One of the banes of an instructor’s existence is the less experienced or newer student who insists after being given a piece of advice or a correction, ” I’ve got it”, when the fact is they probably don’t.  This goes for the martial art side as well as the shooting side. and in fact in any endeavor or when any instructor is teaching.

I have been teaching since 1987, and at this period in my life I’ve taught over 10,000 different students and I feel pretty safe in saying that the above statement by the new student is not a willful disregard of instruction, or intentional disrespect. I believe it boils down to two separate but occasionally intertwined issues.  The first is they did not really process everything that you said, and the second is they don’t really know what their body is doing.

 What I mean when I say they did not process or internalize what you said is that less experienced students tend to be outcome-centered and are focusing on the end state. For example, in a Jiu-Jitsu submission they are focusing on the final part of the move where they can get the tap, when in reality the important steps are all the waypoints before that. They don’t realize that (because so much of the information you are giving them is brand new and probably unlike anything they have done in the past) and they are focused on the last part where they can feel like they’ve accomplished something. You see that in shooting as well where during a drill they ignore clearing the Garment, obtaining the master grip, proper presentation, getting the sights up, and smooth trigger press and just think of firing enough rounds to finish the drill. The problem is both with the Jiu-Jitsu example and the shooting example is that the end state will most likely fail because of the mistakes on the path (outcome vs process).

 I can illustrate this by looking at a classic Jiu Jitsu arm bar. Most people will focus on the final extension of stretching out the arm and getting the tap. Then they don’t understand why the tap isn’t happening. They were concentrating on the cool guy end state, and not each key step of the process until you get to the part where you can stretch the arm. In this case with an arm bar the typical mistakes are not squeezing the knees together, interlocking the feet, not bringing the heels in towards yourself, and/or not keeping weight on the opponent’s head. These are all occurring earlier in the move but are crucial for a successful execution. As somebody who’s been teaching this for 25 years I can tell you when and how the new person is going to mess up. It’s like the insurance commercial – I know a thing or two because I have seen a thing or two.

In my opinion the responsibility for this lies on the instructor. We have to ensure that the new student is focused on the process and we need to be careful and getting across the idea that each step is critical and to not rush through to the end. This is the only way the inexperienced or new student will internalize this concept, and be able to have long term success. 

The other area where the student generally messes up is in not having well developed kinesthetic awareness and proprioception. Most people are not born with a great understanding of what their body is doing and where they are in space, especially in relation to other people. The great athletes like a Jordan or an Ali generally have this and that’s one of the reasons they are referred to as phenoms. While they may have other attributes, a truly great athlete most of the time has great kinesthetic awareness and purpose. When the instructor is teaching the student it is crucial that we point out the actual physical movements and get across the idea to the student what they should be feeling as it happens until they are able to viscerally feel it for themselves. This can be a long path for many. It was for me, and I spent many years at jiujitsu stumbling along and not really improving. Not due to my Professor, but to my own inability to understand the physical movement when it needs to occur.

This is where students need to be very careful. Don’t assume that because you’ve learned a technique once or even a few times that you understand it, that you grasp it fully, and that your body is performing the physical action required. The truth is you’ve probably missed a good chunk of those, if not all. That’s not a criticism or an insult. It is just a simple truth. Almost every great instructor was right there at the beginning making the same mistakes and having the same misunderstandings. When we try to tell  the student that you are doing something wrong, don’t take it as an attack. We’re trying to help you correct it, and make you better. 

Some people reading this probably are going to take this as an elitist talking down. It is absolutely not. It does not affect me negatively if you argue with me when I am teaching, or dismiss my instruction with the “I’ve got it”, or even “well, I learned it this way”. The only person that is hurt is the student. Moreover, in this world of social media, I am trying to save you from making a dogmatic comment online that you will look back later on and be embarrassed about. A few years ago, a person argued with me on Facebook that the Americana (a BJJ arm attack) is a move fit only for white belts. This person writing this was either a white or blue belt and when I pointed out that it is one of my best submissions, and I got it all the time, he wrote that “I must not roll with good people very often”……If he ever took the time to find out who he was arguing with, I am sure he is extremely embarrassed that he wrote that for posterity, and most likely prefers to forget it ever happened. I have had those kinds of interactions for 25 years. Don’t be that guy. It is safer to assume you are wrong than to argue with someone who has depth and breadth of experience and knowledge demonstrably superior to your own.

Hopefully both newer instructors and new students gain a bit of understanding from this so we both can move forward and all get better.