Questions

Personally, I love questions. I love to answer them, I love the look of "oh!" on people's faces when they understand the answer. The problem is, we have limited time in class, and I have limited mental energy to give you. So please stop asking questions during class.

Let me rephrase--ask questions about what you need to do at that given moment, as briefly as possible. These are necessary, because if you don't know, you can't proceed. However, general questions, such as why we train a certain way, why I do things a certain way, etc., these have to go away. They need to go away to a place called "after class" or the NYHFA blog. Breaks are not a good time for these questions, becuase breaks are limited, and as I have proven in the last class, my love of questions makes me easily distracted and I am prone to rambling on well past the end of the break.

The more important factor that comes into this, however, is trust. I know how to do something that you don't know, and so you come to me to learn. Good, that's why I'm here. Now shut up and let me teach you. You will come to understand everything if you let the knoweldge be absorbed at the right time. You cannot rush knowledge. I can tell you everything I know in an hour. Will that mean you will know it all too? Knowledge must be earned.

As my friend and colleague Jessica Finely said recently, "When was the last time you sat down with a child and explained to them how to ride a bicycle?" I replied, "Never, I just set them on the bike and yell at them 'till they get it." She said, "Exactly."

Our new training model is train more, talk less. This is for your benefit, not mine. As I said, I love questions, and I am going to miss them.