As I mentioned previously, I am now coaching two beginners classes at Jiu Jitsu Institute. This is the first time I have been part of a school that had a beginner curriculum. I could not be happier.
Teaching a Friday night beginner’s class
I remember when I started BJJ. The last part of the class we were supposed to spar. My partner put his legs around me into closed guard. I stopped and looked at him and said, “What am I supposed to do?” “Pass my guard.” “Ummm what is a guard, and what does it mean to pass it?” I had zero knowledge about jiu jitsu, couldn’t understand what the goal of sparring was, and didn’t understand the vocabulary.
It was the equivalent of being thrown in a pool and told “Swim!” I eventually did, but it was rough. Each class was mixed, beginner and advanced.
The rationale behind our beginner class is to give absolute beginners a basic jiu jitsu vocabulary. It’s to expose them to jiu jitsu ideas, give them an overall foundation, and to teach them how to be good training partners. In the Jiu Jitsu Institute curriculum, the beginner curriculum teaches a mix of sport and self-defense.
The beginner class is also a safe place. It addresses this idea of ego threat, where adult beginners may feel a threat to their self-worth, and so when surrounded by other fumbling individuals, it is okay to feel like a n00b spazz because everyone does. It’s also a bonding time – classes are smaller, they can ask the “dumb” questions that they might not ask in front of a group full of advanced students.
To that end, the beginners are required to attend 25 Beginner classes. At the end of the 25 classes, students earn one stripe, and they can then proceed to the Fundamentals course. The beginner classes have no sparring, although they are welcome to join the sparring that goes on after class.
THE FOCUS
In the past I had been adamantly against learning self-defense in jiu jitsu. However, in this case, it makes sense to me. First, Ben Eaton, the owner of our academy, has a background in law enforcement. The self-defense aspect is important to him. Second, because beginners have a wide variety of reasons for doing jiu jitsu, this reaches both the self-defense minded folks, as well as the sports focused people. It gives an overall feel of jiu jitsu, and I can definitely stand behind that.
Here is an example of our curriculum:
Class 12 of 25
- Sit through defense vs standing headlock
- Demonstrate basic survival position
- Scoop escape
- Escape vs back with seatbelt
HOW THE CLASSES ARE TAUGHT
Although the curriculum is set, each instructor can choose how they want to teach it, and so there is a bit of variation from one class to the next. Some of it, such as the scoop escape, is straight out of University of Jiu Jitsu, and is standardized. Others, such as an armbar from mount or a scissors sweep, is not.
In our academy, students are encouraged to ask questions, so after each point is demonstrated, I ask if there are any questions or if they would like to see it again. Students are generally given 2 minutes to practice the move on their own, then their partner has 2 minutes to practice. Afterward they are encouraged to ask more questions.
MY FLAIR
I love eliciting from students. In today’s class, I had the students tell me what I was doing wrong and asked them to fix it. Other times I will ask “What are the important points about this move,” or ask a student to demonstrate the move. Eliciting is important because it engages students. It lets them be responsible for what they’ve learned. Additionally, it lets the teacher see what students know and then build off of that, rather than assuming everyone is starting from scratch.
I also like to break things down in steps. I go slowly, I repeat a minimum of 3 times, and I have students repeat my steps back to me with key words. For example, on “Scoop Escape” the key steps were:
- Scoot down (scoot)
- Kickstart the leg to release the hook (Kick)
- Elbow in the pocket and roll over (Elbow roll)
- Adjust knee and head (Knee head)
- Grab behind and drive (Grab drive)
I personally practice these ahead of time, figuring out what my steps will be and what the key words would be. Before students do it on their own, I have them walk me through the steps. “What is step 1? What is step 2?” etc.
THE TAKEAWAY
I am very thankful that my academy has a beginner program. It has a solid curriculum, it is methodical, it has room for my flair, and really does help guide students to be awesome training partners. I’m also very thankful to be part of it. I really love the beginners, and I have so much fun teaching them.
Jiu Jiu’s Question: Have you attended a beginner class? Does your academy have them? What are your thoughts on them?
I’m curious as to why you were so against learning self defence jiujitsu?
It was diametrically opposite of my reasons for doing jiu jitsu. Can you imagine if you wanted to learn dance, and then they said “Okay, now we will learn to DANCE ATTACK if someone comes at you while you are on stage!” Weird.
I wanted my actions to be ones of love and support, not of defense and hate. I wanted to prepare for rolling with friends, not preparing for a future battle with enemies. It feels very different to me.
Our dojo has beginner nights where the classes are tailored for us with less experience but the white belts are always outnumbered by the colored belts. It is more to just identify to the students which classes will focus on the basics.
