Learning How To Teach BJJ

I've been teaching grappling since I was 14, starting out coaching some kids wrestling at my school's wrestling camp. I have had a lot of experience and have learned so much through the art of teaching.  There is so much that goes into teaching and being able to convey your knowledge to other people.  I'm going to try and break down what works for me.

Knowing Your Technique:
It might sound stupid, but you need to know your technique. Don't teach something you don't fully understand how to do.  Before going to class think about what you want to teach and how you want to teach it.  Try to break down the technique in your head into at most 3 different movements, anything more and you will start to lose your students' attention, or you might be complicating a technique more than you should.  I know there are some techniques that have a dozen micro-movements that can elevate the level of the technique, but I tend to focus on those after the students have gotten the general idea of the technique at hand.  Being prepared as an instructor is important for your students.  When you are starting out teaching for the first time, remember these suggestions to make your teaching experience better.

Knowing Your Students:
This is for the more seasoned instructors out there.  I try to see who is in attendance in class on any given day and cater the technique(s) accordingly.  If you know that one student has poor side-control escapes, chances are many of them are struggling with that aspect, it's your job as an instructor to recognize that and teach whatever technique it may be to knowingly help that one student and subsequently help the rest.  Additionally, different students learn in different ways.  Some require every ounce of detail in order to execute the technique and may require you to give them a little more attention to understand the technique.  Some techniques are simply not suited for everybody, so teaching a cartwheel pass to a class where you have some that can't event perform a cartwheel may not be the best idea.

Dialogue:
Having your students ask questions about positions and techniques can be a great way to teach.  Being an instructor doesn't always mean you know what your students need, engaging them in some discussions can remind you of certain techniques or details you wish to convey to your students. Too much of this can be a bad thing too.  Never rely solely on your students as to decide what to teach.  This has happened in a few academies I've been to where students don't really know what they need to know so they ask about how to deal with certain peoples' games and the same dozen techniques keep getting recycled over and over.  As an instructor, there needs to be a balance of addressing positions and techniques your students need and what they want to learn.

Techniques and Positions:
It is not always prudent to show technique after technique after technique.  I always throw in various positions as the "technique of the day."  I like to explain what your goals are in certain positions, how to hold certain positions, how to attack or defend from there, and now just how but why we do certain things.  Explaining the "why" of techniques is so important at every level.  There is a reason for nearly every movement I make in BJJ and sometimes I spend a whole class on how to hold side control and what to do when my opponent does X and how certain grips will prevent certain escapes.  Students can get bogged down by a vast amount of techniques, maybe execute them but there can be a disconnect between the technique executed and the position they end up in and they may not know exactly what to do.  It's important to teach these also so your students feel confident in every position and every situation. 

Last off, never turn off BJJ in your head.  Always be thinking about it, how to improve certain techniques, or even think about your weaknesses.  Breaking down techniques in your head not only makes you a better teacher, but it also makes your BJJ better.  Teaching can be a huge avenue for people to improve their own games. 

Competition Goals

The vast majority of people who train BJJ will never compete, and those who do, will do it maybe just a handful of times.  There are various factors and reasons why people compete.  I'm going to analyze a few certain types of competitors.

The Just For Fun Guy:
We all know guys like this, they compete just for the fun of it.  Their initial mindset of it being just for fun puts them at a disadvantage as they either are not taking the competition seriously or they are putting that phrase out there as their excuse for not performing.  Their goal is to just go out there and compete.  They often lose their first match and look to roll about 1/2 the speed of their opponent.  These guys are typically happy to just say they competed, hoping to have a small enough bracket to get that 0-1 bronze medal.  He'll go home and happily put it in his trophy case and boast about his accomplishments. He'll even believe that he "earned" that bronze medal. 

The Never Trains But Always Competes Guy:
 I don't know what drives these guys to compete.  They hardly ever achieve any kind of success in tournaments.  When they do come to train, they are the bottom of their belt's totem pole, and yet they compete in every tournament available.  I know a handful of these guys and rarely have heard any of them win a match.  I am utterly clueless on this kind of mentality.  Tournaments are not cheap, and to go completely unprepared with close to no chance of winning sounds like a terrible way to spend money.  Don't be this guy.

