Ecological Dynamics

​I came up in the traditional model of teaching Jiu Jitsu. When I first started training, class was an hour and a half, 30-45 minute “warm up”, 30-45 minutes of technique, and roll from the knees with the leftover time. There are good aspects to that and maybe less desirable aspects that arose from it. Even when I opened my gym I taught the traditional model, and it works, but it’s not the most efficient use of limited time. It’s easier absolutely, but with limited time the classic training methodology won’t create the desired results as quickly. Training ecologically has been a part of grappling for my entire time in the sport, we just didn’t call it that. In the days of the sherdog Internet forums, the question of how do I get better faster always came up, and the answer was when you roll limit yourself to certain things. That’s all this is, instead of giving you a set of techniques that you may or may not find useful and then having you roll from a neutral position where you may not be able to even get to the techniques you’ve just seen, you begin with a specific task, from a specific place and self organize an answer, then you discuss the things that posed problems. I’d love to run a three hour class where we can exercise, drill, and do task based games and free roll, but no one has time for that. It’s makes sense for Gordon Ryan to say that ecological dynamics don’t work because he’s detached from the normal populace, regular people don’t train hours a day 7 days a week, and if people don’t focus so much on the perfect singular technique for every moment, he can’t sell as many 8 hour long multiple hundred dollar instructional videos. Information processing is absolutely a more digestible, less taxing way to learn Jiu Jitsu, you just aren’t going to build the skills as quickly unless you put an inordinate amount of time in