When I started doing instructor training for aikido classes and started being out on the mat as an assistant, answering questions, helping people correct things

When I started doing instructor training for aikido classes and started being out on the mat as an assistant, answering questions, helping people correct things they hadn't realised weren't working like they should, I found to my great surprise that my own aikido became better. I mentioned this to the lead instructor on the class I was helping with and he nodded and said that he was always told "to teach is to learn twice". He is overly fond of little sayings like that, but it is true. I am also aware that I became a better programmer in some aspects by coaching junior colleagues. Partly because you have to translate and explain what's in your head in a form that somebody else can understand - which is actually the same as the effect I observed at aikido. I also think it can help us be nicer to people who know less than ourselves, because we see more often the reminder that people can in fact learn things, and also people will ask questions which push the limits of our own knowledge, or we just don't know the answer, and it's okay to realise that you don't know and to admit it.