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Game Theory: How I Learned to Teach Grappling to Kids
Game theory: How I learned to teach grappling to kids
By John Connors and Jon Grayzel
April 5, 2011
Some of you may remember the birthday scene from the Steve Martin movie “Parenthood.” Steve Martin’s character, an extremely anxious but well-meaning father, has hired a birthday clown for his 9 year old son’s party. Unbeknownst to the father, the clown has a drinking problem and decides that the afternoon of the son’s party, to which the son has invited all his neighborhood friends, would be the perfect time for a bender. Having tried desperately to revive the clown but to no avail, the father decides the only way to salvage his son’s party is to stand in for the clown. The father pulls out all the stops: he tries performing stunts while riding a horse but is bucked through a window (to the delight of the kids), he juggles dangerous objects, nearly incurring life-threatening injuries, and then he tries to make animal balloons, but his poodles look like extras from Star Wars. Despite this series of failures, he is not deterred in his efforts to entertain the kids.
When I opened my first jiu jitsu school several years ago, I decided to offer a children’s class.
Most of the martial arts industry consultants and experts advise that kids' classes need to be fun, entertaining and involve games. Lots of games. Some of these expert consultants offered video series that described how to use games to teach the skills and cultivate the attributes needed for Brazilian jiu jitsu and other grappling arts. Armed with these concepts and a few other activities I played growing up, I put together some teaching schemes for my children’s classes. The schemes included basic instruction on takedowns and positions, and games, lots of games. There was British bulldog and minnows ‘n sharks, which involved variations on kids scooting across the ground while others tried to pin them, bull ride, which involved kids trying to maintain rear mount while the “bull” tried to buck them off, jiu jitsu virus, in which the kids scooted around like crabs trying to capture and trip those not “infected,” and many others.
After a few months of teaching the kids jiu jitsu class this way, I began to feel like Steve Martin’s father character: I was the amateur clown desperately trying to keep the kids entertained by coming up with different games to play. I bounced around the class cheering the children on with artificial enthusiasm as they scooted and rolled and played. After a few more months, I began to dread my kids’ class. But why? Games are fun, aren’t they? Weren’t the kids having a good time and learning valuable grappling skills, almost without even knowing it? Wasn’t this how children’s martial arts classes were supposed to be run? Nevertheless, I couldn’t escape the feeling that something was fundamentally wrong with what I was doing.
Gradually I came to believe that the emphasis on games had perverted the nature of the class. The games had created an atmosphere in which Brazilian jiu jitsu and my standing as an instructor of this incredible martial art were devalued. The kids indeed saw me as a clown, not a coach, and their class as one more means of entertainment, like a computer game or Gymboree™. After all, whether implicitly or explicitly, isn’t this what I had been telling them by devoting so much time to games?
But grappling is not a game. Yes, it’s fun and exciting, but as any practitioner knows it is also hard and it demands disciplined effort if one is to make progress. Grappling involves physical discomfort and it is not for every child. But out of the effort and discipline and discomfort needed to learn jiu jitsu, children learn valuable lessons about such things as humility and perseverance in the face of hardship. And they don’t learn these things because they won a game or because an instructor gave them a new, brightly colored belt, but by dint of their effort on the mat.
As these thoughts began to coalesce in my mind, I decided to change my approach: No more games. Instead the kids were going to do as much jiu jitsu as we could cram into a 45 minute class. I didn’t expect 7 and 8 year olds to learn like adults, and I didn’t plan to turn the kids class into Marine Corps training, but they were in my school to learn jiu jitsu and that was what they were going to do.
Now I run my children’s jiu jitsu classes much like my adult classes, albeit with less detailed explanations of technique. We begin class with a warm-up that includes basic jiu jitsu movements like shrimping. Then we work on learning techniques in the context of the repeating 12 week curriculum I have developed.
For both my kids and adults classes, I use the Why? What? How? and What if? presentation structure.
The Why? section explains why they would want to learn this technique; what they will gain from knowing it and what they might lose if they don't know it. This properly motivates students to want to learn what you're about to show.
