My teaching is not for everyone.
And, it’s definitely different than most BJJ coaches.
I try not to just “Show the Move!!!”
Some people get mad that I won’t just do a 30 second video of a move and then move on, like everyone else.
But, for me, there’s no point in making videos that way. There are thousands of channels and DVDs for that by other people.
For me, there’s no point in me teaching class that way. There are a ton of schools for people who want that.
I heard a BJJ coach I like once say “most BJJ coaches are good at demonstrating techniques but not good at teaching.”
This is absolutely my experience.
A lot of coaches can show a technique and do it beautifully. But, they don’t give students many details and more importantly, they don’t explain the underlying mechanics or the reasonings behind the move.
They don’t connect the move to anything else except maybe in the rawest tactical manner (“If your opponent defends X, you can do Y”).
But, I find what has always worked best for me is understanding the concepts, structures, and connections beneath the techniques.
I do this because I find it helps simplify everything for me.
One of the things I’ve had so many BJJ practitioners tell me is that they are lost and don’t know what to do. They say they learn a ton of techniques but when they tell their coaches they don’t know what to do, they’re told some variation of “just keep training. You’ll figure it out.”
And, there’s some truth to that. Part of the journey is working on your own to understand the Jiu-Jitsu behind the techniques.
But, I feel my job as a coach is to help them with that; to make the journey easier.
I don’t want to be a coach who gives them 100 ingredients and then says “ok, now figure out how to cook.”
So, I teach concepts and mechanics first and then I fit techniques into the concepts. I find doing it that way makes it so much easier – and so much easier to remember – for students.
We’ve all been to seminars where you learn a bunch of cool techniques that you forget 10 minutes after the seminar.
My goal is to give a Superstructure so that even if you forget the techniques you can fit other ones into that structure and it will still make sense.
And, the thing is it doesn’t take long.
I don’t spend hours doing that.
I usually only spend at most a minute or two giving these concepts
In the video the picture is from I literally start showing the technique at the 1 minute mark.
For the first minute, I introduce myself and I explain the important indicator for why you would do this takedown and not another. I am explain what cue you are looking for.
This is crucial. It’s why I see so many people struggle trying to pull off a technique that doesn’t apply to their current situation.
They learned a bunch of moves (and even moves that are “The Best”) but they never learned the cues that indicate which moves apply and which don’t for a particular situation.
So, they’re stuck trying to fit a round peg into a square hole.
And, then they just keep increasing the power until maybe it works.
Then, they conclude they have to spend more time working out to have the power to force these moves to work.
Or, they get frustrated with how much work BJJ takes and quit. And, then those that remain conclude they weren’t tough enough to stick to it.
For my Fundamentals curriculum, I teach several takedowns from the body clinch. AND, I teach which takedown works best depending on what posture and position your opponent is in.
This is vitally important as it makes the takedowns so much more effective is you choose “the right key for the right lock” (an analogy I use regularly at my school).
So, the first part of the video is me explaining the posture that your opponent needs to be in for the technique to work. I also add in how I like to get the person into that posture.
This is VITAL background for the move.
It’s why I see people try the move in the video and fail or have difficulty with it – because they’re attempting it when their opponent isn’t in the correct position for the move to be effective.
Because they weren’t taught this important aspect.
And, then they naturally conclude that the move doesn’t work.
Again, I do this background instruction to make BJJ simpler not more complex.
A great example is a class video of mine that someone reposted on his BJJ page.
It was a takedown from the knees.
One of the commenters complained that I was talking too much.
Again, I probably talked for no more than 2 minutes before showing the move.
And, what I was trying to do is explain the core mechanics that connect every single takedown and sweep.
If the students remembered that concept then they could apply it to every single takedown and sweep they ever learn.
Even more importantly, they could troubleshoot when a sweep fails and understand where the problem is and how to fix it.
Or, even create their own sweeps or takedowns.
They couldn’t do that if I had just “shut up and shown the move.”
I guarantee that if you ask my students who were there that day what the move I taught was, they wouldn’t remember it.
But, I also guarantee they all could tell you what the important and universal concept behind that technique was that I spent time explaining before teaching the technique.
Every sweep or takedown the work, they approach it with this concept in mind and it allows them to make them more effective and less confusing.
And, all it took was 2 minutes.
Actually, less.
Because I also explained the benefits of training takedowns from the knees as well as one of the core mechanics I use to increase my power and decrease my opponent’s power.
This mechanic is central to my pressure and control game and shows up in so many of my techniques.
And, again, all it took was 2 minutes to give them a few crucial tools that they would be able to apply in thousands of scenarios as well as make the technique I was about to teach easier for them to perform and understand.
I find this Return on Investment of Class time to be well worth it.
But, there are so many coaches who just show moves like “put this hand in the collar and this hand here and pull. Okay, go drill.”
No discussion of mechanics or details.
And, that’s fine.
I could do that.
But, I feel like I owe my students more. I wan to help teach them how to approach the Art and how to most easily connect it all so it makes sense.
I had a BJJ coach tell me once that my videos shouldn’t be more than 2 minutes long.
“Just show the move and move on.”
Besides the fact that I see no reason to even bother making a video that way, I would literally be like so many other channels.
Again, I’m fine with people not liking the way I teach and sure I can maybe talk too much sometimes (although I try to not be as bad as some) but my goal is to get my students to understand Why they’re doing what they’re doing not just How to do it.
Conceptual Jiu-Jitsu 