Starting from scratch as a coach/teacher

Hey all,

So I've gotten a job teaching Jiu Jitsu at a brand new Thai Boxing and fitness gym over here in Shanghai. They want me to teach 4 days a week.. Nogi Jiu Jitsu...

I have been teaching/coaching for a while... but always at places that already had a Jits program in place... I've never started from zero before.

So my question is:
In your experience what is the best way to start fresh students learn Jits? What kinds of techniques should we learn? It feels like if I start them right away with RG and Twister it will be too overwhelming and complicated for them.

My basic idea is too start with regular generic moves like armbar, kimura, RNC... etc and then once they get a bit of experience in learning to move and roll I can start to sprinkle in that tasty 10th Planet stuff that I love so much ;)

Any comments or suggestions welcome

Thanks

Tyler

I start everybody with the warm ups on day 1 and take detours when necessary to work on specific positions and concepts.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tyler_Casselman

Hey all,



My basic idea is too start with regular generic moves like armbar, kimura, RNC... etc and then once they get a bit of experience in learning to move and roll I can start to sprinkle in that tasty 10th Planet stuff that I love so much ;)


Tyler

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I think you hit the nail on the head here. Basic combatives self-defense jiu jitsu is the foundation for any direction you want to take your program. I find many of the moves in the warm-ups to be fairly sophisticated to discuss to a brand new beginner without having a solid understanding of 'what is mount', 'what is side control' etc. In other words, positional understanding and survival mindset at the forefront. . I think the warmups are a great way to connect the concepts and the flows CAN be incorporated into the beginner class, however that would need to take place for sparring. I don't recommend having someone spar without a few months under their belt, they need to run through co-op drills before they are pitted against someone, otherwise you have two goons butting it out in a stalemate of both guys doing nothing. Different instructors might see it differently, I am not a fan of a guy sparring without at least a couple months under his belt. Use the 10p concepts to paint the grander picture, as they will eventually make that decision to dive in head first and take the red pill when they're good and ready. Each guy is different.

I would recommend checking out all the videos, books and blogs you can find that talk about the foundations of Jiu Jitsu and build a curriculum on that. Stephan Kesting has some get stuff you can find, Marcelo Garcia has some great stuff in his books and online school, Gracie Combatives, Javier Vazquez has a great DVD on wrestling, Ryan Halls DVD's are great. Add all those together and build what you think are the foundations of good Jiu Jitsu.

I would have whole classes dedicated to individual moves or ideas like:
Double Leg Takedown
Single Leg Takedown
Takedown Defence
Escaping Mount
Escaping Side Control
How Sweep from Full Guard

You see where I am going with this, the list could go on for quite a while.

FUNdamentals. When people have fun, they want to come back. When they come back, they get better. It's like a Jedi mind trick convincing people to do a set of movements over and over and over and over...but that's how you get good a JJ; mat time. I would warm them all up, go through a takedown or 2(a back-up option when your first attempt fails, always nice), teach 2-3 techniques involving 2-6 movements(scaled to their skill, some people will have to stop at a certain point to grasp the concept), LIVE DRILL the moves and concepts taught in class(CANNOT stress this enough, this is the magic "AHA" moment that brings the concepts to reality!) and then always end with some sparring. That's my basic set-up for any class you can alter whatever you need to fit their skill levels or class size. Generally you want to start with proper movements(shrimping, shoulder rolls, grambys, Sit-outs, etc.) you can cover that in your warm-up. Next, you got through positioning and guard-retention. Once you cover those it's on to the subs and escapes! You can weave a little bit of everything into each class so that you start building on those concepts and creating a glossary of terms in their minds you can then use to dive deeper down the rabbit hole and get them up to speed on the warm-ups. At HQ the fundamentals class is essentially breaking down the warm-ups so that you can make it to Advanced class, great if you have the luxury of scheduling extra classes for that purpose, but if its just one-size-fits all class you're better off building some strong fundamentals and retaining your students so they train as often as possible. Well, that's my two cents, I came scrolling around for something else and ended up writing an instruction manual, lol! Hope this helps, use what works, toss what doesn't, be like water ;)

Great advice. If the goal is to eventually master the 10p curriculum then teach the basics, in bits and pieces directly from the warm ups. That way from day 1 they are slowly piecing together the warm ups.

Thanks for all the advice guys.

A small update - I decided in the end not to take the job after a couple weeks of trying it out... It ate into my own training, research and recovery time too much. I already have a full time job... train everyday.. and teach twice a week at the academy here.. and although the extra cash would have been nice... I think for now its more important to improve my skill and build our group up.

Hope your knee is alright and wish you a speedy recovery @ Eddie

Thanks again

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Compella

FUNdamentals. When people have fun, they want to come back. When they come back, they get better. It's like a Jedi mind trick convincing people to do a set of movements over and over and over and over...but that's how you get good a JJ; mat time. I would warm them all up, go through a takedown or 2(a back-up option when your first attempt fails, always nice), teach 2-3 techniques involving 2-6 movements(scaled to their skill, some people will have to stop at a certain point to grasp the concept), LIVE DRILL the moves and concepts taught in class(CANNOT stress this enough, this is the magic "AHA" moment that brings the concepts to reality!) and then always end with some sparring. That's my basic set-up for any class you can alter whatever you need to fit their skill levels or class size. Generally you want to start with proper movements(shrimping, shoulder rolls, grambys, Sit-outs, etc.) you can cover that in your warm-up. Next, you got through positioning and guard-retention. Once you cover those it's on to the subs and escapes! You can weave a little bit of everything into each class so that you start building on those concepts and creating a glossary of terms in their minds you can then use to dive deeper down the rabbit hole and get them up to speed on the warm-ups. At HQ the fundamentals class is essentially breaking down the warm-ups so that you can make it to Advanced class, great if you have the luxury of scheduling extra classes for that purpose, but if its just one-size-fits all class you're better off building some strong fundamentals and retaining your students so they train as often as possible. Well, that's my two cents, I came scrolling around for something else and ended up writing an instruction manual, lol! Hope this helps, use what works, toss what doesn't, be like water ;)

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Good advice! :)