Back in March I had the opportunity to go back and teach at Airlock After Dark, 10th Planet Airlock’s weekly Thursday night seminar series in Bastrop. A different guest instructor most weeks, free LMNT on tap, and open rolling afterward for anyone who sticks around. This time the guest instructor was me.
10th Planet Airlock is where I got my brown belt, so this wasn’t teaching at just any gym. It’s the room that promoted me. Going back to stand in front of the class instead of sitting in it hit differently than a normal guest seminar would have.
We warmed up with the ninja roll, then worked into darces and a mounted anaconda choke. I love getting to share what I know and help someone else’s game click. I still remember the small tweaks other people gave me that changed how I rolled.
Explaining a position simply is harder than doing it. You can drill something a thousand times and still not really understand why it works until a white belt asks a question you don’t have a clean answer for. Teaching finds the gaps in your own game faster than rolling ever does.
Teaching doesn’t just reveal what others need to learn. It reveals what you still have left to understand.