After the Double Ten Parade Noah and I went to the park with Adriana. Technically, this was Noah teaching Adriana some spinny stick moves.
Together, they decided to create a prep drill done with the hands. This is not something I showed Noah because he never needed it. He just picked up how to do the spinny stick move on his own from watching me. But not all student are the same. Right in front of me a new basic drill was born.
You see... you can actually learn a lot from teaching. That is why I often have Noah teach classes. When you try to explain to a beginner how to do movements that already come as second nature to you, you will see the importance of self practice.
Noah also showed Adriana a simple stick fighting game.
It's cool because it involves strikes, blocks, and jumps.
But what I noticed more than anything is that Noah did Kung Fu with Adriana for a really long time. Usually when I am showing him something we will end up arguing. It shows me that to lead or be the leader in a situation, doesn;t necessarily mean you have to be the most knowledgeable about the art. Adriana was the adult, guiding the lesson. Noah was skilled person, the master, the Sifu, that actually knew the art. But he would not have been practicing on his own, if Adriana hadn't asked him to show her. So what ended up happening was that together they were able to practice Kung Fu. She learned... but he also learned or at least reviewed what he already knew, in a way that he would not do with me. This class that I witnessed was much better than my classes with him, because a) he had fun and b) he actually ran through quite a bit of material. The fact that Adriana is an expert at working with kids probably helped a great deal
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