Taught my first co-ed class at 50/50 today

Sure I've been teaching the ladies for almost a year, given some private lessons and taught a class at LIMAA Elkridge once and at a gym in Orlando, but surprisingly enough, I had yet to teach a co-ed class at 50/50.

Originally, I didn't teach the regular classes because Ryan didn't want a blue belt to teach BJJ at 50/50 - he made an exception for the women's class because he thought a female instructor would be better for the new ladies. That said, Ryan had actually wanted to have me start teaching one basics class per week when we opened the new place (once I had my purple belt) but I begged off because of school this semester - I didn't want the added responsibility.

But today happened. Ryan is out in Chicago helping Jeff Curran train for his MMA fight this coming weekend. And Seph had shoulder surgery two weeks ago and was trying to move out of his place today with one arm which of course took longer than expected, he got stuck late so he asked me if I could fill in.

Last minute notice, the first thing I thought was, "crap, what do I know well enough to teach to the group?" Funny that I don't worry about that in the small group of women, but Mondays are usually our most crowded basics class so I was nervous. Most people would think that after almost 4 and a half years of BJJ that I would know TONS of stuff well enough to teach, but I always worry about forgetting something important, or not knowing how to explain moves well enough that they make sense or messing it up and accidentally teaching something "wrong"...the way I had learned to do it at one of my old gyms before Ryan stopped me from doing it that way.

So the second thing I did was call Ryan and ask him for advice about what to show. Probably shocking to everyone who read his lockflow article - the immediate non-hesitating response was "closed guard - they need to work on that". So we decided that I would show the armbar and triangle (of my own accord I opted for the stomp/curl version of the triangle that Ryan showed in his WMA DVD, I think it's easier for ppl like me - stumpy legged, lol).

I thought the class went well, the guys were all extremely respectful and asked lots of questions (one lady was in attendance too). They really seemed to be improving during the course of the class which was good to see. Despite that, I was still worried about how it went when Ryan Harmon (one of our longer term white belts) made me feel better after he posted on his facebook that though he was sad that he could only watch class because of an injury that he was happy to have learned more about proper hip movement - so I may not be up for BJJ instructor of the year but at least one person learned something new!