Episode 725 - How to Handle a Bad Training Session
In this episode, Jeremy and co-host Andrew Adams take on How to Handle a Bad Training Session.
How to Handle a Bad Training Session - Episode 725
Training sessions, classes, whatever you want to call them, do not always go well. How can you tell if this class is worse than the other? In this episode, Jeremy and co-host Andrew Adams take on How to Handle a Bad Training Session. The two give us some tips and tricks on how to facilitate better training classes.
After listening to the episode, it would be exciting for us to know your thoughts about it. Don’t forget to drop them in the comment section below!
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Hey, what's going on everybody? Welcome. This is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio. And on today's episode, Andrew and I are going to talk about our thoughts on how to handle a bad training session or class that doesn't always go well, does it? Not every time. But you know, what does go well, the intro here for our martial arts radio episodes, a few things that you should keep in mind.
One, if you want to know all the stuff that we do go to whistlekick.com, we've got a store, you can use the code PODCAST15 to save 15%. We've also got a separate website for this show, whistlekickmartialartsradio.com That's where you're gonna go there, you can sign up for the newsletter, and check out every episode we've ever done. Lots of good stuff. Now, if you want to support us, if you want to help us out, yeah, you can buy something, you can sign up for newsletters, you can tell people about social media. But here are a few things you might keep in mind. We sell books on Amazon, we have books that are kind of collections of podcast episodes. We have the martial artists handbook, I even wrote a novel at one point, it's rooted in the martial arts, and check out all that stuff there. But if you want the whole list of all the things you can do to support us in our mission to connect, educate and entertain the martial artists of the world.
Go to whistlekick.com/family It's not a website page that you're going to be able to click to find you're going to have to type it in, we put that little bit of a hurdle in front of you, because we give you good stuff there. And we want to make sure nobody stumbles on it accidentally. It's a little bit of self select booming self selection, a little bit of selection bias. So this is an interesting topic, and you came up with this one. And I absolutely love it. Because this is one of those. I don't think myth is the right word.
But I remember early on in martial arts radio history, this is long before you even I was shocked, because we had guests coming on talking about how they needed to take a break. Yeah, that they took a break for a week or a month or sometimes longer. And I remember feeling like this was this deep, dark secret in martial arts, that many of us feel that way at times, maybe even most of us, but we don't talk about it. Because if I say, you know, I need to take some time off from training. I am considered an outcast.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And I think this is very similar, this idea that not every class can be the best by definition.
Andrew Adams:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And if you're continuing to push boundaries and get more and more out of a class, there's always going to be outliers. On either end of the spectrum, you're going to have a bad class.
Andrew Adams:
Absolutely.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And that answers your question as to whether or not the screens are gonna turn on. You're talking.
Andrew Adams:
No signal detected. So yeah, and it could be a bad class in terms of you didn't get out of it what you wanted to? Yeah, it could be a bad class, as in you worked on things. Maybe you don't like it or you just didn't perform at your best.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Or you're distracted?
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, it's absolutely.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You didn't realize you were getting sick. You didn't realize you’re still feeling funny from last time?
Andrew Adams:
Who knows?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, so many possibilities.
Andrew Adams:
Absolutely.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So what do we do? Right? Like, do we need to state the problem anymore? I think everyone is dying to get it and I wouldn't be surprised if every single person listening hasn't had that happen before. I would argue that if you're listening to us say this and you say, “Jeremy, I've never had a bad training session”.
Andrew Adams:
Maybe they've only done one class.
Jeremy Lesniak:
I don't think you're being honest. Or they only had one class. Yes, one of one. Because let's face it, as we progress, things should get better. Not only should our skills become better, not only should our mindset become better, but our ability to train should get better. And if your ability to train gets better, you're going to have inputs into that system that is you training as a martial artist. Yep. That is not your own. Right.
And whether or not it is your own class, and you are determining what's going on. There are other people involved. Unless your training sessions are training you exclusively, there is outside influence. Even if you're training exclusively, your body will not always be in the same state.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah. And let's be honest, the bad class could also be you just left class and said, I really didn't learn anything today. Like, you know, it might not have been that you did a bad job. But you may just leave saying Why did I come to class today? Like, people could consider that a bad class too and I guess you did just stay home?
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yep. All right. Now, we're not talking about what to do beforehand. We're not talking about whether or not you should come to class. We're not talking about how to put on for a class. That's a whole separate set of subjects. And maybe we will tackle those at some point. If you want us to dig into some of those, you know, let us know, we appreciate the feedback. We're talking about what to do on the other side after, and I think that it is for two main reasons.
One, were you wrong? Did you actually get more out of class than you realized? And you need to think about it in a different way, we'll unpack that, so setting yourself up for some next class is better. Because if you walk away with it, feeling too poorly about yourself, or something that happened, quite often involves another person, often, right? You are less likely to get more out of the next class, maybe even show up. And I don't think either of those circumstances are ideal.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, I would agree.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Have you had this happen recently?