The Gym Champion:
Every gym has one of these guys.  He's the blue or purple belt who regularly submits higher belts.  You never see him getting dominated in class, his technique is outstanding, but put him in a tournament and you'll wonder what in the hell happened to him.  These guys just cannot seem to connect the dots between the way they train in the gym and compete in a tournament.  I can only guess that their confidence goes way out the window come tournament time.  I've known a few of these guys throughout the years and one of them told me they had so much pressure from guys saying "man you'd kill it at a tournament" that they just drop the ball.  There is a lot they need to learn mentally in order for their success to translate from the gym to the competitions.  Tournaments are full of pretend pressures, being able to channel them in a different way can help bridge that translation of training to competing.

The Reverse Gym Champion:
These are the guys that get dominated in training and then kill it at tournaments.  They are used to getting smashed in class to the point where it doesn't bother them, come tournament time they are not intimidated and nobody expects them to win anything and then they end up winning the whole thing.  It's one of the most bizarre types of guys, but I've known a few.  One of which was tricked into competing at the Pan Ams (this was a decade ago).  So we had a group of guys go to the Pan Ams, one of them was a white belt who was going just to watch.  Unbeknownst to him, the other guys signed him up to compete (there was no white belt division at the time, so he was put into blue).  He begrudgingly competed and ended up with a silver medal.  Even our instructor was stunned "Really? He got silver? ... Seriously?"  My buddy earned his blue belt with that silver medal and then proceeded to get dominated by the whites belts for the next six months before he really started making strides.  Sometimes when people feel they truly have nothing to lose and very little pressure in that environment they can attain a great deal of success.

The Serious Competitor:
These are the guys that are professionals.  They are athletes.  They put their work in at the academy, they supplement with S&C, and follow a solid diet.  The guys in this category are the guys standing on the medal podium at the worlds.  They have to keep up everything at the highest level in order to obtain what they see as success.  They don't accept anything less than a gold medal as acceptable.  It takes an enormous amount of time, effort, and dedication to reach this kind of level, and gold medals are their bar of success. 

I know there are a bunch of other labels we can give to certain people and I'll augment this post as I figure out how to analyze them more thoroughly.  Enjoy!

Sportsmanship

Sportsmanship "is an aspiration or ethos that a sport or activity will be enjoyed for its own sake, with proper consideration for fairness, ethics, respect, and a sense of fellowship with one's competitors."
- via Wiki

I don't know where such poor sportsmanship comes from in BJJ, whether it's culturally from Brazil, or culturally by the people who first started competing or what it is, but it's downright abysmal.  The amount people celebrate when they win a match in BJJ is downright disgusting.  It was so bad that they actually made a rule against excessive celebration.  I believe something needs to be done from the coaching level.  I remember winning a wrestling match in 7th grade, was a barnburner comeback.  I was down 3 points with just a minute remaining in the consolation finals of a rookie tournament.  I was able to hit a switch and then a butcher pinning combination and I got the pin.  I was so excited I jumped up and shouted "YEAH!" with my hands in the air.  I got my hand raised by the referee then my coach took me by the arm, pushed me up against the wall and chewed me out.  "I never want to see you hot dogging around like that again."  He explained to me that I should have won the match regardless and no matter how much I want to let out my excitement, I need to show everybody around little to no celebration.  Why, you might ask... Because you need to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal to win, that you were supposed to win that match. 

