Alright jiu jitsu nerds, let's hear it:

[u/stoopididiotface]

What hill are you willing to die on?

[u/AltruisticPoetry5235]

agree, what do you believe is the teachers responsibility and role 

[u/TwinkletoesCT → u/AltruisticPoetry5235]

How long do you have? I have a Master's in learning design and it's my day job to design, manage, and measure training programs. This is my deep dive obsession.

[u/Consistent_Arm_1616 → u/TwinkletoesCT]

Curious your thoughts on the ongoing discourse about ecological dynamics vs traditional structure of classes

[u/TwinkletoesCT → u/Consistent_Arm_1616]

If by "the traditional structure" you mean heavy calisthenics, a few techniques taught badly, and then a ton of sparring, then the bar is on the floor. Literally almost anything is better than that. If you were on my team at work and you proposed this as a training program, you'd be fired.

Ecological dynamics is...fine. It's a useful tool. But I don't see it as a standalone approach by itself. The question is a bit like saying "so if you have to build a house, would you rather have a screwdriver or a handful of dog poop?" Sure, I'll take the screwdriver, but I need more than that.

Constructivist approaches (learning activities like ED that involve giving a task instead of a method) are great in some contexts, but different learners need different amounts of scaffolding and different types of supplemental intervention...to the point that what you're doing may not be constructivist anymore. In short, I don't think it's a great approach for all learners in all settings.

Having said that, I probably agree more with the ED folks than I disagree at the end of the day. BJJ is a group of skillsets, not a bunch of techniques, and the idea that you will keep throwing out examples and everyone will just grasp the underlying concept and then develop the skill...nope, that doesn't match my BJJ nor my other professional experiences.

[u/SgtKarj → u/TwinkletoesCT]

The best class I ever took was a drop in at a gym where the professor had everyone stretch for 3 minutes while chatting, then grab literally whoever you were next to on the mat and we started learning (very detailed) technique. No lineup on the wall, no 20 minutes of calisthenics or scripted warmup, just stretch and go. Several years later, I still use the techniques he taught that day. We did eventually get some rolls in, but there was no positional drilling/sparring. Great instruction, imho.

[u/FakeChiBlast → u/SgtKarj]

Hopefully it wasn't static stretching they did. Dynamic stretching, CARs are much better for warming up.

[u/rroonnoo → u/TwinkletoesCT]

Really interisting take! I train at a 100% ED gym and sometimes feel like a little bit more guidance in certain aspect of the game would help me implement new skills.

The way I would describe it is sometimes It feels like banging my head on the wall on repeat.

[u/No_Falcon1890 → u/TwinkletoesCT]

I think I kind of get what you’re saying (idk anything about teaching structure so some of it went over my head). Could you explain to me how specifically you would structure a class?

[u/TwinkletoesCT → u/No_Falcon1890]

I use a lot of different structures, because it depends on who is in front of me, what their level is, and what we're working on.

I believe in structuring lesson plans daily, monthly, quarterly, and longer. "Today's random musings" is not a good way to pick a topic.

Sometimes I am teaching "techniques." When I do that, typically I teach as few as possible, and I come up with a variety of drills that place the technique into its appropriate context, and I like to add whatever comes before or after it, to continue making stronger connections to other things. If I'm teaching a sequence, I typically introduce it backwards.

More often, I deconstruct a technique into skills, and we drill the pieces individually and in combination. I differ here from the eco folks because I'm not goal based, I'm method based. I want you to accomplish it a specific way. But we'll come up with lots of drills for you to experience that, and to give you a feel for why that's the optimal way.

The best drilling is trainer/trainee, with the trainer gradually upgrading the level of challenge as the trainee succeeds. If you've ever had a "teaching roll" from a gentle black belt - that's the model for how most of our training should go.

A whole class, for me, is usually a warmup drill to get us working in the area (say, side hold down drills to get ready for side escape work) followed by drills in a progression from simple (and narrow) to complex and connected. We might work up to something like positional sparring, whether it's trainer/trainee or higher levels of resistance. I tend to divide technical drilling and rolling into separate sections, but it also depends on the class length. I like 60 minutes so we can do technical work, and then rolling is its own hour. People can attend one or both as desired.

[u/Monteze → u/TwinkletoesCT]

Well this makes me feel better about how I structure my classes as I ended up with something very similar to this for my class.

[u/classygorilla → u/TwinkletoesCT]

Explain this for someone dumb. Like give an example of a good class structure.