Gracie Instructor Certification Training: Week 1

At the beginning of last week, I made the goal to watch all of the online instructor certification videos. I did not really expect anything too difficult because I have been training and helping people with jiu-jitsu techniques for a long time. Introducing people to the concept of leverage, energy efficiency, and street readiness is something that's natural to me but I realized that I can't sell it as well as how Rener or Ryron Gracie sell it. I struggle if someone has their own idea of what a martial art or what a fight should looks like and I wanted to improve my ability to entice people to learn jiu-jitsu without sounding confrontational. I want to start to embody the ideal that Helio Gracie laid out for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu that "there are no bad students, only bad teachers."

Through the week, I was watching the instructor lesson videos and one of them gave a sample group class to the students. I was amazed that it felt so similar to a class at Ronin Athletics, I did not realize the great lengths they go through to give you an experience that you would have at Gracie University headquarters until I saw it for myself. I also had a life-changing "aha" moment when I was going through the lesson where Ryron and Rener teaches how they present a technique. It was so life-changing because I felt like the knowledge is also applicable to how a person can teach and develop new software engineers. I have been pondering this question on how to efficiently on board new engineers to a team and did not expect to find the answer here, while learning how to teach Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.

By the end of the week, I was able to watch up to the 10th lesson, which was 3 hours long and covered the most crucial information about how to properly present techniques in a digestible and easily learned manner. I'll have to watch it multiple times and do some practice before I can feel comfortable presenting the way Ryron or Rener presents. I thought one week was enough to watch everything but it is going to take me much longer and certain lessons would require multiple viewings. I'm super happy that I am now able to explain to people about what makes training at a Gracie CTC different from training at a any other sport BJJ gym. It's also empowering to know the value that the instructor needs to bring to make training at a CTC exciting for a new student.

After experiencing the first 1/5th of the program, I realized that just like with training jiu-jitsu, what you focus on is what will improve. I encourage people to adopt a mindset of focusing on being a good training partner/instructor rather than training jiu-jitsu in a way to satisfy your own ego. You will have a lot of people to train with for the rest of your life and gain a deeper appreciation for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu that way.