Syllabus in BJJ - Yea or nay?

Increasingly I noticed a lot of schools seem to be using a syllabus in BJJ. Teams like Gracie Barra, Gracie Academy, Alliance, Pedro Sauer, Robson Moura etc...

I have tried using a syllabus. I liked the Robson Moura syllabus but was less keen on the Gracie Barra syllabus. I have also been in a class without a syllabus. I found the class lacked direction and consistency. Then again if you are using a poorly thought out syllabus, you could still have those same issues .

Does anyone else follow a syllabus? I know guys like Royce have spoken against them. Any good reason not to use them?

 

my coach doesn't use one. i don't think it's that useful for bjj, personally.

 

We use a rotational one for the foundation classes, its positional based, not technique based so theres a lot of scope for variations, advance classes are left to each coaches own likes and personal games.

That way you cover all the basic positions equally, you get the essential posture and pressure in each position taught clearly with lots of live practise, new ideas are continuesly explored in the advanced lessons, and depth of skill not accumulation of dead moves is encouraged.

its important gradings are never about knowledge of the syllabus instead of skill on the mat, the syllabus is for the coach first and foremost to help have structured lesson plans.

 

I think having solid lesson plans is essential for teaching beginners well, post blue to purple its less important, but lets face it, the better you are at the basics, the better your BJJ is.

 

Every club ive been to..

 

I agree on competition success, but not only that, its easy enough to compete enough to get a few easy wins in any one year, I won a pile of matches as a White belt with my awesome triangle, didn't mean Iwas a bluebelt as i had a very limited game.

And for non competitors just knowing techniques isn't enough, it should always be purely on skill on the mat vs resistence.

 

Did your coach have planned lessons?

 

I know the barra syllabus is very technique orientated.

 

We're in the same boat as Fusen. Honestly I prefer it that way

 

When I was in MMA I HATED BJJ class. Not that I didn't like rolling or learning techniques but it was so random and confusing. Now had there been some path, some thing that made each day flow into the next, I would have enjoyed it much much more.

It was so scattered, like a shotgun going off. One da would be foundation stuff then the next would be advanced black belt level material. I struggled so hard to keep up.. It made me hate that class I actually learned so little from it. In 6 months of mma I think the only thing I picked up was basic mount sweep and a guard pass and that was about it.. Edit to add. Don't get the impression these guys were bad grapplers, they were not bad. They were Fantastic grapplers, we had guys with state wrestling championships and other experienced grapplers in there. They just didn't use a syllabus..

I honestly think a well thought out structure would have helped me much more. The confusion and lack of flow from day to day made it unenjoyable. While I don't think it would be a issue for higher belts, I think from white to 4stripe blue, a nice syllabus would be helpful.

Now the Gracie syllabus only applies to the online stuff. At the local academy the will spend a month focusing on one area. Say standing stuff(it is GJJ so they do standing SD stuff) or mount or what ever position. So it is more random then the online academy.

Maybe if there was more structure when I was trying to learn it, I would have enjoyed it more. I hated being lost every class..

 

I think it's important to have some kind of structure, but it should be flexible. The way I do it is have a position of the month, then the other instructor and I teach whatever techniques we want within that position, also making sure to include specific sparring from that position, as well as starting the free sparring from there.

I'll normally go with maintaining, attacking and escaping across the course of the month. In the four years or so I've been teaching now, I've built up a bunch of classes, but it isn't quite a curriculum yet. My process is to teach the class, take lots of notes afterwards based on how the students reacted, then incorporate that next time I teach it. E.g., if there was a point people were missing, I'll emphasise it next time, or if I showed several grips and they only found one useful/easy to pick up, I'll focus on that.

That means that the students can keep on practicing the stuff they've learned throughout sparring for the month, as well as hopefully improving their ability in that position as a result.

 

Hello everyone,

I was told that Rickson Gracie used a syllabus of sorts for his students and my teacher today, Luiz Palhares, still uses one as well. Therefore we also use one at my school. I think they are nice as they force everyone to at least work on a certain skill set instead of just "wrestling around". Some people need the structure to learn as well. Some obviously won't need it but it seems to help in some way or another for most. The most advanced belts are more concept based are more geared towards stringing basic techniques together.

Regards,

Todd Schweinhart

WWW.YOSHINDOJO.COM

 

i get the why of using a syllabus. my coach typically works on one position per week and builds on that. my problem with a syllabus is that unless you're willing to change it, it becomes too inflexible.

i think that my coach teaches less techniques than is typically taught. this is just my guess as i haven't trained with other schools for extended periods of time. my coach is a carlson gracie guy, so basic techniques over and over.

another confounding factor is that everyone's body style is different. i'm 43, there's things that i can't do and honestly shouldn't in competition or...th3 str33t. in sparring or light rolling, i do try everything. i always try to pull off the move of the day. even though everyone knows it's coming.

 

I'm OCD so I love order and neatness. I like having a syllabus I can refer to but more than that, I think BJJ needs codification of its techniques. Probably because I am OCD, I find the fact that any given technique can have 100 different names pretty aggravating but others might not care one bit. Still, it's probably very confusing to newer students.

 

Ive seen schools that dont use a syllabus, I guess thats ok if the instructor is exceptional however....It suks if hes not, heres why.
A syllabus and more importantly the lesson plan used to teach it allows an instructor to move students forward through the progression of techniques in a timely mannor specially if hes good at sticking to the class plan, in other words we dont stay stuck on one thing all class long every class, we are moveing with a purpose cause we got lots to cover.
On the flip side sometimes people need more instruction on a given technique or training method, just my two cents.

 

Yes Yes Yes, very good point actually, and thank you for bringing it up cause it reminds me of something. In some cases therapy is needed, and if you see your class is lacking the proficient skill with a given technique it is up to the instructor to bring everyne up to speed we call this martial therapy where Im from. At any rate, that is a bennifit of not haveing to worry about faling behind the lesson plan.