The What? section explains the what the technique is; it's name and perhaps some brief history or story that goes along with the technique. This gives context to help in the learning process.
The How? section is the actual step-by-step explanation of the technique.
The What If? section is where students try the technique for themselves with their training partners against varying levels of resistance.
During the How? section, after demonstrating a new technique and presenting the steps a few times, I then use the Active Recall Method to reinforce the key steps of a technique. The method consists of asking individual students to tell me the next step in a technique: “Dave, what do I do first?” “Joe, what do I with my right hand?” “Suzy, what do I do next?” I never put a student on the spot. If they struggle with an answer, I quickly give them sufficient hints or the actual answer.
This Active Recall Method motivates students to pay close attention during the presentation of a technique. No student wants to be caught without the right answer no matter how gently I ask the question. Also, the fact that I ask them direct questions stimulates their brains to more effectively store the information in their memory.
I also present (and then ask about) the one or two most common mistakes that people routinely make when trying to perform the new technique.
Once the steps are clear, the students practice the technique with one another, first with no resistance and then with minimal resistance. Next, the students wrestle in the position we are practicing, using the new technique and others they have learned. When a partner achieves a dominant position, they reset and begin again. This gives kids (and adults) lots of experience with a particular position without confusing them with the overwhelming variety and detail that bjj can present. Finally, we free grapple with different partners.
As a result of my change in approach, I no longer feel like Steve Martin’s stand-in clown, trying desperately to entertain children already saturated with entertainment of seemingly infinite variety, to which my meager games can never measure up; I feel like a jiu jitsu instructor. And for the kids who are interested, I have so much more to offer than games.
John Connors is a BJJ Black Belt and the owner and chief instructor at Connors Mixed Martial Arts in Norwood, MA; Jon Grayzel is an emergency physician, medical writer, and a BJJ Purple Belt under John Connors
By John Connors and Jon Grayzel
April 5, 2011
Some of you may remember the birthday scene from the Steve Martin movie “Parenthood.” Steve Martin’s character, an extremely anxious but well-meaning father, has hired a birthday clown for his 9 year old son’s party. Unbeknownst to the father, the clown has a drinking problem and decides that the afternoon of the son’s party, to which the son has invited all his neighborhood friends, would be the perfect time for a bender. Having tried desperately to revive the clown but to no avail, the father decides the only way to salvage his son’s party is to stand in for the clown. The father pulls out all the stops: he tries performing stunts while riding a horse but is bucked through a window (to the delight of the kids), he juggles dangerous objects, nearly incurring life-threatening injuries, and then he tries to make animal balloons, but his poodles look like extras from Star Wars. Despite this series of failures, he is not deterred in his efforts to entertain the kids.
When I opened my first jiu jitsu school several years ago, I decided to offer a children’s class.
Most of the martial arts industry consultants and experts advise that kids' classes need to be fun, entertaining and involve games. Lots of games. Some of these expert consultants offered video series that described how to use games to teach the skills and cultivate the attributes needed for Brazilian jiu jitsu and other grappling arts. Armed with these concepts and a few other activities I played growing up, I put together some teaching schemes for my children’s classes. The schemes included basic instruction on takedowns and positions, and games, lots of games. There was British bulldog and minnows ‘n sharks, which involved variations on kids scooting across the ground while others tried to pin them, bull ride, which involved kids trying to maintain rear mount while the “bull” tried to buck them off, jiu jitsu virus, in which the kids scooted around like crabs trying to capture and trip those not “infected,” and many others.
After a few months of teaching the kids jiu jitsu class this way, I began to feel like Steve Martin’s father character: I was the amateur clown desperately trying to keep the kids entertained by coming up with different games to play. I bounced around the class cheering the children on with artificial enthusiasm as they scooted and rolled and played. After a few more months, I began to dread my kids’ class. But why? Games are fun, aren’t they? Weren’t the kids having a good time and learning valuable grappling skills, almost without even knowing it? Wasn’t this how children’s martial arts classes were supposed to be run? Nevertheless, I couldn’t escape the feeling that something was fundamentally wrong with what I was doing.
