Coaching memories – Georges St-Pierre's first lesson at TUF: The twelfth season of the Ultimate Fighter TV show featured Georges St-Pierre against the very tough and dangerous Josh Koscheck. It would be filmed over six weeks in Las Vegas – the longest time I ever left the Renzo Gracie Academy for. Due to prior commitments, none of Georges other coaching staff of that time could stay for more than a few days, so Mr St-Pierre and I stayed the whole six weeks and split training into standing position and ground where he taught the former and I taught the latter. We had to go against one of the most successful MMA organizations in the world – Team AKA. When the smoke cleared we amassed a victorious record of 8-2 against them and both finalists were from our team. On the very first day of training with our team, Georges St-Pierre stepped up to teach the first class. The team was very excited to learn from arguably the greatest MMA fighter of all time and I was curious to see what he would begin with, as we knew very little about our new students – would he begin with the essentials of stance, motion and jab? Perhaps he might get fancy and show Superman punch set ups and combinations? Maybe strikes into takedowns? Mr St-Pierre surprised everyone, including myself, by starting with a lesson on classroom respect. He taught how to sit, stand, listen and ask questions while instruction was being made. Only then did he get into actual instruction of fighting techniques. We were all rather surprised by this. After class I talked to him about it. He said something I never forgot – only in a room that observes respectful decorum and has protocols for learning behavior is fast progress possible – until that basic necessity is satisfied, nothing else will have much value. I thought it was a beautiful lesson, certainly one that I shall not forget.
