If I were teaching absolute beginners about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, this is a basic outline of what I’d do. It would be ideal to get them out there rolling and doing positional sparring on day 1 if possible, but I also understand that this isn’t always ideal or the right call for many people.
First, I’d focus on risks and general safety protocols:
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This is a contact sport and self-defense martial art. As such, risk of injury is inherent.
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Minor injuries are common: sprains, pulled muscles, scrapes, cuts, bruises, muscle soreness.
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Healing and managing injuries is part of the martial art. The quicker you are able to return to practice by using good healing practices, avoiding injuries to begin with, and knowing your limits are fundamental principles that aren’t explicitly taught.
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In general, a healthy lifestyle, addressing any health issues that pop up quickly and intelligently, and maintaining some kind of progressive strength and conditioning program goes far here. Your health is a very important element to your progress in martial arts.
I dont want to ramble too much here or get into any ideological debates or claim that one approach is better than another, however most major sports teams tend to consult with or outright employ physical therapists, physicians, strength and conditioning coaches, movement coaches, mindset coaches, chaplains, nutritionists, etc. Getting help in these areas is common in Jiu Jitsu and athletics in general. Often, you end up learning this stuff over several years of practice as problems arise or others encounter them at the gym.
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Major injuries are uncommon in safe practice rooms. Accidents do happen occasionally: broken bones, damage to ligaments, muscles, and other soft tissue damage, concussions, being knocked out or choked unconscious. These issues should be very uncommon in a gym, but occasionally unfortunate incidents happen. Usually, these accidents could have been avoided in one way or another.
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Hygiene and avoiding spreading infectious pathogens: don’t train sick, or with transmittable infections such ringworm, athlete’s foot, staph, warts, etc. Don’t walk with bare feet off the mat–especially into a bathroom. Wash your gear. Cover open wounds. Wash your body. Brush your teeth. Cut finger and toe nails. Avoid showing up wearing makeup, perfumes, or hair styling products.
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Preserve yourself and your partners. The goal is to be able to train tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, … Getting hurt or injuring a training partner complicates this. Not cranking on moves or making wild, spastic movements. The importance of tapping early and honoring the tap. Tapping verbally, with your hands, and with your feet if necessary. Moving on after not being able to progress towards the finish of a move rather than grinding it out.
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Keeping your gear maintained and safe. Wear the uniform properly. Ensure correct fitting of gear. Jewelry shouldn’t be worn. No holes, zippers, sharp edges, or tattered edges on uniforms. These can cut your partners, cut the mats, or provide spots for fingers and toes to get stuck when rolling, leading to injuries.
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Safety on the mat. Pay attention. Avoid talking unless necessary. Don’t play around when it isn’t appropriate. Don’t sit in ways prone to being injured if someone rolls or is pushed into you. Watch out for others when you are rolling. Move if necessary and get back to work. It is fine to intervene or say something if you see something dangerous.
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Basic etiquette. Varies gym to gym. Things like gear requirements (must wear rash guards under gi, must be certain colors or branding, …), lining up by rank at the conclusion of class, bowing on and off the mats, waiting for permission to enter the mat if arriving late, and shaking hands of higher ranked belts upon arrival are common. I feel these should be explained even if your gym doesn’t enforce them so they don’t end up in a weird situation if they visit other gyms.
After this basic safety and culture primer, I’d introduce them to how to train:
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General fitness: strength and conditioning options, diet, sleep and recovery, mobility, etc.
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Drills, repping out moves: can be done solo, with a partner, or using props. Drilling involves repeating a sequence or a concept in order to gain familiarity, competence, and mastery with it. Drills can be performed with constraints, handicaps, or at varying resistance or intensity depending on the focus and purpose of a training session. Examples: line drill movements, technical standups, breakfalls, “kata” sequences, uchi-komi, partner drills, …
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Situational sparring. Introduce them to different positions with clearly-defined constraints without danger of submissions or entering unknown territory:
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Closed guard, half guard, several other guards: Bottom player’s objective is to sweep, take their opponent’s back, and avoid the guard pass. Top player’s objective is to pass guard and avoid being swept or having their back taken.
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Mount, side control, back, others: Bottom player escapes. Top player maintains or advances the position.
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Wrestling, Judo, and standup drills: pummeling for underhooks, grip fighting, touching the opponent’s foot, etc.
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Hunting for specific submissions. One opponent will only be using a specific submission. The other only defends against it. Short, but not too short rounds to give people time to work. Usually focused on the move(s) of the day.
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Rolling.
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Observe a few rounds first.
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Prior martial arts experience often has a lot of overlap.
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Emphasize safety of yourself and opponent first.
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Goal setting. Self-discipline.
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Reviewing your performance.
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Jita Kyoei (mutual welfare and benefit): Considerations when rolling with smaller, older, or less experienced opponents.
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Illegal moves.
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No cranking or exploding into submissions. Only perform submissions in a safe and controlled manner.
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Asking for rolls vs. demanding rolls.
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People have the right to say yes or no to rolling partners–there are many valid reasons for it.
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Tournaments, matches, fights: Testing yourself against others in a live setting.
- Rule sets and format dictate style and strategy choices.
- Weight management.
- Peaking athletically.
- Nutrition.
- Psychology.
- Competition a whole skill in of itself. You can be technically inferior to an opponent, but beat them by being excellent at competition.
Next, I would teach them a high-level overview of the ruleset(s) likely to be encountered. This would show them the basic hierarchy of positions and give some insight on the importance of each major position: standing, the guard, side control, mount, back control, knee on belly. Hopefully, introducing them to each position via positional sparring would happen quickly.
In general, I think this would take about a month to get exposed to these concepts at a high level and get some reps in most/all of the major positions. Many people would probably be exposed to some of these concepts already, but a refresher probably shouldn’t hurt or be insulting. These are rough guidelines, not a comprehensive checklist or course. I’d consider giving someone their first stripe if they genuinely worked through some of these positions and understood this outline.