Teaching the teachers: One of the more interesting facets of my job is the division between my usual task – improving sports performance of students; versus another, very different task – teaching coaches to improve the performance of their own students. The central concern of an athlete/student is his or her own skill enhancement. The central concern of a coach is the skill enhancement of others. As such, they are very different enterprises. Often I see people who are very strong in one area, struggle in the the other. Once the distinction is made we can begin to explain the often seen phenomenon of people who never excelled as athletes do well as coaches and vice versa. Some of the most admirable people in sports are those who conquered both realms. My own teacher, Renzo Gracie, had an outstanding career both as athlete and coach. In Judo, Jimmy Pedro is doing an outstanding job of transitioning from stellar athlete to coach. In wrestling Dan Gable, John Smith and Cael Sanderson are obvious examples of men who made the transition with enormous success. Here I work with the teaching staff of VT1 gym in Sydney Australia as they work hard to create a strong instructional program in the rapidly growing Australian jiu jitsu scene.