Andrew Adams:
I would say it happens. Not the bad class, I walked away from class going, “Oh, I didn't do well, blah, blah, blah”. But there are often times I will leave class and have a thing in my head. Like, I didn't really do anything today, like, the class was more about me doing more instructing or helping than me learning. And because I'm not the main instructor at my school. And so there have been times where I will leave and go, “Well, I didn't really get anything out of class today”. So that happens.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So let's take that as an example, and reframe it because we know that our audience does skew a little bit towards more experienced martial artists. We've got a lot of school owners, we've got a lot of people who are going to do at least some teaching. And one of the common bits of feedback that I hear from people when they teach, especially if they're newer to teaching, is that they're not getting as much out of their training time.
So I suspect spending your class teaching others for a lot of newer instructors, especially if they're not school owners. They're going to have some of that, that feedback, that reluctance, you know, like, I feel like today was all about everyone else. I'd like it to be about me, maybe not 100% of the time, but I'd like it to be about me a little bit. I didn't get to work on anything.
Andrew Adams:
So that was what happened, right?
Jeremy Lesniak:
So if we look at those two things that we said, can you reframe it? And can you prepare better for next time? How can we reframe that? How could you look at that class in a different way?
Andrew Adams:
So for me, when I start to feel that way, I start to remember that I wasn't the only one in class, like you mentioned earlier, like my being there, made a difference in someone else's training. And I helped promote this art that I love with someone else. And I take comfort in that helps me like I enjoy that aspect of it as well.
And it is often said that you learn more than you do by doing anyway. And so sometimes it's a matter of me just going okay, you know what, it's okay today that we didn't work on the form that I'm currently working on. That's okay. Like, I can still do that on my own at home. But I helped someone else progress. And for me, I take comfort in that.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah, we did an episode. And it's probably the episode I've referenced the most over the years ago. And ironically, I remember where and roughly when I recorded it in the car, it was called martial arts of service. And it is something I've gone back to many, many, many times in the way I look at martial arts and training. And there's another example of it. You provided something to students in your school in a similar way to what was provided to you or your instructors? Over time. That's number one. Number two, I could look at it and say, “did you get at least a little bit better at teaching the things that you taught?”
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, absolutely.
Jeremy Lesniak:
The answer is probably yes. Even if it's a little bit and remember, the longer we spend training, the smaller the increments of progress. There is no way I'm going to step into a class. In the style instructor. I've been training in the same material for 20 years and come out with hugely revolutionary ideas and progress. Every class. Yep, that's white belt stuff. It's part of why I love being a white belt because it's like, “oh, my mind is getting blown every day”. It doesn't happen consistently as we get up there.
So we've got to look at smaller increments, we're gonna look at those things. Another thing that I would say is, and this is both reframing and preparing, what if you're going to go to the next class? What if the same expectation is made of you that you are teaching? Can you challenge yourself as an instructor? Hmm, we often step into class and we say, Okay, I'm going to get better at this form. I'm going to practice a few of these techniques. Because when I spar, so and so again, I want to get better at that. Right? We're used to that as students.
What about that same mindset as an instructor? I know I am struggling with this thing, this form of this technique? You know, they're still going to struggle with it next time. Are there people you can call to say, “I have a student struggling with this?“ Do you have any feedback? Can you come up with other ways that you can present that material? Could you reach out to them and say, “Hey, I've been thinking about it. I've got a suggestion on how you might practice this on your own. And we can work together on it. Next class”.
Andrew Adams:
Interesting. Yep. Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We often draw this very thick line between instructor and student. Yeah, but these deviations are actually kind of interesting. I hadn't expected we would go to these places. I don't see them as two separate things.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, they're very linked.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And here's my example. Most traditional martial arts line people up by rank, right, we've got the higher rank students towards the front of the room, they're closer to the instructor. Are you telling me that if you're in the second row, you are not looking at the first row people to see what they're doing, how they're doing it, you are indirectly teaching them you are not maybe determining the curriculum of the class, you're maybe maybe not choosing the drills, but you are modeling the movements, apps behavior in such a way that other people are learning from you. That's blurry.
On the other side, if you're the instructor, you should be demonstrating at least some of the things some of the time. Andrew, tell me that even even now, you've been teaching a lot of things martial arts and non for quite a few years, you're telling me that when you demonstrate something in front of a class full of people, you know, and have been teaching and working with for a while, that you are not still feeling a tiny bit of pressure on your shoulders, and I will fix that for the next episode. To perform whatever that is as best as you possibly can.
Andrew Adams:
Oh, absolutely, very nice.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We get that now.