Gradually I came to believe that the emphasis on games had perverted the nature of the class. The games had created an atmosphere in which Brazilian jiu jitsu and my standing as an instructor of this incredible martial art were devalued. The kids indeed saw me as a clown, not a coach, and their class as one more means of entertainment, like a computer game or Gymboree™. After all, whether implicitly or explicitly, isn’t this what I had been telling them by devoting so much time to games?
But grappling is not a game. Yes, it’s fun and exciting, but as any practitioner knows it is also hard and it demands disciplined effort if one is to make progress. Grappling involves physical discomfort and it is not for every child. But out of the effort and discipline and discomfort needed to learn jiu jitsu, children learn valuable lessons about such things as humility and perseverance in the face of hardship. And they don’t learn these things because they won a game or because an instructor gave them a new, brightly colored belt, but by dint of their effort on the mat.
As these thoughts began to coalesce in my mind, I decided to change my approach: No more games. Instead the kids were going to do as much jiu jitsu as we could cram into a 45 minute class. I didn’t expect 7 and 8 year olds to learn like adults, and I didn’t plan to turn the kids class into Marine Corps training, but they were in my school to learn jiu jitsu and that was what they were going to do.
Now I run my children’s jiu jitsu classes much like my adult classes, albeit with less detailed explanations of technique. We begin class with a warm-up that includes basic jiu jitsu movements like shrimping. Then we work on learning techniques in the context of the repeating 12 week curriculum I have developed.
For both my kids and adults classes, I use the Why? What? How? and What if? presentation structure.
The Why? section explains why they would want to learn this technique; what they will gain from knowing it and what they might lose if they don't know it. This properly motivates students to want to learn what you're about to show.
The What? section explains the what the technique is; it's name and perhaps some brief history or story that goes along with the technique. This gives context to help in the learning process.
The How? section is the actual step-by-step explanation of the technique.
The What If? section is where students try the technique for themselves with their training partners against varying levels of resistance.
During the How? section, after demonstrating a new technique and presenting the steps a few times, I then use the Active Recall Method to reinforce the key steps of a technique. The method consists of asking individual students to tell me the next step in a technique: “Dave, what do I do first?” “Joe, what do I with my right hand?” “Suzy, what do I do next?” I never put a student on the spot. If they struggle with an answer, I quickly give them sufficient hints or the actual answer.
This Active Recall Method motivates students to pay close attention during the presentation of a technique. No student wants to be caught without the right answer no matter how gently I ask the question. Also, the fact that I ask them direct questions stimulates their brains to more effectively store the information in their memory.
I also present (and then ask about) the one or two most common mistakes that people routinely make when trying to perform the new technique.
Once the steps are clear, the students practice the technique with one another, first with no resistance and then with minimal resistance. Next, the students wrestle in the position we are practicing, using the new technique and others they have learned. When a partner achieves a dominant position, they reset and begin again. This gives kids (and adults) lots of experience with a particular position without confusing them with the overwhelming variety and detail that bjj can present. Finally, we free grapple with different partners.
As a result of my change in approach, I no longer feel like Steve Martin’s stand-in clown, trying desperately to entertain children already saturated with entertainment of seemingly infinite variety, to which my meager games can never measure up; I feel like a jiu jitsu instructor. And for the kids who are interested, I have so much more to offer than games.
John Connors is a BJJ Black Belt and the owner and chief instructor at Connors Mixed Martial Arts in Norwood, MA; Jon Grayzel is an emergency physician, medical writer, and a BJJ Purple Belt under John Connors
How Old is Too Old for MMA?
Is 30 too old for MMA? How about 40? Or 50 Years Old?
Would you believe I train with a 73 year old athlete and author? And his name is not "Blue", it's Herb Kavet. Herb literally wrote the book on getting and staying in shape at ANY age:
Die Young... As Late as Possible - A Guide to Staying Fit and Healthy as You Age.
It's a great book filled with the secrets to getting in shape fast and staying that way simply.
Check out this short video with Herb:
PS. The first 5 new students to sign up for one of our programs will get a FREE copy of Herb's book. Just mention this blog.
