Again With The Youths' Mouths

The past couple of Fridays, no sparring took place.  As time marches towards the end of the spring session, participants have begun to show up less and less.  Only Damaris, Kayla, and Anayah showed up the last time for the kids' class.  Kayla and Anayah match each other a little better for sparring purposes.  However, Damaris is taller and bigger than the both of them.  Three fighters on sparring day would mean that one of them would have to do double duty.  Although in the past I've allowed sparring to go on with that number of people, it's really unfair to tire one person out against two.

Damaris took exception to my decision not to let anyone spar that day.  Sahia wasn't having it.  Just as I was beginning to explain why sparring was not going to happen, Sahia told me, "You're the adult.  You don't have to explain your reasons to a child."  She admonished Damaris for her attitude.  Only then did it occur to Damaris to politely ask me about my reasons.  Later, Sahia apologized to me because she felt she had cut me off.   But there was no need for an apology, because Sahia was right.  Damaris -- who is seldom focused and motivated when it comes to training -- should have been checked about her behavior.

One of the least favorite parts of my job is dealing with mouthy kids and teens.  I'm not going to argue with a kid.  But I will exercise my right as an adult to tell a kid to shut up while I'm talking. They don't pay a dime for the class and the door to the gym opens both ways.   Damaris is not the only kid I've had in the gym who I knew was mouthing off to their parents and guardians (many times in front of me while in the gym) and thinking they could also do it to any other adult they came across.  She was lucky that Sahia stepped in and firmly but gently admonished her.  I would have hurt Damaris' feelings to get my point across about respecting others.