Jiu Jiu’s note: This week I have a guest writer, Daniel Frank, a brown belt with experience in teaching language as well as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I asked him to write an article detailing how he structures his jiu jitsu classes.
Planning and Teaching: Critical Jiu Jitsu
Beginning my jiu jitsu career in 2002, I have had the privilege of sitting through thousands of jiu jitsu classes, in many different countries, taught in many different languages, with different instructors, students, structure of classes, formats, intensities, vibes, levels, and expectations.
Since my days as a purple belt I have been teaching classes, privates, seminars, self-defense courses, drill sessions, and competition training camps. These experiences have helped me to refine my class structure and teaching methods. I also strongly believe that my background as a professional teacher has provided me with insight into teaching Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to others.
What types of classes are there?
Classes can be broken down into many types. Primarily, classes are structured depending on the expected class size. One can expect to get more done in a one-hour private session rather than in a one-hour class with twenty students.
Once the size of the class is determined then the skill level and the nature of the class should be addressed. Is this class an advanced no-gi class? Is it a beginners self-defense course? Is it a children’s class? Is it competition preparation? Is it the first lesson in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu these students will receive?
Lastly, the time frame and the content of the lesson will become determining factors in what type of class is taught and what lessons the students will receive.
How does one determine the content of each lesson?
There are many different methods in determining the content of a class and the context that that content is being presented to the student(s). For more advanced classes I like to dedicate a significant amount of time on one concept. For example, the triangle. One month can be dedicated to this one concept. However, each week presents an opportunity to look at it from another situation (or angle you might say).
Week one can be dedicated to triangles from the guard and the proper mechanics to finishing this technique. Week two can deal with triangles from side control and mount position. Week three can be dedicated to triangle set ups and defenses. Week four can be dedicated to more unique attacks (spinning triangle, reverse/inverted triangle, etc.).
Using this method allows the students to optimize their learning experience by focusing on one concept and reinforcing that concept through continued practice of the concept through similar situations.
What is the best way to teach a beginners class? How do you plan and structure it?
Learning Brazilian jiu jitsu is not a linear process, where one technique leads to another and another down the line, where as technique number three is not related to technique number seven. Learning jiu jitsu and its techniques is more closely related to a spider’s web. One technique branches off in many directions. As a student follows one branch(or web string) it may lead back to the original position after three or four turns. It may lead to a whole new position and all of it’s ensuing branches. It does however have an endgame- the submission.
Now how do you teach that to beginners? One word. Slowly.
When I plan for a beginners class, I divide the class into six sections: stretches, drilling, self-defense, review techniques, new techniques, and sparring. These sections may not all be addressed in one class. For example, review and sparring would not be taught the first day(for obvious reasons).
Stretching is done from head to toes to give students a sense of their bodies and where there might be some troubles for that class. If, while stretching, your hamstrings seem tight be sure not to overdue your training of them that session. I usually plan five to ten minutes of stretching each class.
Drilling is very important for beginners and should relate to the day’s lesson. If we are escaping today then the bridge and the shrimp drills should be addressed. Another ten minutes is allotted for drilling.
Self-defense is the most important part of jiu jitsu. Basic self-defense techniques should be addressed at each lesson. I dedicate fifteen minutes to one or two techniques to protect against the punch, kick, grabs, holds, and weapon attacks.
Reviewing techniques is just as critical to a practitioner as learning new techniques is. If you want to study World War II in history, it is probably important to review World War I and the Global Depression to understand it better. I spend twenty minutes reviewing techniques studied in the previous class(es) to keep those ideas fresh in the students minds.
New techniques are covered for about twenty to twenty-five minutes a class. I plan two or three techniques(depending on the perceived difficulty) and dedicate more or less time to them depending on how the class reacts to learning the lesson. Sometimes techniques are easily learned, sometimes more time is needed to understand a concept or technique.
Lastly, I dedicate the last fifteen minutes of class to sparring. For the first month, or two, of class this is positional sparring. Students need to gain a sense of the conditions of real sparring before doing it. Also, students lack a repertoire of attacks, defenses, passes, and sweeps to keep a roll moving. Once more techniques are learned students will gain more freedom to spar regularly. I still find positional sparring to be extremely helpful for all levels.
