Trust the Club

It’s always fun to pull out the sticks. Kids get the jitters. “Whoa! Are we going to use those? Awesome!” This fun is contrasted by the apprehension I feel at letting young folks swing heavy pieces of wood at one another. Happily, no one got hit by a stick, let alone injured.

I tried couching the whole class in the idea of trust. What is trust? Why is it important to trust the people you are working with in training? And of course, why is it important to NOT trust a stranger who comes waving a stick at you? I think they all got the idea, as I let them answer all those questions and tried to keep my own lectures to a minimum. It’s amazing how civilized most folks are if you just give them the oportunity to think about things for a moment.

After learning club counters, we had a relay race between two teams. The challenge was to balance the stick in the palm of your hand as you ran down the floor and then back towards your team. I made clear that the “real” challenge to me is to resist the urge to cheat. The resulting race was fun to watch.

Some of the kids would just let the sticks fall, no matter what. Some would start to catch the sticks when they fell, then a look of recognition would cross their faces and they’d let the sticks drop. And of course, some kids wouldn’t let the sticks go anywhere. As the pressure increased (the race neared its end) more and more cheating happened. I promised to not point out any cheating and so I didn’t. I’m not sure if it was the best strategy as a teacher, but it was certainly instructive – if not obvious.

The more pressure, the more is at stake, the more likely people are going to break the rules/compromise if they feel they can get away with it. The question becomes, how much is a relay race worth it – and of course, how much does it really matter if you do cheat in said race? I walked away very pleased with the class and so did most of the students.