Interesting – usually white belts dominate a gym – as should be expected. Without knowing ANYTHING about your gym but this, I wonder what is going on in your gym. Are white belts driven off fairly quickly?
Agreed, though – it’s nice to join a class knowing something will be at your level.
My experience has generally been that labels such as Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced do not impact who shows up for class as much as one would think.
If upper belts outnumber white belts at a beginner class, it could mean that the white belt class has been placed in a time slot that’s really appealing to upper belts [who will tend to be older & have spouses/children they’d like to get home to]. Most hobbyist brown belts don’t mind being shown only basic techniques if it means they’ll be home to their family by 7:15 instead of 8:45.
It occurs to me that I should have written “spouses/children” in lieu of “wives/children” as, obviously, there are female BJJers that likely go through the same thought process.
Plus one to you! I’ll modify your comment.
I both agree and disagree. First, I absolutely disagree that advanced students should attend beginner classes.
I went to a “beginner’s” Korean class, and it was quickly evident that it was not a beginner class. Most people were low intermediate. This meant that the instructor was teaching WAY above my level about concepts I had no clue about (example: put this sentence in order based on grammar. I hadn’t even learned about the different endings, so had zero ability to do this). I was angry and I quit.
Our beginner class is meant literally for absolute beginners. Any white belts can join, but it really is meant to introduce white belts to the idea of jiu jitsu, to expose them to ideas, etc. In our class, we have an advanced class that runs concurrently, on a different section of the mat. If a blue belt comes to class on a Monday, they join the advanced class. If they want more basics, they can join a Fundamentals class on a Tuesday. Frankly, now that I’ve taught it, I know that the beginner class isn’t even about properly learning all the techniques – there are too many in one class (usually 4). It’s more of a BJJ amuse-bouche. Totally inappropriate for a more advanced person to actually get deeper knowledge and time to do it. The fundamentals – totally appropriate.
BUT – if your “beginner” class is actually a fundamentals/basics class focusing on super basic concepts rather than reaching out to super basic beginners, that’s quite different. It’s a great place to brush up on the foundational ideas that jiu jitsu is based on.
As an instructor, if you find that you have labeled a class “beginners” and most of the folks coming are not actually beginners, it’s time to assess why. It’s totally appropriate to ask those higher level students why they are attending that class (in a non-confrontational way). Is it because they want a better grasp of basics? Is it because the time slot is better? Is it something else?
So…yes, I do have a problem with upper belts overtaking a beginner class. Label it something else. It’s not a beginners class if most of your students are advanced. It absolutely could be a fundamentals/basics class – but it’s not a beginner’s class if there aren’t really many beginners.
I absolutely think you are CORRECT in that the labels for the class mean little to students, and instead the time slots are everything. This is why what my school is doing works and is appropriate. Essentially there is training 5 days per week. White belts can train 5 days per week, and upper belts can train 5 days per week. Our advanced classes only permit blue belts and above. When advanced classes are happening, beginner classes run concurrently. Anyone can take the fundamentals class (one stripe white and above), so everyone, white through black, can train during that time. I think that it was very smart of my instructor to do it like this – have restrictions on certain classes, and provide training for everyone at the same time.
But – that’s cool. If it works for your school that’s awesome. As an absolute beginner, though, if I signed up for a beginner class I would feel really uncomfortable if I were in the minority as a beginner. – my thoughts as both a student and educator.
I usually show up at the 1845 class which I’m sure catches most folks in Yokohama just getting off work. I don’t think its a case of white belts being run off there are 5 classes a day 5 days a week and another 5 classes and open mat on Sat and Sun. Maybe I’m just missing them. But if student are leaving (moving off topic here) the rate of promotions may have something to do with it. Sensei only promotes once a year and there is a minimum of 2yrs time in grade before you can be considered. I saw a white belt get promoted to Blue after 2 yrs I saw a white belt get promoted to blue after 7 years…if he doesn’t see what he expects out of XXXX belt you are not even considered. Not a big deal for me I don’t care if I ever get promoted, as the saying goes the belt only covers 2 inches it is up to you to cover the rest, but I could see where this might be a turn off to some students.
Super slow promotions can definitely feel defeating to students. I think there is an important business aspect as well as martial arts aspect to consider. There is an important concept of student retention, so as a business person AND an educator, keeping those students is important, especially if you are trying to pay bills!! Purely from a martial arts standpoint, if they can’t hack it, screw them – they aren’t tough enough!! I think there is something between pandering to students and having strict standards that is causing students to fail out.
For me, if I have super strict standards, one thing is communicating with students. Telling what those standards are, and helping manage expectations. I think the managing expectations part is the biggest thing.
