Before we even discuss what information we focus on in classes, it’s helpful to know that all of our classes have a game based structure. Every class at Golden Jiu Jitsu is made up of games that students play in order to develop skills in various areas of the sport. Those skill areas might be the engagement phase of guard passing & guard play, the ability to hold someone down from a top armbar control, or maintaining back control through upper body methods, but all of skill development comes from game play.
We design (and steal other coaches games) that function to instill conceptual knowledge, common movement pathways, and
Here’s a somewhat lewd but very apt podcast about gamification of jiu jitsu:
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/bjj-mental-models/id1448833161 https://www.buzzsprout.com/243161/13505530
I’d recommend you listen to this either before reading this article or after reading it in order to better understand how we run our classes.
When we learn a new subject, we build out a mental map over time. One good metaphor for this map is a 3-Fold view.
If we were exploring a jungle to make a map, three lenses we could explore through could be a helicopter to get a birds eye view, a guided tour to explore the lay of the land, or using a microscope to learn about the flora and fauna.
If we were exploring a jungle, we’d see where lakes, rivers, valleys, a recent fire burn etc.. are.
In grappling, a birds eye view would be the the overarching concepts that describe the sport. We could talk about mechanical concepts (this list is not exhaustive), such as