Why Yoga for BJJ? 11-Min Philosophy & Why Yoga Isn't Competition

And after the old lady came and said wow this was a really nice and calm class and I really feel calm and centered and it was nice to stretch out a little bit. I managed to have those two in the same class and just feel great in their own way. For me that was my greatest teaching moment that I was able to give him the challenges he needed and also give her the modifications he needed. At that moment I felt like okay now I know how to teach.

I know Sebastian has been talking a lot about how to teach these last weekends but I think the most advanced teaching you can do is just to learn to observe the room and see what people need. Do they need to go easier? Do they need to go harder? It's always going to be mixed groups especially with du du du gyms.

You're going to have really strong athletic people and you're going to have some injured people. They can all be in the same class. In the beginning you will have to have the yoga class centered around you and teach from your bias because it's impossible to not do that. So the people who are most similar to you will be the people who enjoy the class most.

And that's where most teachers stop their development and they eventually over time weed out everybody who is dissimilar and you get a kind of homogenous group of like-minded people which can be easier as an instructor but it's also a bit scary because some big things in the world start like that where you just center everything around yourself and people like you. So if you develop you might with effort and time become more like Stina that can not have the class be about her but you automate your teaching so that you can allocate some brain power to actually observe people and notice them and try to figure out how to make the class about them. So this tough guy, Stina probably gave him a couple of three or four options during the class where he got to push himself and she also hinted at her when the old lady said da da da da. So she was really observant and managed to teach several classes in the same class and instead of just reading from my internal script like a recipe and everybody had to follow her she managed to teach to all levels simultaneously.

So that's the ultimate goal of becoming a great teacher is you can have a five-year-old kid and you can have a 95-year-old man that can't even touch his knees and they can both do your class because you know how to adapt to that. That's like the black belt level and the goal. So please keep that in mind. A reminder since probably a lot of the people are in sports that you are going to teach to, the great thing about yoga is it's not about getting good or getting somewhere.

It can be full of challenges but it's just for yourself. It's not to become better than the rest in the room. I also had people in my class with one arm and in my classes there's a lot of inversions and arm balances but it's always possible to mold your yoga class to fit everyone but it's going to take of course a lot of practice but that's the great thing about teaching this kind of activities. Yes and I'd like people to not fall into the pitfall of becoming a 2020 yoga teacher because I emphasize yoga for BJJ.

That's the reason the Lovers has yoga for and then BJJ in big letters because this is biased towards Jiu Jitsu and Jiu Jitsu people are maybe the top 20 percentile of fit people in the world. Most people in America are overweight. Most people in the world are sedentary right now at least in the modern world. So you cannot put the baseline too low because you will exclude the people who actually give a lot of effort to learn and be active.

So most yoga teachers they write in social media about how dangerous yoga is and how all other teachers are teaching irresponsibly and just doing crazy stuff where all we should be doing is sit on our butt and meditate and somehow that will be beneficial for us. So I don't want to go into that pitfall. Yes and that's I should have mentioned that too because there's a reason the guy with the one arm came to my class. There was also a reason this old lady, 75 year old kept coming back to my class because they didn't feel sick or injured in the way I was teaching.

They felt strong and capable and everybody should be allowed to feel that way. Not only the people who already are fit and strong and capable. I was not capable when I started yoga but the training I was taking and the yoga I was practicing made me feel like I could be strong and kept me going. So you want to get people hooked on becoming better and not just tell them you're okay, you're weak and you're sick.

Just stay that way. It's okay. I think that's really dangerous. Yes and that's why I before I hate the political correctness movement because it's about making everybody feel good all the time.

We're not supposed to feel good all the time. We're supposed to feel good half of the time and the other half of this time we need a slap in the face and the kick in the butt and that's my goal as a yoga teacher is make you feel good, make you feel like shit, make you feel good, make you feel like shit. But always welcome. But always welcome.

Exactly. Exactly. Everybody's welcome to get their ass kicked. That's how Jiu Jitsu should be and that's how yoga for BJ should be.

Everybody can come. I will kick your ass and you will feel good afterwards. That can kind of summarize this whole course. And I want you to remember one thing extremely carefully and that is if you have a weirdo in class, some really awkward, weird off putting guy, include him too.

Usually it's a guy. Sometimes it's a girl but usually it's a guy. But if you have a real weirdo around you, don't start talking shit behind their back because I am putting on a good show to not be a weirdo right now. But you can ask the woman next to me, I'm a weird quirky fucking guy.

And wherever I have been included in gyms or friend circles around the world, I have made my absolute best to contribute positivity to that circle. So that's why I really hate this, again, all these things with chakras and stuff like that because it's trying to make humanity homogeneous. It's trying to make everybody streamlined and similar to each other. Everybody has to behave in a certain way.

Like the PC thing is basically the political correctness can be summarized that you have to be inclusive otherwise you're excluded. And I hate that. I want everybody to be able to be themselves unless you are like obviously racist or something like that. The only thing that's not acceptable is if you don't accept other people, of course.

I want you to summarize. I want you to include everybody in the Yoga for BJJ circle. Don't make it a clique. Make it something for everybody.

And if you don't like someone because they are bad people, find a good way for them to kind of find their way out. Never kick anybody out from class unless they're rude. But try to include everybody, even the weirdos, because the weirdos can be extremely valuable without you knowing it yet.