Do you have to be a "street fighter"?

[Anonymous]

Do you have to be an Economist to teach Economics? Do you need to write a novel to teach English? Do you need to be the President to comment on the job he is doing?

The answer in short is NO. I have met great athletes who did not know the first thing about coaching. I have also seen mediocre athletes (some with no firsthand experience in the sport) become great coaches.

Just because you know how to fight, doesn’t mean you know self defense or more importantly how to teach someone to protect themselves. The first thing you learn as an instructor is YOU ARE NOT YOUR STUDENTS.

Its easy to teach a room full of testosterone filled hard-chargers how to protect themselves. They’re 3/4 of the way there! The real challenge is helping people who really don’t want to hurt someone to systematically protect themselves against attack.

I have trained excellent instructors (more to their credit than mine). Who GOT IT.

Every athlete, instructor and coach has asked this question:

How do I pour decades of training and experience into a person in a matter of months?

We have all come to this conclusion…I can’t. But I don’t have to. Based on the facts and my knowledge I’m able to provide the highest percentage solutions for some of the most difficult and down right dangerous situations. Good instructors recognize tactics and principles and learn to apply them to any situation.

We run into issues when we decide to deviate from tactics NOT technique. At the end of the day, the technique is secondary to tactics. Once you have a handle on this you will be able to teach anyone, anything.

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