Motivation

I’ve always been driven to really understand anything that piques my interest. When something grabs my attention… it’s over. I’ll spend weeks, months, or years collecting information, reading books, watching videos, and asking questions of anyone more versed in the subject than me. I’ve been doing this my whole life, and as a result I’ve managed to become competent in a few areas. But it’s not the knowledge, or the skills that have made an educator. I’m an educator because I’m familiar with the learning process.

The Educator’s Role

Being a learner is hard work. You’re constantly faced with gaps in your understanding, and you’ve got to gradually fill them by reading, asking questions, etc. Confusion persists as long as your tidbits of information don’t orient themselves properly into a working model of the subject you’re studying. To generate a functional model, you need to painstakingly add new tidbits and repeatedly reevaluate your model in light of the new information. With time and effort the pieces start to fit together and the model starts to work, which is an incredibly rewarding feeling. You can then apply the model to solve new problems.

An stylized image representing learning gaps as missing puzzle pieces.

So where does the educator fit into this? It’s the educator’s job to orient the pieces in such a way to make model-building process go as smoothly as possible. A good educator is a storyteller, who provides appropriate bits of information with appropriate timing to guide the learner through the model-building process.

A good educator will also recall the most challenging pieces to acquire during his or her learning experience, and will have a way to make those challenging bits more accessible for the next generation of students. But always remember that it’s the learner’s job to do the work; the educator is merely a guide.

Designing a Curriculum for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

With that said, it’s important for the educator to design curriculum with explicitly defined goals, rationale, and structure. This helps keep the learner out of the weeds because he or she can always step back to get a broader perspective on the learning goals.

Some elements I’d like to include in a BJJ curriculum are as follows:

Comprehensive Study of Jiu Jitsu — Competition is a fun, exciting, and rewarding aspect of modern jiu jitsu that will be emphasized; but it is just one aspect. A complete study of jiu jitsu includes stand-up grappling, falling, self-defense, striking, ethics, and training both gi and no-gi.
Spaced Repetition — New techniques and skills will be drilled and tested heavily, while older techniques will be revisited at spaced out intervals. This is designed to promote technique retention.
Engagement — There is no getting around hard work, and at times skill acquisition (i.e. drilling) will be boring. But games, activities, and problem solving sessions will be included to help keep students engaged.
Defense in the gi/offense in no-gi — Any experienced jiu jitsu practitioner will tell you that your defensive skills must be sharp to escape a bad position while wearing a gi. The same is true for securing an offensive position in no-gi. With that in mind, weighing defensive techniques towards gi training and offensive techniques towards no-gi training will help students more rapidly become proficient in both defense and offense.

Class Structure

The basic unit for the curriculum is the individual class session. Establishing the elements in a typical class session allows us to zoom out to week-long and month-long modules and design a curriculum that incorporates all of our goals.

A typical class will have the following outline:

Brief general warm up — Specific movements that support the learning goals for the session (e.g. hip escapes when studying escapes) will be emphasized. Comprehensive jiu jitsu skills may be incorporated here, including striking or falling. This warm up is also important in reducing the risk of injury.
Technical warm up — This element may vary depending on the audience. Most often it will be a prescribed sequence of techniques from recent weeks. For kids, the technical warm up might be a game. All of these technical warm-up possibilities are aimed at engagement and spaced repetition, and emphasis will be placed on sustained movement rather than exact technical details.
Drilling — A technique in line with the curriculum will be presented as simply as possible. Young kids will see just one step at a time. Support will be provided when students struggle and gradual improvements can be expected.
Semi-live Drilling — The students will continue drilling, but with light resistance and natural reactions from their partner to help prepare them for using the technique in a live sparring session. Alternatively, sparring-based games or activities may be played.
Live sparring — Starting from a standing position, students will spar with designated partners appropriate for their size and skill level. Skill development, respect/care for their partner, and perseverance in challenging situations will be emphasized. The purpose of sparring is to learn, not to win.

Weekly and Monthly Modules

With our goals and basic building blocks in place, we can start constructing week-long modules.

Each week will be designed with the following elements in mind:

Focus on one offensive technique and one defensive technique per week. Practice makes perfect. This will allow even beginners to dig deep into the details of each technique and shorten the learning curve. Variations and set-ups may be presented throughout the week.
The offense and defense to the same technique will not be shown in the same week. The defense for a specific attack may be shown 4-6 weeks after the offense is taught. This gives the students a chance to find success with the offensive technique before the defender increases the difficulty by introducing a technical defense.
Comprehensive jiu jitsu skills (e.g. striking, falling, self-defense) may be occasionally incorporated throughout the week.

With the design for the weekly modules established, the monthly modules will be written so that the weekly techniques flow (as much as possible) from one to the next. An example of a monthly module may look something like the following:

Table of an example monthly curriculum with offensive and defensie technqiues that flow from one week to the next.

Looking Ahead

There may be opportunities to design curriculum blocks at a higher level, say 3, 6, or 12 month modules. But I have not made it that far yet. I will update when plans for larger blocks emerge.

Additionally, this type of curriculum is geared toward beginners. All levels can benefit from studying the basics, but advanced students will eventually want to branch out. An advanced curriculum or a mentorship program will be developed in the future to accommodate students who are ready to explore jiu jitsu as an art.

Curriculum Development For Brazilian Jiu Jitsu