I see guys who win the worlds by 1 advantage point, have some sort of ritualistic type choreography prepared and they perform it with such enthusiasm, you would have thought he won a $1billion lottery.  Here are some examples of being immature and overly celebrating a victory:







And then here's another one that gets me...  The match goes to ref's decision and both BJJ superstars act like absolute morons "petitioning" for a win:



On the other end of the spectrum, there're the sore losers, however there seems to be far less examples online as most of it comes verbally after the match.  I hate hearing the excuses "I was better than that guy" or "if only I got on top" or some other bullshit.  Take some responsibility that you were beaten by the better competitor on that mat on that day (not to say that poor reffing hasn't lead to some TERRIBLE losses, of which I've been a victim of twice), look at your mistakes and learn from them.  The attitude of "I was better than him/her" will only stunt your growth as a competitor.  I know that feeling, I know what it feels like to lose to somebody less skilled than myself, however I lost on that day on that mat to somebody better prepared than me and I try to see what I could have done differently in many different areas in order to learn and have a better outcome the next time I compete.  Did I train enough? Did I eat right? Did I have the right strategy going in? Did I execute my techniques properly?  Enough excuses, get back in the gym and learn from what went wrong and from what went right, don't sit around and cry about it like so many Blair Academy wrestlers do when they lose (seen it so many times, almost feels like the coaches encourage it).

This overall unsportsmanlike behavior needs to change.  Learning to control your emotions whether it's in winning or losing can be tremendous for your mentality.  Separating your emotions from the match will allow you to learn so much more from it. 

Flavor Of The Month

More and more I am seeing techniques that I would call "flavor of the month" being used in competitions. Typically it will be 1-2 top guys implementing a new or reinvented way of doing a technique, then all the white and blue belts in the world only care about that particular move because they see their hero using it.  I've seen the trends come and go, in my journey the first one I really saw was the rubber guard, then x-guard, then it was the arm drag, then it was deep half, and then the guillotine, next came the berimbolo, now it's the worm guard, etc etc... These techniques are a great addition to the basics, but what happens is people begin to focus solely on these techniques and lose a grasp of the basics.  What should be noted is that the guys performing these techniques and winning black belt world championships have ridiculously good basics.  Watch their matches, they have great posture, a good base, strong passing games, active guards, incredible defense, always attacking, etc...  While it can be these FOTM techniques that become the difference between a win and a loss, it's also their basics that prevent them from being in a position to lose. 

What I'm really trying to say is that it's important to work on all aspects of your BJJ game.  The most critical aspects are your weakest positions.  It pisses me off when a student who can't even shrimp properly asks me to teach the worm guard.  It's that old adage that you need to learn how to walk before you can run.  In a world of endless techniques, I believe it's typically better for your instructor to determine what techniques you should be learning and not what you might see at a tournament and on YouTube.  I don't want to discredit these FOTM techniques much because they need to be discussed on some level with students who compete, as they may run into it at a tournament, however the majority of classes should focus on fundamental techniques.

Cost of Training

When I hear about somebody saying that BJJ costs too much, it really puzzles me as to why they believe that's the case. Think about it this way, a BJJ black belt has more than likely been involved in the sport at LEAST 8 years (yeah there are a few rare cases where it was less, but there are FAR more people who took longer than 8 years than less to receive a black belt) whereas somebody could just as easily get an undergraduate degree and go on to receive a PHD in a subject in that same amount of time. A BJJ black is essentially the same as a professor at a university and should be thought of in the same manner when you think about the monthly cost of training.  People tend to undervalue training and push BJJ into a martial arts or exercise bucket that shouldn't exceed $50/month.

BJJ is not for everybody.  I rarely find gyms that are too expensive anywhere.  The prices vary from city to city typically depending on the cost of living.  It's rare that I find academies grossly overpriced.  Some people find that $100 or more per month is expensive (I'm using $100 as a nice round number, but quality instruction comes more at the $150/ month range).  I have no other word that can describe these people other than the word stupid.  I don't get paid to teach, I don't have my own academy, but I think overall BJJ is undervalued.  When I hear people complaining about the price or about how they cannot afford it, it blows my mind.  I have seen a lot of people come in and inquire about the academy and never sign up, a lot of times using the excuse that the school is too expensive.  You aren't paying for a class, you aren't paying for exercise, you aren't even really paying for instruction (though that's an important thing you get out of it), you're paying for a life changing experience.  It truly is an eye-opening, humbling art that provides people with so many benefits in their lives.  People improve their lives through BJJ in so many ways from weight loss to better self-esteem to actually seeing the world in a different way.  If money is an issue for people wanting to pursue BJJ, they are probably not making the best personal life choices.