How do you keep all of this together?
I plan my lessons like I would a History or English lesson in school. I write it down. I list the sections in order of which I want them taught. I assign each section an amount of time. These items are not set in stone. After class I look at my lesson and make notes on the times, on what was done and what may not have been done. I assess what was learned easily and what was difficult. I determine what should be more thoroughly reviewed in the next class. I note which things were positively (or negatively) accepted by the students. I leave space in my lesson to jot down attendance and the results of the class. This gives me a chance to monitor the students’ progress and also to understand where we are headed tomorrow.
About the author: Daniel Frank began his jiu jitsu career in 2002 in Seoul, South, Korea at the Korea BJJ Academy under Lee Hee Sung. Daniel received his brown belt in January 2011. He regularly competes at the Pan-Ams and Mundials along with countless local tournaments. He is currently working as an instructor at Revolution BJJ in Richmond, Virginia along with teaching private lessons and self-defense courses in the area. Hopefully you can see Daniel with his black belt and his own school sometime in 2013.
Self-defense is the most important part of jiu jitsu. Basic self-defense techniques should be addressed at each lesson. I dedicate fifteen minutes to one or two techniques to protect against the punch, kick, grabs, holds, and weapon attacks.
Interesting. I feel opposite. I am so focused on GYM jiu jitsu that it would feel weird and out of place if I were being taught to defend against punches. Self defense is the last thing I think of when I go into jiu jitsu class. I’m not sure why I have strong feelings AGAINST it, but I definitely do.
I remember at my first jiu jitsu gym, one day MH decided to show how to defend against a bar brawl or something like that. The whole time I was asking “why are we doing this?” and they said something to the effect of “well, just in case you’re in a bar and someone decides to punch you” and I said “Why would someone be punching me?” I DON’T put myself in those situations, and I don’t feel comfortable preparing for random unexpected attacks.
When Helio began to adapt the jiu jitsu taught to him by his brother, Carlos, he had self defense in mind. Even the use of the kimono jacket is a representation of the sports coat popular in Brazil at that time.
You will notice that the self defense portion of jiu jitsu is not how to counter a counter that you initiated. The self defense portion of jiu jitsu teaches you how to defend against an unexpected aggression against you. A normal, mentally stable person does not go looking for bar fights. However, that person may be randomly assaulted for their purse or wallet. They may be attacked for walking in the wrong neighborhood. They may be at a concert when a angry drunk person looks for a fight. It is important to know jiu jitsu and how to use it to defend yourself.
Also, when I teach self defense to children, which I don’t teach them in the hope that they will get into bar fights, I teach them how to defend against aggression. I also teach them that once they have defended themselves, they may end up in the mount position over their aggressor, they always have the option of compelling their aggressor to stop, with words not fists.
Training only sport jiu jitsu is fine. However one must understand that many positions in jiu jitsu are not the best posit
When reading this – it should NOT be read in a defensive, aggressive way – instead, with a curious tone of voice and honestly wanting to know.
Again – I ask why? Why is it important to know how to use jiu jitsu to defend myself? My goals are to be healthy, stay active, make friendships and make my jiu jitsu better.
If your students are against this and have a negative reaction to the self defense portion, would you a) change what you were teaching b) insist they learn c) try to change their minds d) suggest they find another place? e) something else?
I don’t know why I have such a strong negative stance about this, but I do. And if I have an instructor tell me that I need to learn this, I think I would have a negative reaction to that person – why are your perceived goals with jiu jitsu more important than mine?
Again – not being aggressive, I am honestly curious. To me, it’s sort of like saying that speaking is the most important in language, but if my personal goals are to be able to write to my friends online in another country and I never have the opportunity to use that language verbally, why should that trump my needs/goals/desires? I think in a case where if I’m an instructor and my most important belief is that language is for communicating and my students absolutely disagree, that I would likely suggest they find another teacher.
