Why I Sometimes Step Back During Class

From the outside, I probably look like I am not doing very much sometimes.

I give the instruction.

I explain what I want.

Then the drill starts, and I walk around.

I am not standing beside every student correcting every rep.

That is deliberate.

There is a point where I need to stop being part of the equation.

Instruction First

When I introduce something, I tend to teach it in a fairly authoritative way.

Here is the drill.

Here is what I want.

Here are the important details.

Here is what you need to watch for.

That part should be clear.

But once the students understand what they are supposed to do, I want them to start working.

Solo or with a partner.

At that point, my role changes.

I am still there.

I am still watching.

But I do not want every repetition to depend on me telling them whether it was right or wrong.

Eventually they have to start finding some of those answers themselves.

Then It Becomes Play

I think of part of training as play time.

Not fooling around.

Play.

There is a difference.

When everything becomes too rigid, the fear of messing up becomes real.

Now the student is thinking:

Was that right?

Did I do it wrong?

Is he going to correct me again?

That can make people stiff.

When there is a little room to play, something else happens.

They get curious.

What happens if I change the timing?

What happens if I move a little earlier?

What happens if my partner reacts differently this time?

Maybe something works.

Maybe it does not.

Fine.

Try something else.

That is part of learning too.

Two Students Change Everything

Partner drills make this even more obvious.

You can explain the same drill to two different pairs and get two completely different results.

There are a lot of variables.

Different size.

Different speed.

Different experience.

Different personalities.

Different timing.

And then there is whatever kind of day each person had before they walked through the door.

Put those two people together and I do not completely know what dynamic I am going to get.

Neither do they.

And sometimes that is exactly what I need to see.

If I immediately step in every time something looks awkward, I become part of their partnership.

I would rather not.

They are the ones training together.

For that moment, they are one little system.

Let them work something out.

Unless it becomes a safety issue.

Then I step in.

I Am Still Watching

Walking around does not mean I stopped paying attention.

Before class, I may have an idea in my head.

I think the drill is going to look like X.

Then we start.

And somehow it becomes Y.

Now I have a decision to make.

Do I stop everything and fix it?

Or do I let it run and use what I just saw to change what comes next?

Most of the time, I prefer the second option.

Not because Y is automatically good.

Because Y tells me something.

Maybe they misunderstood part of the drill.

Maybe the layer was too complicated.

Maybe they solved the problem in a way I did not expect.

Maybe the whole group is showing me that the next thing I planned is not actually what they need.

Now I know something I did not know before we started.

The Next Drill Might Change

I like layered drills.

One thing leads into another.

Then another.

What happens early in class should help with what happens later.

But if the first drill turns out differently than I expected, blindly running the next one exactly as planned does not make much sense.

Sometimes I fix the problem immediately.

Sometimes I let them keep working and quietly change the next layer instead.

They may never know I changed anything.

That is fine.

They do not need to know every decision I am making while I walk around.

They just need the next drill to make sense.

I Do Not Want to Be Part of Every Rep

Especially during partner work, I am not the person standing in front of them.

Their partner is.

They need to learn to read that person.

Timing.

Distance.

Reaction.

Rhythm.

Whether something is working.

Whether it is not.

I can guide them.

I can correct something important.

I can step in if safety becomes an issue.

But if I keep jumping in, they never really get a chance to figure each other out.

That defeats the point.

Sometimes Doing Less Is the Point

So yes, sometimes I walk around.

Sometimes I watch.

Sometimes I let a drill get a little messy.

Sometimes I decide not to correct something right away.

That does not mean I missed it.

It might mean I am waiting to see what happens next.

Or I have already decided the better correction belongs in the next drill.

There is a time to teach directly.

There is a time to correct.

There is a time to step in.

And there is a time to get out of the way.

Sometimes I need to step in. Sometimes I need to leave them alone and see what happens.

If you're curious what our classes look like once the instruction stops and the students start working, you're welcome to come by and see for yourself. We'd be happy to have your child try a class with us.