I personally think from a business stand point it is very strange to promote only one time per year. What if your students are out of town or are busy? What if folks just can’t make it? Seems that at least 2 times per year is a better business model overall. But whatever – a black belt in a martial art does NOT equal a black belt in business sense, or vice versa.
When I started at the Roger Gracie Academy, you started off in the beginner class. After three stripes on your white belt, you could move into the advanced class. Once you had your blue belt, you could only train in the advanced class. There was a compulsory ‘intro’ class too.
I run my own place now and would like to be able to split classes by level at some point, although I wouldn’t restrict who could attend them. I probably wouldn’t call them ‘beginner’ either: most likely I’d use ‘Fundamentals’ or something like that instead. I love training ‘basics’ (though as ever it’s not easy to definitively say what they are) and I think I always will. They don’t stop being useful just because you go up the belts, so I don’t agree with the way a number of clubs restrict access. At the same time, not everybody likes training the basics all the time, which is where some kind of ‘advanced’ comes in.
Right now, there aren’t enough blue belts and up to warrant a separate advanced class, so everything is mixed, although I keep the techniques simple. It made sense at RGA to have some kind of split, as that’s a huge academy. I guess once I’ve got enough blue belts to fill a class, I’ll start looking into designating at least one class as ‘advanced’, but I expect that will take a while (Artemis BJJ has only been running for a little over a year at this point).
I totally agree with breaking things down in steps. I try and do that too: the main problem I have to contend with is that I always want to start throwing in more detail, variations etc. If I’m in the position of student I find that useful, but for beginners it’s not as helpful. So I have to restrain myself. 😉
Out of interest, how long are the classes where you train? As to me, four techniques in a class seems like a lot. I tend to teach just one technique per hour, sometimes two in the longer class (only slightly longer, at 1 hr 15 mins, so sometimes I just up the sparring instead). Then again, that’s because I’m also accounting for sparring time, which takes up a good chunk.
its a 90 minute class…10 minutes warm ups and stretches…2 techniques 15 min per thats showing the technique and drilling it a few times with you partner…2 or 3 3-minute rounds of 50% sparring (different partners)…2 3 minute round of positional sparring from the position that the technique was shown (1/2 on top 1/2 on bottom swapping partners)…5 5-minute rounds
Ours is: all beginners must take 25 Beginner Classes. After that, white belts get their first stripe. Once you are a 1-stripe white belt, you can train in all the beginner and fundamental classes and nogi. Only blue belts and above can train in advanced, but they may also take the fundamentals class. Because the advanced/beginner classes run simultaneously, all but absolute beginners can train 5 days per week, regardless of belt color. It’s quite nice!
I completely agree with you that there is a fundamental difference between a fundamentals class and a beginners class. I know quite a few advanced students who need to brush up on their fundamentals! This is true for language as well as BJJ. While I may be an intermediate in Russian, I still need to work on some of my fundamentals!! However, if you label something “beginner” or “intro” it absolutely should be for THOSE students!
Our classes are one hour, no sparring – we have a separate hour of sparring after the class – the sparring is more of a drop in and out thing, so folks can come for just sparring, or leave before or during sparring. Essentially it’s a 2 hour block of jiu jitsu, but the actual CLASS element is the first hour, followed by a full hour of sparring. I agree that four techniques is a lot. It’s too much to learn and drill. I think of the class as more an amuse-bouche – tastes of things they will learn later on. It’s why it was important to me that I defined the purpose of the beginner class as exposure rather than learning. I think they’re more learning what jiu jitsu IS and ISN’T, learning how to be a good partner, and learning expectations of our gym, moreso than learning the physical moves. Our fundamentals class only teach 2 techniques, and there is adequate drilling time, as the goal is LEARNING these techniques.
Yeah: I think if I was able to add a true beginners class at some point, I’d call it an intro class rather than a beginners class, as distinct from a fundamentals class. That intro class I mentioned at RGA was free but you had to book in advance. There were a couple of techniques with an assistant instructor, then the secretary ran through the membership options with you (in my case, my intro was taken by then-blue belt Oli Geddes, while Pippa was the person talking me through the options. Makes me happy that I still occasionally see and train with both of them almost a decade later ;D ).
If I was able to add an intro class to my school’s schedule, I like the idea of it being a quick 30 mins, but I’d make the content different. So, over the course of several intro lessons, I’d run through things like tapping, shrimping, what the main positions were etc .Not sure it’s something I’ll ever be able to add, as it’s the kind of thing that I can only see as being part of a big academy with a huge timetable and lots of members. One day, maybe. 🙂
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