Do you prepare your ESL classes with fire drills, power outage strategies and earthquake safety plans? It’s unlikely you’ll have a fire in your school, but if things go bad, they can go very bad, very fast and if you’ve got a good plan, have practiced it to the point of being able to implement it quickly and efficiently in an emergency, everyone will be safe and unhurt.
The same goes for being attacked. People don’t plan on being attacked, but it does happen – especially for women. What’s the rate for assault of women in your area or where you’ve lived in the past? Would you not like to have a plan that is practiced to the point where you can effectively fight your way free or get the heck out of there unhurt if something goes disastrously wrong?
Not liking the idea of Thing X doesn’t mean you don’t deal with Thing X at all.
Nope, I sure don’t do those things. I teach in a university in Korea.
The assault rate here is very low.
But here’s the key – if I don’t WANT to train self-defense, why on earth would someone force me to? I can just go to another school or quit. Sure, YOUR goals are important to you, but so are mine to me, and as an adult, if I don’t feel my needs are being met, or feel my needs are secondary, then ultimately I will not stay.
Similarly, if my school was entirely based on competition and required all their students to compete, if I disagreed with that then I would find another school. One could argue that competition is crucial, but if I’m there just to stay active, why is that not important and valued?
I respectfully disagree with you. There is nothing in life that says I MUST be required to learn how to defend myself against assault or rape. I read this article recently, and I thought it was amazing:
Women’s Self-Defense: The only prerogative for fighting?
In it, it says:
The comment I left over there was: I am doing BJJ because I LOVE BJJ, not because I’m concerned about being a victim. I never want it to ever be thought that I step in that gym day to day because of any other reason than I want to get better at BJJ and learn this skill better (okay, and to keep fit).
And ultimately I’m saying that should be my prerogative.
Similarly, even if there were a plan for power outages, having students practice it every class would result in me having fewer students.
Hehehe reminds me of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LZclSpwY1M
I think what you’re objecting to is the self defense component to every lesson and to the possibility that someone would think you’re in the gym for any reason other than to learn BJJ. And you might be going overboard in your reactions to Mr. Frank’s words.
I think that to dedicate 15 minutes of every class to a self defense technique is too much, but there needs to be a semi-regular self defense element to BJJ to keep it from branching out into Traditional Martial Arts weirdness and horse-pucky. Just like the sparring with actual resistance keeps BJJ alive, the self defense utility keeps it grounded in reality.
You don’t have to dedicate yourself to becoming a super-soldier or a hyper-vigilant psycho to protect yourself. You don’t have to do anything other than show up to class as much as you can and try as hard as you can because you want to learn BJJ itself. But why would you NOT learn self defense along the way if you could?
Why would you not learn valid, tested ways to protect yourself if things suddenly go wrong? Learning self defense needn’t be a primary reason for training at all. It’s not even limited to a specific gender, age or creed – other than “those who show up to the certain classes where it is taught”.
The excerpt you quote is from a paper that objects to the assumption that women would only train a martial art for self defense – which is patently a wrong assumption. However, she’s not saying that it can’t be a secondary or tertiary reason for training or that it’s not useful.
The “black swan” of a physical attack (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory) needs to be hedged against. It may never happen, but why leave yourself unable to do anything yourself if it comes?
It’s actually more than that.
Okay – I like your “black swan” situation. There is ZERO way I would ever think that a bar fight situation is a black swan. EVER. I go home at night. Some random dude punching or kicking me? NO. However, a guy grabbing me and forcing me down, possibly. A guy who I want to get out of my legs – yes.
So when I’m being taught how to defend against punches and a FIGHT, I am opposed to this. These are not situations I will ever be in. Defend against a gun? Eff you. I’ll do what the person wants. IT’S A GUN.
Okay – so then, if we have a mixed gender class and we’re learning self defense, which situations will I be learning about? Defending a bar fight or a rape?
Remember – I’m often the ONLY woman in my class.
So, now you can perhaps BETTER see that the black swan situations that you’re suggesting, are NOT going to be taught in my classes. And defending against a bar fight? That’s frat boy bullsh*#.
