes.

So start time rolled around, and for a warmup the more experienced students lay down on the mat. Each had a less experienced person kneel down within their guard, with a few people left over; who were lined up ready to take a turn.

The job of the person within the guard was to pass, and of the person on the bottom to prevent them, or to sweep, or to submit. If the person on the ground prevailed, their partner rejoined the end of the wait line, and another stepped forward to try. If the passing person succeeded, they took over the spot on the bottom, and their partner went to the end of the line.

All very well, but the new guy didn't know what a guard is, or what it means to pass, or how to pass. The activity also separated him from his mentor.

He always failed, he kept rejoining the line, and kept failing over and over. A few people tried to give him quick tips, but nothing seemed to sink in. I don't think he got anything out of the drill other than that he really, really sucked. He didn't, of course, but that's the feedback that the drill gave him.

After ten minutes of this, the instructor called everybody over and demonstrated the evening's new technique. He explained it well, demonstrated it slowly twice, and then told everybody to get to work. It doesn't matter, but it was all work from the position known as Triple-Threat-From-the-Guard.

Everybody partnered up. Our new fellow and his mentor were right in front of us. The new guy went first, with his partner trying to help him through, but something seemed to be wrong. When they switched roles the problem became apparent. The mentor couldn't do the move either, as it was brand new to him as well.

The instructor circulated about, and helped people who called him over. After about five minutes it was time for the next step. The only problem was that a portion of the class had not done the first move successfully.

He explained what to do if the move were attempted, and the target tried a certain counter movement. He demonstrated it three times slowly, then it was practice time. Great for those who had absorbed step one, but pretty useless if they hadn't.

After that, another variation was given.

By this point our new fellow had failed throughout the ten-minute warm-up activity, and spent almost half an hour trying unsuccessfully to perform the demonstrated material. Hmmmm.

This is nothing strange in a martial arts world. Old-school martial arts teachers usually presented perspective students with quite a daunting hurdle before acceptance. Having them stand for long periods of time in static stances, or repeating unexplained drills hundreds of times are just a few examples. It is quite likely that Fierce doesn't want people joining up who won't fit into their instruction model. This all might have been working just fine for their new student, I don't know.

I didn't think it would function well for my brother-in-law, and he agreed. Statistically, it doesn't work for most people. Imagine how it would be to try and learn math this way; it might just be a tad discouraging.

For my brother-in-law's learning style, a dedicated beginner program would be necessary, and Fierce doesn't have that. He needs to learn to jump from the edge of the pool, before going off the 10-metre board.

He has taken our Fierce experience quite seriously, and is scaling down his expectations. He is now leaning more towards taking Tai Chi lessons, but is still intrigued with Jiu-Jitsu.

This is great, as his building has an exercise room with mats. I can take him through a beginner-style private lesson or two, with no danger to either body or ego.

I bet we'll laugh a lot.