I have a friend who always wanted to train, but never did.  He always complained about how expensive training is and that he has no money.  This same friend of mine would routinely spend $100-$200 on alcohol every single weekend.  At the end of the day, it's about the choices you make.  Do you want to better your life or do you want to buy some new kicks or the newest iPhone (even though your phone works perfectly). 

Instructionals - Addendum

I've touched on this topic before, but as the years have gone by the number of people trying to profit from instructionals has really watered down a lot of technique shown online. As a passionate practitioner of BJJ, I have seen hundreds of technique videos ranging from phone quality to high production dvd's and techniques that range from "this should never been shown ever" to some of the most outstanding techniques I wish I had thought of.  The issue is I find that many well known practitioners gain some notoriety in the sport and then produce a DVD of stuff that mostly is fluff or is not how they actually perform certain techniques.  A lot of garbage is put on DVD's and sold for ridiculous prices, these big name practitioners are preying on people new to the sport and basically swindling them of quality instruction.  Now I don't blame them entirely, if I was a high level competitor, I wouldn't share my "goto" techniques in a DVD either, the last thing I would want is for my future opponents to know exactly what I do.

Not everything out there is garbage, but the fact of the matter is that most of it is garbage.  Here is a video of Vitor Shaolin showing a technique that probably won't work from a position that is not even real:


Then there's shoddy camera work and poor instruction on a solid technique from somebody I've never heard of, however this video is far superior to Shaolin's:


Then here's a video of Ari Bolden, who supposedly legitimately started training at some point, but clearly had a tremendous lack of knowledge of the basics in all of his technique videos.  Here's an armbar that may work on a soft white belt his first day:


This next video is a good one! I came across this video a few weeks ago and have used this technique several times with a lot of success.  BJJ black belt Kris Kim shares this "fly paper choke":


Not everything online is terrible, but I find that the majority of it is.  It's frustrating as an instructor when I have white and blue belt students wanting me to teach some technique they saw on YouTube that is 100% worthless.  I try to tell my students to stay away from instructional videos and to watch competition footage.  I watch everything, I have brought in techniques I've learned online before, but typically I have to sift through 50 garbage videos before I even find 1 that teaches proper technique.

Desire to Learn and Enthusiasm to Teach

Once you get the BJJ bug, it becomes one of the most important things in your life.  Ever since I started back in 2002, I've been enamored with the sport.  The number of techniques and how to perform them is infinite.  There is a huge camaraderie aspect that comes with learning BJJ, the people you train with becomes your family.  A burning desire to learn ignites a desire to teach as well.  When you see your training partner doing a technique incorrectly, you WANT to go over there and correct him.  It's fascinating and amazing all at the same time.  There are instances where this becomes dangerous.  When a more experienced student attempts to teach a more inexperienced student a technique that they are not fully familiar with cultivates bad technique, habits, mindset, etc...  I see it all the time, I see white belts trying to help other white belts with a technique, but 99% of the time, their technique is off.  I like the enthusiasm, but the harsh reality is, it can stunt the growth of the recipient or in extreme cases can result in injury.  Our school has a policy that nobody under 2 stripes can roll (I don't entirely agree with it, but that's another blog post), and the most frustrating thing is to see white belts who don't/can't roll try and correct other white belts on how to perform a technique.  It is not their place to give that type of advice.  BJJ is not a martial art of katas.  Doing a move 10,000 times against a non-resisting individual does not equate to being able to perform it with resistance. So my advice to white belts or even some blue belts, if you are not fully understanding a move or technique, if you personally have not hit the move during a live roll, please ask a higher belt to show exactly what the proper technique is.  I have seen some very dangerous situations where one white belt was showing another what he thought was an ankle lock and in reality was a heel hook, I have see other white belts discouraging others of certain techniques because he personally felt they were "dirty", it's not their place to enact any knowledge to other people who are barely below their own skill level.

Leave the teaching to the upper belts, there's plenty of time to teach once you yourself obtain a higher rank.