Combining techniques from 3 or 4 different schools to catch a sub.

Thanks for taking the time to break it down. Not sure what you mean by a rotation of 10 classes. Do you teach moves and then in later classes expand off those moves to teach more. Like a road map of how to get where you want to go and once you learn the most direct easy route you can learn more short cuts or fancier scenic routes?:p

Also if you don't mind answering, why do you think you don't teach in a traditional manner? Were you taught in a traditional manner? What in your opinion are the deficiencies in traditional style?

Just curious your thoughts.

Tues night: Topic is Mount. for the beginners I would teach the fundamentals like mount retention, mount escape, intermediate I would teach submissions.

Thu night: topic is Back. beginner, back control and escape, intermediate back submission

Next Tue night (i teach twice a week): side control, KOB and norht etc...

then once I cover all the topic, we go over the questions and answers topic where they can ask anything.

So if student A missed out on the mount topic. He does not have to worry. I put some relevant videos on my blog the day after. and he knows that I would cover this specific topic 5 weeks later (or he can ask during the Q & A class).

Yesterday the questions were inverted guard, leg lock and hip bump sweep.

Also we teach one throw per class and generally spar standing as well.

For me the traditional way is teach a technique and 2 variations.
I found it difficult to learn BJJ that way.
 
My friend teach his class with a well detailed blue print. It is freaking awesome.
Problem one: it is applicable to his body type and level of knowledge.
he is creating copies of himself.

My question to him was: if student A missed the guard pass class, when will be the next class that you will cover the guard pass?

He could not answer because he was following his long well detailed blue print.

Another instructor teach the shotgun style. one technique and 2 variations. My question to him is how often do you teach guard passes? He was annoyed because he does not know the answer.
For him, he just look at the forest of techniques and decided to chop one tree at a time. In no particular order, it seems.

I choosed to look at BJJ as a bunch of positions.
I decided that I would cover the positions that gives most points first.
Mount 4 points
Back 4 points
side control, kob, north south. they do not give you points as such but establishing them would get you 3 points for a guard pass or 2 points for KOB.

Then the guard passes, guard subs, guard sweeps.
1/2 top half
bottom 1/2 guard

and the last one is turtle (no points) but a good postion to learn to attack, take the back from turtle and reverse/recompose.

I had one topic for throws.
But I erased it because I decided to do one throw per class instead.
We also spar from stand up (I copied the Judo guys). they either all do stand up or all do ground to avoid accidents.

Even in teaching throws/takedowns, I wanted a system.
so they are split into 4 sections: trips, upper body throw, hips throws and sacrifice throws.

So the instructor choose a throw of 1 section and teach it for 2 classes.

Therefore sacrifice throws are taught once every 4 weeks.


Does it make sense?
 
Sounds interesting! I've got 3 different coaches at my gym...they definitely don't align their classes to work together. But then again I get 3 different styles/perspectives on things which I like.
 
Sounds interesting! I've got 3 different coaches at my gym...they definitely don't align their classes to work together. But then again I get 3 different styles/perspectives on things which I like.

well, the reason for such structure was that originally we were taking turn teaching.

so I wanted to ensure that we did not overlap by mistake.

Also it forces the teacher to stick with a system/structure etc..

let's put this way, I love my sit up, dlr, rdlr game..and I could easily get carried away by just teaching my favorite moves.

with this system, anyone could jump in and teach for the night. he just look at the topic and teach techniques and concepts relevant to the topic.

I would teach the armbar differently from the other instructors. No big deal. as long as we teach it during the guard subs topic. that is fine.
 
the more i roll the morei realize that grappling is more about forcing your opponent to play your game rather than you playing his game and taking what's given.
 
Yeah that makes sense, I think it's great to build on a position or transition and revisit it soon in the ciriculmn.

I'm a interested but confused on why you would start with Mount and Back............ Two of the hardest places to get to during a grappling match. How about how to get from guard to the back or mount?

Again thanks for giving your perspective. Feel like I'm learning here!!
 
Yeah that makes sense, I think it's great to build on a position or transition and revisit it soon in the ciriculmn.