Andrew Adams:
For those of you only listening, you get to miss out on our cool backdrop. And I've often said that I am generally nervous when I'm performing, whether it's performing drumming in front of a judge or, you know, performing a drum set with a band somewhere like I'm nervous. If I am in front of a class teaching, to some degree, I'm a little nervous. And, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I mean, I have heard people say, there's no reason to be nervous. You shouldn't be nervous. No, there's nothing wrong with being nervous.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Nervous means you care.
Andrew Adams:
Nervous means you care and nerves can keep you focused. There's nothing wrong with that. But you're absolutely right. You know, if I have to perform something in front of a class that I'm teaching, I want to make sure I'm doing it correctly. So they learn it the right way.
Jeremy Lesniak:
So let's circle back. So that was a little bit of a tangent, but I think it was a really relevant tangent for a lot of people who are going to be watching or listening to this episode. If it's about looking at it a different way, or if it's about preparing for the next time. What are some of the other scenarios that come up? We talked about maybe not being at your physical best, not even leaving class. I'm saying not having performed at my best, it could be that or it could be that you stepped into class thinking you were at 100% or even 80%?
Yeah. And you were at least. I mean, the cliche one, I'm going to turn this off because it's distracting. Yeah, that's the cliche one, but that I genuinely believe in is a quote, “a bad day of training is better than a day of no train”. I know it's very cliche, and everyone out there is probably rolling their eyes. But it's true. It is true if you're looking at it the right way. And I think it's important to recognize that human beings and our development is rooted primarily in learning what not to do.
It's about making mistakes. It's about I don't like the word but a lot of people do failures we have failing, the better we get it a thing it is because we are carving off things to not do. If I'm a better driver of vehicles, I've learned not to swerve and not to be distracted. Yep, I've learned where to put my hands. If I'm better as a combativeness, a spar or a fighter. I've learned, hey, I should keep my hands on a certain place, I shall use certain techniques, when I engage with certain people in certain contexts. Sometimes getting better is learning what not to do. And as we develop as martial artists, we do not generally put enough value on.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, yeah. And I suppose related in the same vein, and I believe, and I could be wrong on the specifics on this, but there was a an article I read once on Thomas Edison, when he was inventing the light bomb, that he was being interviewed for some newspaper, whatever. And they said, Oh, so you've, you've blown up 500 light bulbs, you haven't gotten it to work, yet? You failed 500 times? And their response was, “No, I've learned 500 ways not to do something”.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right. And I believe the number for Edison light bulbs is actually 10,000. Yeah, it is an insane number. And that may not be exactly right. It's probably 9000. And something. But the important part there and the reason that I kind of correct you is, this is one of the most important inventions of all time. And it required someone with insane persistence and recognition that there is a way to do this. And so if there's a way to do that, there's a way to do whatever we're trying to do. Within our training, he found lots of ways that didn't work.
Andrew Adams:
Okay, so you keep working until you find the one that does.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Other things that create situations where we look back and say, I did not like the way this class went. For me. If I have a bad class, 9 times out of 10, it's my attitude going in interest, it's my inability to shed what happened during the day. Now, that doesn't happen to me as much anymore, because I came up with something that was very, very simple, and it still blows me away how effective it is. I go in, to change up, put on my belt. Close my eyes. And I count to 10. Yep, it's that tiny little meditation. I know, when I come out of my 10, I'm ready for class.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, I mean, I like it. I mean, there are a lot of schools that start with a meditation in the beginning and in the end. And I think that can help mentally set yourself. We talk about all the time that when you bow in for those schools that do that, when you when you know, step on the floor, you bow that's supposed to be leaving everything else behind you, that's easier said than done, like sometimes taking that physical time to like. Okay, that can help.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's one of the reasons that I like putting on different clothing. I'm in a different space. I'm wearing different clothing, I'm using a different set of protocols, sometimes different languages. Yeah, working with different people on different things. That makes it far easier for me to take whatever it was today, and put it down over there.
And focus on what I'm doing for whatever that period of time is, because it's still going to be there when I'm done. Yep, yeah, if I'm going to be here, if I'm going to train, I'm not gonna be able to solve it while I'm doing it.
Unless the problem that's really stressing me out is, you know, my reverse punch sucks. I want to get better at it. You know, like, no, it's your book, it's gotten better, though. It's still gonna be there. I can always pick it up later. It can, it can still be the most consuming problem I've got later.
Andrew Adams:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And this is where, you know, again, post class review prep for next time. Recognizing that for almost all of us, we are happier when we've gone to class when we put in the time, no matter what it was, we had to put down you know what, I'm glad I got to clear my head for an hour.
