Ricardo Almeida was on the Easton Online podcast and they talked about running a school.

In this clip, he talks about the importance of understanding that not all students are interested in competition, and in fact, that most are not.

You know, Tom Clifford Kyoshi, he would just say, Ricardo, like, you know, how about, you know, if 10 people were joining a school, and are going to become blue belts, one is going to be the best, one is going to be the worst, and maybe one or two of them can go to a tournament and just sort of like hold their own.

And the rest of them are, you know, recreational practitioners that their goals are different. They want to maybe just, you know, learn enough self-defense so that they feel confident or maybe that you want to learn a certain, get to a certain level of fitness that they couldn’t achieve participating in other group activities.

Right. Like, and I’ve, I’ve truly embraced that man. Like I, you know, I look the certain students that I’ve promoted to maybe a blue belt, a purple belt, brown belt, and even black. I know that their performance level, when we talk about, you know, a, you know, IBJJF competition, they’ll able to go out and hold their own in a bracket, the age and weight, or they would not be able to hold their own.

And I’m perfectly fine with that. You know, there’s a lot of times when, when instructors are younger, like they sort of like hold that, uh, in their head and hold students in belts too long. I know that my guys that’re supposed to be competitors, they’re going to be solid. And I know my guys are not supposed to be competitors, are going to be solid for their own potential. Right. Like, and, and I, and I love having them on the mat. And I consider having it being a privilege to teach them and they’ve brought me, other students were champions. And then they brought me other students who were not champions. And they brought their family members to school when, and they are a big part of the academy, just as much as the guys that compete.