Condolences, and Tips for a Great Private

[Stephan Kesting]

CONDOLENCES

As you've probably heard, on January 29th Helio Gracie passed away at
the age of 95. Without him and his sons this sport would not be where
it is today. My sincere condolences to his family, friends and
students.

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STRATEGIES TO HAVE A GREAT PRIVATE CLASS

Training in a group setting under the watchful eye of your main
instructor is a good thing. Hopefully he cares about your development
as a grappler, knows where you've been and is helping you progress.
(And if that's not the case then you should find a new school.
Seriously).

However if your game has gotten stale, then a private class might be
just what you need to break you out of your rut. Of course you can
take a private with your main instructor. But sometimes taking a
private from a different instructor can give you new insights. In
extreme cases, it can even lead to having a major breakthrough for a
technique, strategy or training method.

For the sake of this article, let's assume you're thinking about
training with someone new. Maybe a famous BJJ competitor is coming
through town on a seminar tour. Maybe you're traveling and discover
that you're in the same city as a well-known instructor. Either way,
before you plunk down your hard-earned cash you want to do a few
things...

FIRST, TRY TO GATHER SOME INFORMATION!

If you don't already know the instructor, you want to do a bit of a
background check first. You can ask your training partners if they've
heard anything him, or you can post a question ("What Are Instructor
X's Privates Like") on one of the big forums like MMA.tv or
Sherdog.

Keep in mind that you can get a pretty good sense of someone's
teaching style from watching their instructional DVDs or Youtube clips
(if they have them). The important thing is that his teaching style
matches your learning style.

Here are some things you might want to find out before you reserve
your slot.

* Is there a specific format to his private classes? For example, is
he open to questions? Will he spar with you (or is that ALL he ever
wants to do)?

* If you're from another school or team, is this going to be a
problem?

* How much will it cost? Do you also need to sign up for his
organization? Is it extra if you bring someone else to be your
training partner?

* Can you film the session? Most people will say no, because they
don't want their material to end up on Youtube in an uncontrolled
manner. Some instructors take it so far that they won't even allow
you to take notes, which would be a deal-breaker for me.

THEN HAVE A PLAN

Have an idea of what you want to learn. What do you want to walk away
with after the session?

My suggestion is to focus on a specific technique or area of your
game. Let's take something as 'simple' as the armbar from the guard.
If you're working with someone who really understands that technique
you can easily spend an hour on it and not yet have covered all the
principles, entries, counters and recounters.

Another approach I've used is to have a list of questions on different
topics. I did this for my first private with Erik Paulson many years
ago - I wanted his opinion on different leglocks, the application
details of the rear naked choke, setting up shoots, etc. It made for
a bit of a scattered session, but I came away with answers to a lot of
questions that had been vexing me for a while. For this approach I
like to write my list of questions down, just so I don't forget.

Don't be afraid to be specific. Asking "what can I do from butterfly
guard when my opponent is keeping his elbows back" is a hundred times
better than just going in there and just saying "show me some stuff
because I need to work on everything."

WHAT TO COVER (AND WHAT NOT TO COVER)

Now I'll talk about something that's obvious in retrospect, but easy
to screw up on.

Is this teacher known for certain techniques and positions? Is he an
open guard wizard, for example? Does he have a killer clinch game?
Can he hit leglocks from every known position? This is important to
know, because you want to learn from the instructor's strengths, and
not force him to teach from his weaknesses. (And yes, everyone has
weaknesses).

Once I made a hash out of a private with a very good instructor by
breaking this rule. At the time I was mostly working on my bottom
game, so I had lots of questions for 'Instructor X' about the half
guard, the half butterfly and the deep half guard (he was famous, so I
figured he had to know the answers, right?).

Well 'Instructor X' showed me a lot of half guard stuff. The problem
was that most of that material didn't 'click' for me in sparring
later. It took a few months, but I eventually figured the problem -
he was a top player and didn't like the half guard! He didn't want to
disappoint me in the private and tried his best, but his answers
lacked the depth, sophistication and perspective he would have been
able to offer had he been teaching one of his strengths.

If we had stuck to passing the half guard I would have come away with
tons of good stuff, I'm sure.

Finally, also try figure out how YOU learn best. Do you need new
techniques broken down verbally? Does a Q-and-A format work for you
or do you just like to have material presented to you? How much
repetition do you need to remember a new technique? Do you learn
fastest if you physically feel someone doing it to you? Do you have
to try something in sparring before you 'get it?"

You're paying the guy for his time and knowledge, but some of the
responsibility comes back to you to make the most of your session.

Stephan Kesting
www.grapplearts.com