Within Jiu-jitsu there are probably 3 major coaching paradigms.

• Traditional / Move of the day
• Concept based
• CLA / Ecological

All of these have value, and have different strengths and weaknesses. But I think we do ourselves and our students a disservice if we try to focus down to only one of those.

Different people will learn things differently, and get better at them differently.

35 years of martial arts later:

if I see something new I do like to go through it statically a few reps first (Traditional)

I feel like I can pick up new techniques pretty quickly, or even help diagnose something someone is trying that I am not as familiar with because I have a pretty good conceptual understanding of things. (Concept Based)

But to actually start using it live, in rolling, I need to create drills and objectives that are done live (CLA)

And I think that translates to coaching as well.

I can show you a technique, explain the concepts behind how and why it works, how those concepts can created variations on the technique that follows the same concepts and then use CLA drills / games to turn it into something that can be used against resistance.

So what does this look like as a class structure?

Suppose we are teaching a standing guard passing class.

We might start with a simple constraint based game. Lets say bottom person trying to get and maintain inside hooks. Standing person trying to get one or bot of the bottom persons legs to the outside.

As we drill this we can introduce basic guard passing theory. Get passed the feet, immobilize the hips, stay above them, clear the legs, get chest above chest, etc. (Concepts)

Then we can introduce a couple of solutions, or techniques. Ideally ones that play well to how the top person was controlling legs. (Techniques)

Then return to a live constraints based game that goes to a full guard pass as the goal.

And finally full sparing.

You don’t take someone that has never swam before and try to explain a perfect front crawl to them. You get them in the water, let them doggie paddle around a little, then introduce technique. Show them how to flutter kick, give them a board to keep the upper body out of it and for the skill “live” in isolation. Then start adding other skills until you can put the full front crawl together. Then you repeat, go back and refine each piece.

A a good coach will absolutely show them proper technique, then isolate it, then put it all back together. Ex. Cup your hand this way, arm follows this path, etc. (Traditional)

They will give you constraints based tasks to use those skills and refine them individually. Ex. Just kicking, no arms. (CLA)

They will explain the concepts of why you are doing things. (Concepts)

And they will integrate it back together.

I don’t know why we have this argument in the Jiu-Jitsu world of which method is best, a good coach should use every tool in their toolbox to improve their students, not pick a favourite tool and ignore the others.

Traditional give us mechanical clarity, a common vocabulary,

Concepts gives understanding of why things work and better ability to recognize patterns and adapt

CLA gives us functional ability under pressure

We need all 3, and can use all 3 in coaching in order to achieve different pieces of our goals.