I'm a interested but confused on why you would start with Mount and Back............ Two of the hardest places to get to during a grappling match. How about how to get from guard to the back or mount?

Again thanks for giving your perspective. Feel like I'm learning here!!

Mount and Back.

Reason: best position in BJJ. also 4 points therefore maximum points.

From point of views of self defense vs sport.

Teach a beginner how to escape/retain the mount is way better than teaching a beginner how to pass the guard on his first class.

Learning passing the guard in the streets is an no brainer, just punch his face and his legs will open.

Now, if you ended mounted in a fight, you need to learn how to escape.

also, for self defense, learning how to maintain the mount is a better tool than guard pass.

I also do the old Gracie trick, get the mount and explain how I can punch you but you cannot punch back (because of the reach).

Also for the sake of rolling, new students will spend lot of time escaping mount and back etc..
 
Mount and Back.

Reason: best position in BJJ. also 4 points therefore maximum points.

From point of views of self defense vs sport.

Teach a beginner how to escape/retain the mount is way better than teaching a beginner how to pass the guard on his first class.

Learning passing the guard in the streets is an no brainer, just punch his face and his legs will open.

Now, if you ended mounted in a fight, you need to learn how to escape.

also, for self defense, learning how to maintain the mount is a better tool than guard pass.

I also do the old Gracie trick, get the mount and explain how I can punch you but you cannot punch back (because of the reach).

Also for the sake of rolling, new students will spend lot of time escaping mount and back etc..

Makes sense!
 
I am working on my next teaching sequence which might be more advanced/intermediate level.

Instead of looking at positions, I would into techniques instead.

For example. Kimura (how to hit the kimura from every position possible).

Triangle and armbar from any positions.

arm drag, leg grag, collar drag from every position.

the inversion theory (berimbolo, kiss of the dragon, tornado guard etc..)

so in a way, the next step will be techniques oriented compare to position oriented.
 
I have a friend that's school is extremely successful. He has his complete curriculum for every class for the entire year down. He teaches both tma and BJJ. Currently he is a 3 strip Brown under Professor Pedro Sauer. After some one completes his course 3 years they are a BB in a TMA and will usually be a blue in BJJ (stripe depends on performance)

Having his course outlined like this allow lower level instructors to share the work load and classes to run very smoothly. Techniques are only taught in great detail one time during the year rotation thou. If you miss the technique you have to pick it up on the mat or pay for a private class.

I am very envious of his financial success, but I choose to tailor what we do to the individual. Personally I love when people take time to bring videos in or links. The gym officially closes at 8 pm but there have been times when guys was still in there at 2am rolling and playing with different techniques.

I feel understanding position is the most important thing for a beginner. To help them learn basic concepts and keep it fun I generally start people off like this.
1. Side control: Shrimping, Head lock vs Scarf Hold, Modified Scarf, and a few standard side control positions.
2. Guard: posture control, Big Three (Kimura, Hip Bump, Guillotine), basic armbar, and introduce High guard vs low guard
3. Mount Escapes: Upa, Shrimp, Footsie,
4. Mount Attacks: Americana, Armbar, Taking back to RNC
5. Back: RNC, Hooks, seat belt, and preventing someone from standing

After they get these down we go into 1/2 guard and started getting more detailes, and concepts etc....



SBG (Straight Blast Gym) has it right with "Aliveness"
 
What are some names? I hear of the gym a lot but don't know any names to tie to it

Matt Thornton founded it. Tom Oberhue and Michael Chapman used to teach there. There have been a lot of people through that place.

I went to a seminar there several years ago that completely changed how I transition form one side to the other on side control. I wish I could remember the fellows name that did the seminar :(
 
What are some names? I hear of the gym a lot but don't know any names to tie to it

Besides Matt Thornton, the head instructor, a few standouts I know of:

Cane Prevost, fairly well known black belt that has a good blog and some instructional stuff on YT

John Diggins, new black belt, instructor and very successful competitor

Amanda Loewen, purple belt, also awesome competitor, i heard she has beaten the current mundials champ in her division

John Frankl also is or was affiliated with them but has his own association in Korea now

There's a couple people here in f12 who train there too I think.
 