The reply system in these comments is not right, thus I’m replying to my own comment instead of yours, dangit.
I don’t know where you’re getting the “DefGrappler is advocating bar fights in training” position from.
“So, now you can perhaps BETTER see that the black swan situations that you’re suggesting, are NOT going to be taught in my classes.”
If the only non-sport BJJ strategy and tactics being taught is of the “fight” variety, then your instructor is not teaching self defense – he’s teaching street fight offense and defense. There is a difference between the two, as you note, and of course, any situation with a gun should be dealt with by either getting out of there ASAP or giving the person what they want (or a combination of both).
There are tactics that BJJ has (and other grappling arts have) to deal with being grabbed, shoved around and forced in positions or places you don’t want to be in. They’re a huge component of effective and useful self defense, which is something I still strongly believe should be a semi-regular part of an effective BJJ/grappling teaching plan that produces healthy, well-adjusted and knowledgeable practicioners that can pass on and build upon the knowledge in their own way and time.
It’s very possible that what I imagine is “defense” is different than what is actually taught – since my school does not touch on it at all.
Positions to defend yourself in. The x-guard is a terrible position to put yourself in, unless you want a few hammer fists to your face. The berimbolo will score me two points on the mat at Long Beach, but probably will end up with me getting kicked and punched by an aggressor and maybe his friends.
I love sport jiu jitsu, I make my living teaching it. But, if you are only focusing on sport jiu jitsu and forsaking self defense you are missing out on half of the art.
I agree with defgrappler. I may never need to build a fire in my life, but it is useful to know how. It may, in fact, save my life.
That being said, some people hate learning the stand up portion of jiu jitsu, but when that lesson is being taught in class I like to see them attempt it. The same applies for self defense.
If a student is unhappy learning it they can always change schools. I would always keep it a part of my curriculum though.
Fair enough.
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I have no personal interest in self defence whatsoever, so I’m in full agreement with Julia. However, if I did have an interest in self defence, then I would have a problem with the vast majority of BJJ schools that claim to teach self defence, because it is almost always compliant self defence drills (e.g., “hold my wrist like this. I’ll escape like this. Now do it again.”). IMO, that is no different than the compliant self defence drills you learn in aikido or traditional jiu jitsu. If I wanted nothing but compliant drills, I could train in one of those arts.
I subscribe to the SBGi concept of aliveness. If something is only ever drilled without resistance, it isn’t of much use in a ‘real’ situation, because you’ve never tested if you can actually apply the technique against somebody who is trying their best to stop you applying it. This old Matt Thornton clip is still the best explanation I’ve seen.
Compliant drills to learn the mechanics makes sense, but to be useful it must then progress to increasing levels of resistance. Having said all that, there are of course ‘self defence’ schools that DO teach with full resistance, which I can respect.
This is a question for Daniel.
How long are the beginner classes that you usually teach? The way that you outlined the structure makes it seem that you’re packing a lot into one class if it’s just a hour. Even if the class is longer than that, there still seems like there are a lot of different things being covered in one class.
I’m curious about how that has worked out in the short and long term. What benefits have you seen with that approach?
Also you mentioned that some sections wouldn’t be included, but it wasn’t clear to me when that determination would be made. The first day could be the first day of the week or the first day for a student, just to name a few options.
Kenneth, I thought of that, but too late. The class would be 90 minutes long. By the first day, I meant overall first day. With a self defense portion(1 technique), review (2techniques), and new techniques(2 techniques) they would get 5 techs a class, and a review at the end. Let me tell you about my review session in the next post, but am very busy right now
[…] a purple belt who teaches classes at Gracie Barra Bristol. I asked him to write his thoughts on teaching jiu jitsu. Note: Can is currently visiting Georgette in Texas – so their blogs may have some […]
[…] a purple belt who teaches classes at Gracie Barra Bristol. I asked him to write his thoughts on teaching jiu jitsu. Note: Can is currently visiting Georgette in Texas – so their blogs may have some […]
Daniel is a fantastic teacher and Blackbelt!