“The Frameworks Method” is the name given to how we teach jiu-jitsu at The Frameworks Academy of Jiu-Jitsu in Casselberry, FL. It is what differentiates our school from the competition, and has so far served to help our students learn jiu-jitsu at a rate that outpaces the competition. Again and again, friends from other schools have remarked at how quickly our students improve, and beyond the obvious credit due to the students for their efforts, it is simply reflective of our unique approach.
In short, The Frameworks Method utilizes task-based games to determine what gets explicitly taught in class. It combines the inductive learning that results from The Ecological Approach with the efficiency of traditional, direct instruction to maximize the benefits of limited class time. If you attempt it, you will find that the students typically improve visibly each class. I realize that sounds like an exaggeration, but it does accurately describe my experience thus far using the method.
I designed it to make a standard adults class at a jiu-jitsu gym as productive as possible. By “standard”, I mean a 90-minute class of adult hobbyists, of mixed levels, taught on typical mats, and in the context of a business concerned with both delivering on its promise to teach jiu-jitsu and making sure the class is fun enough to keep students coming back. In other contexts — for instance, with children, physically preparing elite competitors, with students that have special needs, and so on — the method will likely need adaptation, if not substitution for another approach entirely. But, I am convinced that it works very, very well to achieve the aims for which it was designed.
In this (admittedly overly-long) blog post, I will outline the structure of a class taught using The Frameworks Method. I hope to provide a broad-strokes sketch of what the method looks like in practice and how it works. In future blog posts, I intend to go into more depth as to what each portion of class consists of, and perhaps even discuss the theoretical basis that undergirds it. None of that is for today, though. Let’s just get a sense of what the Frameworks Method actually is.
A Class, Outlined
1.) Warm-Up
Each class begins with a jiu-jitsu-based warmup. In most circumstances, this is drilling fundamental motions with a partner. For instance, in a class on the mount position, the first drill could consist of the bottom player turning onto their, with the top player moving to technical mount in response. The two would alternate going to the left and right for approximately ninety seconds, and then switch roles — top to bottom and bottom to top. Instruction is at an absolute minimum; preferably none. Instead, students should focus on moving and slowly raising their heart rates over the course of (typically) three drills.
This approach allows the students to maximize their time actually doing jiu-jitsu, in that the warm-up does not consist of things like jumping jacks, shrimping down mats, or doing pushups. Selecting drills that force students to repeat fundamental motions helps to automate them when performed in sparring, as well as activating the neural pathways that will be used in the remainder of the class. Students warm up doing “mount things,” and are thus ready to do more complex “mount things” as the class progresses.
When the three drills are completed, students are encouraged to get a drink and stretch themselves out in preparation to delve into the heart of the day’s class: the task-based game.
2.) Task-Based Game
Each class centers around a single, task-based game that the students play in rounds of two minutes each. In our example class on the mounted position, the preferred game is called “Chicken Wing or Arm Sandwich”. (I’m terrible at naming these.) In this particular game, a pair of students enter the mounted position, and the top student has the objective of opening up the shoulder of the bottom student such that it achieves an angle of ninety degrees or more. This could be opening it to the outside, in an Americana-like position (“chicken wing”), or to the inside, across the bottom player’s chest. The bottom player has the objective of escaping form mount. In the event of When either objective is achieved, the students reset. This continues for two minutes, and then the players switch roles.
During the game, students are asked to be mindful of what’s happening. Specifically, they want to make a mental note of something that is or is not working. This will be the basis of what’s to come next. I typically have students play for four rounds, but two also works fine. Upon completing their rounds, I want them to rest up a bit and bring their heart rate down in preparation to learn. I’ll typically tell them to have a drink of water and sit down in a circle when they feel like they’ve caught their breath.
3.) Instruction
When the students have returned to the circle, I open a discussion of things they noticed. I am particularly interested in what problems they encountered when trying to achieve their goals in the game (but other items of interest often arise that I was not expecting, and these can provide equally good material to learn). Continuing our example of a class on the mounted position, students may say things like “I couldn’t move his elbow up after I got my hand under it” or “He kept sucking my ankle up into a kind of half guard.” When a student says something I find I can make use of, I will demonstrate how to overcome the problem they are encountering and often how to use it to lead into submission.
So, I may show how to drop one’s body into the lowest possible mount to better capture the elbow, climb it up to the open position, and then perform an arm triangle. There is a lot of openness provided here for the instructor to react to the needs that the students express. Importantly, though, everything taught must be in reaction to the actual situations the students encountered during the game. In this way, the lesson is certain to address points of need each and every time.
After each discussion and instruction portion, the students pair off and drill the material shown for roughly ten repetitions each. The instructor goes around and observes, offering corrections where necessary. Emphasis is placed on correct technique, not speed. After the drilling portion, students return to the circle and offer more input about what they experienced in the game. It’s possible that the students cannot come up with anything they found particular success or difficulty with, and in those circumstances, I usually have something that I’ve made note of during their game that I can show. No more than three techniques per class. Two is plenty.
4.) Replay the task-based game
This is where the students lock in the day’s improvements. After drilling the new material, the students play the game again, making use of the new techniques or strategies that they’ve acquired. I remind them both of the goals of the game and of the various things they’ve learned in class. Two rounds, two minutes each, often with the same partner they had during the first play through. You’ll often find that things move to the next level of complexity as a result of the students having a proper response to the things that were stopping them previously. The improvement is often stark, and as a coach, very satisfying to see.
5.) Sparring/Rolling
The class culminates in rolls. I’ll often start the rounds from the position being trained in the game and just allow the roll to develop however it does until one player taps. When they do, the players reset to the day’s position, but with the top player now on bottom, and vice versa. I’ll typically run this for two rounds, and then the rest of the rounds start from standing.
You’ll notice that the lesson moves from the most constrained activities (drilling) to the most open (rolling), progressing through positional games with narrowed objectives, positional sparring, and finally rounds that allow for all of the possibilities of jiu-jitsu. The students have the chance to learn inductively through live action, as well as deductively through explicit instructions and repetition of what they learn. In so doing, these lessons overcome the shortcomings of both the traditional, teach and drill method as well as the more modern and fashionable games-based method. In effect, I find that these lessons are the most productive I have been a part of, and students expressed that they’ve enjoyed the chance to spend most of their time playing and actually doing jiu-jitsu.
In future posts, I look forward to providing more examples and details of how these lessons are run, answering questions from other instructors, and elucidating The Frameworks Method’s connection to long-existing language-learning pedagogies (my own academic background). I hope that, in so doing, more students will get the opportunity to experience this method of instruction and see if it has the same benefits for them that it has had for my existing students. Let’s roll.