Besides Matt Thornton, the head instructor, a few standouts I know of:

Cane Prevost, fairly well known black belt that has a good blog and some instructional stuff on YT

John Diggins, new black belt, instructor and very successful competitor

Amanda Loewen, purple belt, also awesome competitor, i heard she has beaten the current mundials champ in her division

John Frankl also is or was affiliated with them but has his own association in Korea now

There's a couple people here in f12 who train there too I think.

I don't know why I quoted this post.

SBG had a pretty big impact on the online BJJ community back in the day, they were one of the first BJJ blogs (although it was mostly Thorton's rambling steam of conscious stuff, but they had some good articles) and made some of the first instructionals that weren't "Gracie Curriculum" stuff. They were innovative with their teaching methodologies and techniques, though for some reason they didn't expand like other gyms did.

Even 10 years ago most of the BJJ instructionals were Brazilians speaking in Portuguese with dubbed over English, or Americans doing technique after technique from the Gracie curriculum. Very few people were teaching concepts, and no one was discussing teaching methods like SBG were (and like how the guys in this thread are)
 
I don't know why I quoted this post.

SBG had a pretty big impact on the online BJJ community back in the day, they were one of the first BJJ blogs (although it was mostly Thorton's rambling steam of conscious stuff, but they had some good articles) and made some of the first instructionals that weren't "Gracie Curriculum" stuff. They were innovative with their teaching methodologies and techniques, though for some reason they didn't expand like other gyms did.

Even 10 years ago most of the BJJ instructionals were Brazilians speaking in Portuguese with dubbed over English, or Americans doing technique after technique from the Gracie curriculum. Very few people were teaching concepts, and no one was discussing teaching methods like SBG were (and like how the guys in this thread are)

That is the biggest impact I think. My coach went from white to purple under Karl Tanswell who was given his BB by Matt Thornton. The entire SBG philosophy was bordering on a cult at some points but the teaching methodology was a big deal.

Interestingly enough, we're now affiliated to Combat Base UK which is headed up by Darren & Helen Currie(got my blue with their sign off, my coach got his brown from them) who got their BB's from Chris Haueter - same guy who gave Matt Thornton his BB. Haueter trained JKD under Dan Inosanto and is one of the first guys to teach conceptually too, so it could be that this style of teaching comes from/is influenced by the JKD approach of "use what works".
 
That is the biggest impact I think. My coach went from white to purple under Karl Tanswell who was given his BB by Matt Thornton. The entire SBG philosophy was bordering on a cult at some points but the teaching methodology was a big deal.

Interestingly enough, we're now affiliated to Combat Base UK which is headed up by Darren & Helen Currie(got my blue with their sign off, my coach got his brown from them) who got their BB's from Chris Haueter - same guy who gave Matt Thornton his BB. Haueter trained JKD under Dan Inosanto and is one of the first guys to teach conceptually too, so it could be that this style of teaching comes from/is influenced by the JKD approach of "use what works".

The cult like aspect was ironic considering their stance against TMAs, in a way they kept the mentality but changed the methods.
 
The cult like aspect was ironic considering their stance against TMAs, in a way they kept the mentality but changed the methods.

I would say it was more separatist. Most people don't know (or don't realize) that the Gracie's were teaching a lot of techniques that were BS 10-20 years ago. They wanted the fame and to make money but didn't want people to get too good. Once the internet and people like SBG (and Aliveness)came along things started to change.
 
I would say it was more separatist. Most people don't know (or don't realize) that the Gracie's were teaching a lot of techniques that were BS 10-20 years ago. They wanted the fame and to make money but didn't want people to get too good. Once the internet and people like SBG (and Aliveness)came along things started to change.

I wouldn't say they were teaching "B.S." but they were holding stuff back for sure. There is the running joke that they will teach you the choke, but I'd you want to learn how to defend it, well that's $150 private lesson my friend".
I heard that one just last night!! Of course he was teaching defense to a loop choke as he said, but.......

I noticed when I trained Catch we would learn a sub and a defense to it. In BJJ I notice a lot less emphasis on defended.
 
Back
Top