Surviving the "Other Teachers"

I think our club did rather well with the three different instructors (me, Rob and Peter) they had over the last three classes, but it'll be good that one of our regular Sensei's is back on Saturday, for many reasons.

Peter is officially the "senior student" in the club but he doesn't train regularly due to a back injury, so I am regularly "senior student", with Bill as the next in line for seniority. Bill and I have had some great conversations about how to improve things at the club in the future, especially regarding the children and teaching them the rules and ways of a dojo, and during the past three classes we've been implementing some changes, with the co-operation of the two other instructors.

So, when Don gets back we're going to take him for coffee or something, I believe - and have a nice deep chat about some goals for keeping the dojo in order regarding new students, while also making it so the intermediate students are getting more of what they need and the first class isn't all about the white belts anymore.

It's interesting how a few years at a dojo combined with a black belt make me feel more authorative and confident in being so. And so far I haven't been pulled aside and told I'm going too far, so that's good ;)

Oh, and last night after class at the Instructors' dojo, a bunch of us went out to the local Legion to have a few drinks, as one of our bunch is having exploratory surgery on Monday for a recent diagnosis of cancer and isn't sure what to expect as a result from the surgery. There were a few people around that table who didn't know about the cancer, but most of us did. It was really good to be able to sit right beside the guy (my favorite Sensei btw) and buy him a few shots of his favorite scotch liqueur and have some fun conversations with him, as he doesn't train regularly and since he's not teaching regularly this fall I haven't seen him very often since June.

I hope the news will be good on Monday.