People getting frustrated with me in martial arts training

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03 Oct 2007, 1:26 am

I have been training Brazillian Jiu jitsu and Muay Thai kickboxing for well over a year now, and I enjoy it. The problem is sometimes people get angry or fed up with me because I don't follow instructions well. I am in some advanced classes, and many people are fighters and some have been training for many years. Tonight I was working pads with a guy who is an accomplished fighter, and he kept getting an angry and frustrated look on his face, because I wasn't holding the pads right or doing the exercise properly. I had to do so many motions in a row (with different parts of my body) correctly, and then do the same for the opposite side, and I kept getting confused. He acted like he thought I was ret*d or something, after he explained what to do several times, and I still didn't get it perfectly. The head trainer has gotten kind of frustrated with me before (it seemed that way), for similar reasons. I always get confused with complex verbal instructions in class (this doesn't happen much, but it has been happening lately because I am in the advanced classes). I feel like some people there don't and will never accept me because I am different, and I don't learn the same way as some other people do.



KaliMa
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03 Oct 2007, 7:34 am

Maybe they should post the instructions, say on a big marker board or something? We have one at work that's about 1 yard/meter X 1 yard/meter, that should be plenty big enough to see. You can't be the only one who has trouble remembering a half-dozen things in order while physically doing something. Maybe you could ask them to put up a marker board and you write the instructions before starting the activity, so they won't have to do the work of writing it all? Maybe just let them know about the AS and they'll see it as a reasonable accomodation they should do? I don't know, just a thought.



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05 Oct 2007, 1:18 pm

Using a board or something wouldn't work. I think I was having a hard day that day. I went back last night and trained for 2 1/2 hours and it was awesome. I have mostly good days and occasionally bad ones.