Stan started with a little tradition, having them bow to the school, the Sensei, etc. He needed to get things moving, keep everyone interested, so he had to do thing in a certain order. It was important for the kids. The discipline was more than how to fight, it would help them resist the temptations of the gang lifestyle and stay focused on having a productive life.
Stan ran his class through a series of quick stretches to both loosen them up and help warm up the muscles. He had not yet introduced Jade, wanting to avoid repeating himself to the inevitable stragglers. He watched Jade and Trina, doing the warmups as vigorously as they could. He knew they'd take every exercise seriously, unlike some of his students. A couple of the guys were already resting. It was okay, they needed to build their endurance.
After the warmups, Stan took the time to introduce the new members to the instruction team. "Guys, I'd like you to keep jogging in place while I make a little announcement. As some of you know, I'm still an active competitor in the CFC. I've been given another shot at a championship belt in my weight class, and I'm taking it." The guys shouted their approval. "However, if I'm gonna bring home the gold, I'm gonna need to train. I've got possible the best trainer I can get, but the training schedule means I won't be able to teach you guys until after the fight, at the earliest." He motioned for the girls to come up. "This is my replacement, at least for the next few months."
Stan gestured to Jade. "This is Jade West. She fought professionally as Mandy Walker. You remember her record? Won her first five fights, lost to Shelby Marx. She knows her stuff." He then gestured towards Trina. "I think most of you know Trina, Officer Vega's daughter. She helps out here a lot, and since she's a brown belt, she's going to help run the classes while I'm out."
The guys stopped jogging in place. For that second, the girls were being scrutinized. Then the guys seemed to be okay with it. Andy seemed a bit uneasy, but was willing to go along with the flow. Stan made a mental note to talk with him during the break.
After a few more exercises, Stan broke the class into three groups. The newest students worked with him. He was showing them the basics, the beginning stances and moves. Group two was given to Trina. They were the intermediate students. Jade took the small core of dedicated students who'd achieved the highest belt ranking in the class. She was showing them some new stuff. Trina and Stan both watched her out of the corners of their eyes.
Jade held back, wanting to be good at this. She saw so many flaws with their style, but she refrained from jumping on any of them. Instead, she tried subtly correcting the flaws while showing them the next set of moves they'd be learning. It almost worked.
Trina gave her guys an exercise to keep them busy for a second to go talk to Jade. Once she had the goth's attention, she whispered to her "Slow down."
"What?" Jade asked.
"Slow down. God, do you have a clue how fast you are?" Trina asked.
"WHAT?" Jade's voice was sounding dangerous, and the guys prepared to defend Trina, whom they liked, from the new black belt if necessary.
"You reflexes, it's too fast for the guys to keep up." Trina told her.
That's when it started to make sense. Trina could keep up, but doing so had overexerted her. These guys didn't have a prayer of following the nuances of her moves. She'd been going slow, but apparently it was still too fast. Jade slowed down, both her demonstration and the exercise. It was painfully slow. Jade could feel her muscles atrophying from the lack of exertion. Jade's response was to add isometric resistance to her movements, giving her a much heavier workout. That slowed her down, stopping her from unconsciously speeding up through the movements. The guys seemed to appreciate it, and were able to follow more easily. Jade also made a not not to be pissed at how slowly they were doing the moves. They just didn't have her speed yet.
Trina was happy Jade took her advice, but reminded herself to word things more carefully in the future. No sense in being the one who dies so the audience knows how the monster works. Better to learn a little diplomacy and help everyone.
'Form' It hit Trina, almost out of the blue. 'Form is one of her strong points.' Trina realized that everyone's imperfections screamed at Jade because she couldn't avoid seeing them. She somehow understood the function and adaptation of the movements. That was one of the reasons Jade was so good at transferring energy with her blows. No wasted movement. And that's what she was going to help Trina with. Of course, Jade was hitting harder than should have been physically possible, but that was another shaolin technique she'd learn from the actress as time went on..
For Jade, the rest of the first half went better. They still weren't doing anything right, but they were starting to pick up the patterns of the moves. Jade knew she had to correct them, or they'd be doing it wrong. So she worked slowly, often going hands on to move a limb or otherwise help them feel the difference in what they were doing. She used her writers mind to come up with as many ways of explaining what they were doing as possible, and chose the best sounding one to walk them through the moves. They were improving, but this chiz always takes time. Jade was impatient.
Jade used the break to talk with Stan, getting pointers about her mistakes as well as finding out what she did well. "I noticed you're not yelling at the students as much as you used to. That's a plus." Stan was telling her. He really wanted to talk to Andy. The boys would listen to him, and having him on board would make the transition go so much more smoothly.
Trina, however, was drawn to a conversation in the back of the room. One of the boys looked like he was showing the others where his hands would go if he was slow dancing. Trina walked over to catch what she could of that conversation. "...However long she would have to hold it before she got it hung."
"Doesn't matter. That position has no leverage." Andy said. "If she was forced to adjust it, she'd have to use more muscle. No way around it, that girls strong."
"Her boyfriend's stronger. I've seen him hold her back with one hand." Trina said.
"So you know her. What can you tell us?" Andy asked.
"She knows her chiz. Her brother taught her, and he's the guy Stan's going to train with. However, she needs to work on her people skills." Trina said. "So why didn't you guys hit the punching bag before class. It's a good workout." 'And I didn't get my beefcake viewing.' She thought.
"What guy was going to follow her?" Andy told Trina, pointing towards Jade. "It's one thing to know you could kick our asses, it's another to feel week compared to what? She's one hundred and thirty pounds at most? None of the guys wanted to go after she'd kicked the chiz out of the bag."
"Okay, I'll talk to her. Anything else?" Trina asked.
"I'll let you know after class. Maybe we could go somewhere and get some coffee?" Andy said.
"Can't. School night. You can tell me while we put the stuff away." Trina said.
Stan talked with Andy, and got the same thing Trina did. They respected Jade, but she couldn't keep showing them how strong, or tough, or whatever she was. They needed to feel like they were tough. Jade scared them. Stan tried to tell him she scared everyone. It wasn't an improvement.
The second part of class went much better then the first. It was mostly sparring, and at their level, the guys were doing slow controlled sparring. The center had wanted padded outfits so the guys could spar at full speed without getting injured, but there was no money for it. Instead, the beginners did 'called movements' while the more advanced students did slow sparring.
Despite her earlier problems, Jade seemed to handle the sparring far better. She'd often step in, frequently asking the guy she was now sparring with to throw a full speed punch or kick. She would effortlessly stop the attack, and then correct them in what they were doing wrong. Jade drifted around the class, leaving Trina to oversee sparring. Stan just watched. Most of the guys were Okay with Jade's approach. A black belt could avoid attacks, and felt safe to use full speed against her. As long as she didn't insult their manhood again, they were happy with her hands on approach.
Jade's actions spoke volumes about her lack of fear for the guys. Both Trina and Stan had convinced her that she needed to use some diplomacy, keep the guys coming back. Thanks to the new mindset, most of her comments began with "Good, but not great. Lets tweak it just a bit."
By the time Jade ran the cool down exercises and stretching, she seemed to be getting the hang of the class. Trina only had to remind the guys a couple of times that Jade was a "cyborg who wouldn't get tired" so they didn't need to keep up. For her part, Jade didn't let the comparison bother her. She was just happy to be learning how to teach.