How Can You Tie Your Opponent into Knots? Try This Straight Jacket Sweep
How Can You Tie Your Opponent into Knots?
Try This Straight Jacket Sweep -
Check out this short video:
Try This Straight Jacket Sweep -
Check out this short video:
You'll Have Your Opponent's Head Swimming with This BJJ Sweep
This Brazilian Jiu Jitsu sweep will aggravate, irritate, and...
and DISORIENTATE your opponent!
So much so that we call this sweep ...
See for yourself. Check out this short video:
and DISORIENTATE your opponent!
So much so that we call this sweep ...
See for yourself. Check out this short video:
You'll Have Your Opponent Tapping Like Riverdance with This Sneaky Wrist Lock
You'll Have Your Opponent Tapping Like Riverdance with This Sneaky Wrist Lock
It's simple and it's sneaky - the best kind.
Take a quick minute to check out the video (Sneaky Wrist Lock from Side Control):
It's simple and it's sneaky - the best kind.
Take a quick minute to check out the video (Sneaky Wrist Lock from Side Control):
Choke Out Your Opponent Before He Knows What Hit Him...
You'll Baffle Your Opponent When You Catch Him in This Trap...
This choke really sneaks up on your opponent. He's thinking that he's about to pass your guard when you're really STALKING HIM!
Check out this short video: (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Sneaky Snare Choke):
This choke really sneaks up on your opponent. He's thinking that he's about to pass your guard when you're really STALKING HIM!
Check out this short video: (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Sneaky Snare Choke):
Wipe the Smile Off Your Opponent's Face When You Sweep Him with This ...
Here's the scenario: your opponent is JUST ABOUT to pass your guard - he's already counting the points and smiling to himself. Suddenly - BAM - you hit him with this unexpected sweep and you're the one smiling now.
You'll leave your opponent:
FRUSTRATED...
FLABBERGASTED...
DOWNRIGHT ANNOYED...
And in some cases...
CRYING LIKE A BABY!
For full effect, after you sweep your opponent, don't forget to say:
"No Pass For You!"
Check out this short video (Sneaky Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Sweep):
You'll leave your opponent:
FRUSTRATED...
FLABBERGASTED...
DOWNRIGHT ANNOYED...
And in some cases...
CRYING LIKE A BABY!
For full effect, after you sweep your opponent, don't forget to say:
Check out this short video (Sneaky Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Sweep):
A Simple Way to Drive Your Opponent Crazy
Just when he thinks he has you right where he wants you - you turn the tables on him and SUBMIT HIM instead.
This simple and sneaky little armbar will have steam coming out of your opponent's ears.
Take a minute and watch this truly annoying submission:
Don't Get Caught in This BJJ Trap - Use This Sneaky Escape
There's nothing worse than getting stuck in a "trap" - in a position where your opponent controls you and is working towards a submission.
What a helpless feeling to be at the mercy of your opponent - knowing that it's going to take a ton of effort to escape.
Well, here's another SNEAKY escape from a bad position.
And this one uses your KNUCKLES again to turn the tables on your opponent and TORMENT your TORMENTOR.
Check out this short video (about a minute or so):
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Mixed Martial Art technique for escaping from overhooks from inside your opponent's guard.
Norwood MMA, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Martial Arts Gym
Dedham MMA, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Martial Arts Gym
Boston MMA, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Martial Arts Gym
Walpole MMA, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Martial Arts Gym
Needham MMA, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Martial Arts Gym
Sharon MMA, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Martial Arts Gym
Randolph MMA, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Martial Arts Gym
Weymouth MMA, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Martial Arts Gym
Westwood MMA, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Martial Arts Gym
Canton MMA, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Martial Arts Gym
The Lazy Man's Armbar
Was your body made to sit in a LazyBoy recliner?
Can you fall down?
Then "The Lazy Man Armbar" is the technique for you!
It's not only sneaky and simple, it's designed for the truly lazy.
I discovered this technique one day when I was too tired to break out of my opponent's guard.
Check out this short (about a minute or so) video:
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Mixed Martial Art technique for armbarring your opponent from inside his guard
