Changing Today’s “At Risk” High School Student Lives Through Instruction Of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: I take bad kids and help them see the possibilities - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

I selfishly wanted to get paid to work out and change lives as a validation. Along the way, I figured out it’s better to create your own game than play someone else’s game. That’s all I did. I wrote the pretend game, gave it away for free and those that wanted to live that hero character in the game, they became the fight team members that flowed in during those school years. *After rising to the top of my dream of becoming a coach, I decided to retire and open a new chapter of my life. During one of our conversations while stretching at the end of class, I mentioned I used to teach and coach and we had many heart warming success stories. Xan motivated me to put my voice into a script. There was a fight on 5th floor (during class time while I was teaching) that just started and one of the teachers on the 5th floor told a student to run up the stairs to Spindel’s 8th floor gym. One of my kid fighters was about to fight. An 8th floor teacher came to my room and covered my class while I ran from the 8th floor gym down the stairs with the student who got me. The narrow hallways were packed wall-to wall with students. A few seconds later there became an opening in the hallway when some kid yelled out “Spindel is here.” It was as if time stopped and everyone froze. Mario was ready to fuck some tough kid with a street reputation from a rival gang up who probably messed with him talking shit about the fight club. When I made my way to Mario, all I did was give him a look right into his eyes and he stopped dead in his tracks before he began to fight. He told me that he was going to “cut me,” an expression kids use when they are really upset at you, but then thanked me later that he was not suspended. The fight club rules are simple. Any trouble in school or out of school that gets reported and you are kicked out. No exceptions. All I did was show Mario that someone cared for him and he showed me love and respect back. Because he showed control and respect for the fight club, even more students took an interest in who he was and saw the good that the fight club could do for a really bad kid like Mario. Mario became a role model for others like him. The law of attraction certainly applies here.Most often, Monday - Thursday, the fight training is cardio position drilling. We would work for 90 minutes after school drilling slowly and then drilling live positions with offense and defense according to the principles of drilling. The kids would drill over and over as Steve would drill with them at a competitive pace of a blue belt, which Steve was. They were getting semi-private lessons from a Renzo Gracie Blue belt. The kids jumped their game training with Steve. They were anywhere from 6 to 8 kids Plus Steve, Plus myself as the “review coach.” Steve would show the sequence of moves for points. It was their personal road map to compete with. If they had questions, they asked me and I began to write things down and had the reputation of a mad professor. It was rare if I ever stepped onto the mats in the beginning to train with the kids. Once in a while Steve would demonstrated a move on me so all the kids at the same time could see the move. Steve had an adult athletic body and we were in the same weight class. I got to feel what it's like to train in this art. So as a reward and to test their skills live, each Friday during the majority of the kids lunch or PE class with me, or cutting another class (and I write the teacher a note that student was participating in mandatory extra credit to pass my class) we opened the big gym with mats to host “Friday Fights.” It was on the downlow and only the cool girls who were friendly with the fighters and were recommended, would be allowed to manage the student body that was secretly invited. The girls organized seating by approximate body weight and kept the gym quiet while BJJ boys took on all comers. There were some really bad kids that I empowered to be bodyguards.

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.