Andrew Adams:
Absolutely.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And knowing that that's there, makes it easier the next time you're feeling like I have to go let this thing consume me instead of going to class. You know what, sometimes putting it down and then picking it back up, makes it easier to think about. Next time I have a class where you know, I'm coming out of work and I'm upset with my boss or my co-worker. I'm just gonna go right to the class. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna sit in the parking lot for 45 minutes and listen to an episode of martial arts radio where I'm going to watch, you know, some movie, half a movie on my phone. And that's like the best. Yeah, probably not that because there are so many reasons why not to.
Andrew Adams:
But I'll interject here. I agree, like, even the classes where I've left and said, “Oh, you know, I wish we'd worked on this thing or whatever”. I can't tell you the last time I went to class and felt worse when I left than when I did when I went in. I always feel better after training, even if it's not, even if we didn't work on what I wanted to work on. I still always feel better. Let's take one more example.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And I think this is an important one, we've skewed a lot of what we're talking about to more experienced students. Let's go to the other end. I felt like everything I did was wrong today. Maybe you're a beginner, and maybe you're a newer student. You forget terminology. Maybe the instructor asked you to demonstrate the form that you've been working on the last few classes and you can't remember it. Or you blur it with another form. You know, you're sparring. And you know, you're a six foot two, yellow belt, and you're sparring with a 11 year old brown belt, and you kick her in the face. And now she's bleeding. And you feel horrible, right? Like, there are so many…
Andrew Adams:
Or even you don't kick her in the face and she's bleeding. She beats you up. She's 11. Let's Yeah, you know, like she went “win”. Like she scores points on you and you’re six.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You feel like, no matter what you did, yeah, you're the inverse of King Midas right. Yeah. You're not turning stuff to gold. You're turning stuff into piles. I've had classes like that. So what do we do there? Two things. How do you reframe? Is there at least one thing you can look at and say, here's how I would handle this differently next time. Whether it's you know, a small child taking you to task or not remembering the form, or not remembering the… There are things you can do to better prepare for that. And if there's nothing else you could have done to prepare, you're probably going to be less anxious. Given that same scenario, if it were all to be repeated.
Andrew Adams:
Yep. And I would also encourage you to think of the entire training session, I do find it hard to believe, even a brand new beginner white belt that you did every single thing wrong. Figure it out, we'll take the class, find out what you did well, because again, statistically, I find it hard to believe everything.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Maybe you don't have the context to recognize it. And you need to ask somebody who has a higher rate.
Andrew Adams:
Oh, that's a great idea.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Maybe you pull someone aside, and this is why and this is a kind of a thought to school owners. I love when people start together. There's no reason you can't have either peer buddies, or kind of a Big Brother, Big Sister. Yeah, you know, like, hey, white belt, here's your blue belt friend, you're gonna check in with them. They had somebody to, you're gonna help them through this, right? And you give them a call, or you shoot them a text, and you're like, I felt like everything I did today was junk. I've had classes like that. But you know what, you did this, this and this better than you had last class? Did you even realize that? Oh, you know, I guess you're right.
Andrew Adams:
Exactly.
Jeremy Lesniak:
There's always something you can hang your hat on. And the other half, so reframe, prepare, how do we prepare for that next class? Trust the process. If you're that new, you've got to trust the process. And we've all been there. We've all had those terrible classes. We've all walked out feeling like maybe I should just throw in the towel. And we didn't know we're better. Yeah, I'm with you. 100%. Are there any other scenarios we should unpack? I feel like we've covered enough. People know where we're at.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, I think so. It was good.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Reframe what you did? How do you take that knowledge and apply it to the next time on a train, so you don't make the same mistakes or have the same negative reaction, you'll have plenty of other things to screw up. You'll have plenty of other things to look at and go. But over time, you make fewer mistakes. There are fewer things you do wrong, you have fewer things to look at and that's called progress. And remember, it never gets easier. It just looks better.
Andrew Adams:
Those of us that are in class, like if you're a beginner listening and you're like, oh, you know it's so much easier for you. No, it's not easier for us. It just looks better because we know how to do it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Standards get higher.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, there's so much.
Jeremy Lesniak:
There's another episode we could do. Yeah, it doesn't get easier. It just gets better.
Andrew Adams:
It looks better.
Jeremy Lesniak:
All right. What do you think? Did we cover this? Well, is there stuff that you're thinking like, hey, Andrew, Jeremy, you guys completely missed this or, you know, I've had this experience. I know what it's like to feel like a complete loser coming out of class, how did you work through it? And how did you work through it? I think that's really important. So if you want to give us feedback, there are a few things you can do.
We have a Facebook group whistlekick Martial Arts Radio Behind The Scenes. You can find it reference whistlekick.com. You can also go to whistlekickmartialartsradio.com and comment on the post. Almost nobody does that anymore. But you can. But if you have feedback you want to share with us or maybe it's private, you don't want us to share things. You can email us, Andrew@whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. I am Jeremy@whistlekick.com. Our social media everywhere you can imagine is @whistlekick.
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