How I Teach My BJJ Class

Martial arts has been a hobby for me, off and on, for over 30 years now. I've focused on styles, like Tae Kwon Do and Boxing, and I even have black belts in American Sombo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

I currently teach a class on Saturday mornings at the gym that I'm affiliated wit h that focuses on No-Gi Brazilian Jiu Jitsu(which means no martial arts uniform. T-shirts or rash guards, along with shorts). Many people would refer to that as simpy Submission Wrestling, but that is a debate for another day.

When I teach my class, I usually have a variety of students, from absolute beginners to people who have trained 5 + years. As a result, I have to deal with major skill discrepancies from time to time. I have found, however, that as long as I am thorough and teach in as simple a manner as I can, I really have no issues running the class. Rather than developing teaching methods that work for me, I have ripped off the teaching methods of others in order to help me accomplish this. If such methods could be copyrighted, I would definitely owe Matt Thorton, Eddie Bravo, and John Danaher a lot of money in royalty fees.

Matt Thorton is the first of these three that I have met, which means he's the one that I've plagiarized the longest. From him, I stole the three I's. First, I introduce a technique to the students. When I show this technique, I display it multiple times going fast and slow, so that the students can see what it looks like and so I can break up the technique into smaller bits, easily digested. I have the students repeat the patterns that I have shown them, correcting them along the way to help tighten up the technique. After a period of that, I will isolate that technique by having students participate in drills that focus on that technique. For example, if I have shown a Triangle choke from bottom (Sanganku Jime), I will break the students into groups of two or three and have them drill this technique. The first repetitions look like the introduce phase, but after the second or third rep, the defender starts putting resistance into the drill to make the sequence more "alive" (a "Thorton"ism that refers to partners simulating real combat in drilling and sparring situations with active resistance). By the final reps, one person is actively seeking the Triangle choke, while the other is defending the choke and trying to pass guard. The final phase is the integrate phase, which is where a student will try to make the move part of their natural repertoire. For a Triangle, this might be sparring that starts with the training partners in Guard again, but this time, any submission is allowed for the finish. Since they start in Guard, the Triangle is going to be one of the first few techniques that they think of. This method quickly exposes students to techniques and puts them scenarios that forces them to use the techniques in "live" situations.

Eddie Bravo is the second of these people whom I have stolen from. From Eddie, I have stolen the concept of using technique "sequences" that allows one to go from technique to another seamlessly (similar to the concept of using combinations in boxing or lockflow drills in Shootwrestling/Catch Wrestling). In addition to that, Eddie is known for using silly names for techniques and sequences which can serve as a mnemonic device for helping people to remember the steps in those sequences. For example, one of the first sequences that an Eddie Bravo student might use starts with getting someone in Closed Guard, breaking posture to bring the other person's face into the chest, and throwing a leg up to the shoulders of the person in Guard and controlling that leg with one's hands. This is referred to as Mission Control. From there, someone would perform a Zombie to get to New York. From there, someone get Crackhead Control, put someone in an Invisible Collar, use a Kung Fu move to go to Chill Dawg, and proceed to look for a submission with a Gogoplata choke. The Gogoplata is a common enough choke, but the sequences described above sound like a bunch of gibberish to someone not indoctrinated in Eddie Bravo's 10th Planet System (which can be beneficial in competition, when a coach yells out something and the opponent has no idea what they're talking about), but someone familiar with that knows that this is all a mnemonic device to help students get to Gogoplata from a Closed Guard. One can even continue that sequence to a Triangle by throwing the other leg up (from the Double Bag position) or to an Omaplata. The silly names can help make things less hum-drum which can make these sequences easier to remember.

I have never actually met John Danaher, but I have seen enough YouTube videos to be able pick parts of his teaching method that I now use for myself. Specifically, what I have taken from Danaher is the tendency to break down techniques to tiny details in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the technique. Over the past few years, he has improved the efficiency of the leg lock game by emphasizing control of the leg being attacked and by attacking from the bottom while having Guard, as opposed to attacking from the top. By using the control positions for leg locks, Danaher was able to coach Gordon Ryan to gold in a couple of top IBJJF tournaments (Worlds and Pan-Ams), which limits the type of leg locks one can use. This was done by emphasizing the exact same control for heel hooks and using that for Guard sweeping instead of submissions. By using this, as well as other instances of Danaher's coaching, I have been able to break down other techniques that I have always had trouble and made them better. This, in turn, allows me to teach those techniques to students much better more effectively. Breaking down techniques has actually improved my choking game, immensely.

Bastardizing the teaching methodologies of these three men has not only improved my overall technique (not just BJJ), but has also allowed me to more effectively teach people techniques that I had problems with before.