Advice for rookie coach

[shaddockmma]

Although I have no belt I have been grappling for yrs. i wrestled for 12 years and trained for a stint in Gaijin Ryu jiujitsu as well as BJJ. I have a small MMA school and have been following the 10th planet curriculum. I am having my class do the 10th planet warm ups, lock down, butterflies, and basic rubber guard stuff. Well I am finding my guys are lacking in basic submissions, escapes, and passes as we are focusing on the 10th planet basics. I only teach classes 2 times per week. Any advice?

[TaylorWolf]

Its awesome that you teach the warm ups. Sadly its hard to find actual 10P moons that stay up on them. I feel like they should cover most of the bases for your basic passes, subs and escapes.

[NelsonLucca]

Teach the basics. Just the basics. I was a grappling coach at my old gym (JKD background) and the warm ups are gold but you have to have basics. First thing I always taught was escapes. There was nothing but escapes for weeks. Then sweeps... and so on. Submissions should be the last thing.

[Aiden]

If you want the basic with mma focus I think Gracie Combatives is great. It's all No Gi the lessons are progressive and they also have similar warm up type flows like 10th planet but the basics with a focus on self defense.

[Will Richison]

I'll tell you brother, my coach just started teaching the warm ups and the more i work them the easier its all starting to get. Your students are gonna get them down too.

[Gray]

You honestly need to train BJJ more yourself as a student if you yourself want to be the best possible teacher.

[HerbChao]

For me I had the opportunity to officially begin teaching one of the classes at the Harvard club I train/help with during the school year. I would say set the tone early on, do you want it to be a laid back group, do you want competitors, or make it a buffet and people take what they want? Also try to keep a main gameplan for each class, with 1-2 backups (depending on who comes, and how folks respond to the tech). And keep an eye on what you do well, and where you're still growing. Don't be afraid to bring in a guest instructor or another belt (esp if higher ranked officially) to teach where you are learning, this will benefit you too and let your students/teammates see a different perspective.

And yes, continue to train as well-if you find you're considerably better then a good portion of your students/class, be sure you devote 1-2 nights/classes a week to train with a group of folks at or above your level. One thing you want to avoid from what I've heard is becoming complacent as a teacher-otherwise your students will catch up too fast, and you won't be able to offer them anything new (or you're struggle or scramble to add new tools). They say a teacher's greatest joy is when your student surpasses you; but let's not make it too soon :-)