Figure It Out Camp Malaga 2025: Day 1 (Full Session)

So right hand down, left foot down, left arm up. And then just do what you normally do. Just this stuff. And then switch sides.

Nice. Switch side again. This time when you turn your hand out, it's easier to pull the shoulder back because we don't want the shoulder to be like this. Move your hand out and then bounce a little bit.

And don't twist your neck. Just move the shoulders a little bit. So shoulders up, shoulders back. And then step back to a stretch here.

And then step forward, fingers out. So don't twist from the neck. Twist from the chest and the lower back. Stepping back, stretching a little bit here.

Stepping forward. Now try the arm circles. So big circle with the arm. Let the shoulder and chest follow.

And then step back into a deep squat here. And then same thing on the other side. Stepping back, squat. Stepping forward.

Now option, three bounces and then a clap, switch sides. So either step back into the squat or jump switch. And now adding some hamstrings. From here we go back into the same position but we leave the foot.

So you're stretching the calves and hamstrings. And then bounce, twist and hamstrings. The first few minutes you can follow my lead but then eventually we're going to freestyle this. Now let's add in one more thing.

From here knee to elbow kick through, sit down. Move the wrists. And then activate the lats serratus. Lift up, kick back.

And then from side to side. The world's best stretch. Kick through. Jump switch.

Maybe take it up higher. Okay, everybody right foot forward. Hands off the mat, straddle. Move all the way to the other side and see if you can catch.

Now the left foot is forward. Left hand catches. It's really awkward to do it with the wrong hand. So go left hand towards right foot.

And try to catch the foot. And then you can do the same thing. So you're going to do the same thing. You're going to do the same thing.

So go left hand towards right foot. And try to catch the foot. And then let go. Move over to the other side.

Straddle. All the way around. And just flow from side to side. If you're a little bit masochistic you can pull the heel in towards the butt.

Maybe too early in the morning. From side to side. And then a little detail here. I see many of you are struggling here.

It's because your stance is too narrow. You need to slide it out a little bit. If you're here it's like you feel really stiff but it's just foot placement. So when you go here, slide the knee out a little bit.

It's hard to reach the foot but it's easier to stretch when you're deeper. All right everybody, side plank. Left arm up. And then you can do the same thing.

All right everybody, side plank. Left arm up. And then from here, watch out now, you're probably going to roll into someone. We go elbow down, roll to the back.

And then up on the other side, side plank. So you go whoop. Very nice. If you want to add and make it a little bit more stretchy, you can go knee to elbow and then flash dance pose.

Like this. Boom. And then spin under. Boom.

And then roll. Very nice. And then straddle. Straight knees.

Feet from side to side, swivel. And then come up into butt stretch pose, pigeon pose. Switching sides. Now look now, this is a bit tricky.

Many of you are going to do it wrong but you're going to figure out eventually. Pigeon pose, swivel under, half straddle. One more time. Pigeon pose, swivel under, come up.

Now don't sit down and tuck it in. Stretch out so you're sitting on the inside of the heel. Straddle. So this is the full thing.

Pigeon, half straddle, come down. Use your hands for support. Look, just like this. Yeah.

Nice. And then for a couple of minutes, do the stuff you normally do. Rocking and rolling, switching up and down. Scorpions, whatever you normally do.

Take two minutes and just do the warm-ups that you like to do. Free-flowing jiu-jitsu-like movements. Go. Freestyle.

And our coach, Max Bickerton from Grappler Collective, we're both here to help illuminate this stuff for you guys. And then of course, our photographer, Violet here, she's going to be taking pictures and helping us show what we do. Before we get started, she'd like to say something to the group. It's time to get to know some people in one place.

And just come and let me know that you really don't like the digital video. I'll do my best. It's a really big group. I will try.

Okay? The other rule is if a photo goes up on Instagram or online and you've hiked it, maybe you just don't feel beautiful or whatever it is, let me know and I will always take it down. If there's a picture up and you don't like it, I will take it down always. The other thing is around building the sessions.

I've got a couple of sessions that Greg and Max are teaching. They both said that they're really happy for you to build the sessions, but please don't post it online. Please don't put it in any of your group chats or look if you don't have access to it. This is how these lovely men make their living.

So please do not share all of this online or in big microphones. But filming for your own memory, either part of your memory, you get it? That's totally fine. Apart from that, I think we're all good to go.

If you don't like the picture or video, come let me know. Train's towards the back of the room. We're all good. Oh, the last thing.

Guys, just one sec. The noise carries quite hard just for one sec. The other thing is photos, all of that stuff will be available in a gallery at the end of the account. So please don't send me messages saying, where are my pictures?

Because I'll write them. They'll be available at the end. Thank you so much, guys. Have a great afternoon.

All right, let's get started. So today, the focus is going to be creating what I call a whole practice. A whole practice is designed specifically to give a wide experience to a new player. Somebody who's approaching maybe Jiu Jitsu for the first time or who is within their first two years of training.

The reason we use whole practice here is because the wider the experience, the more context the student will have eventually to pull information from. Typically, when coaches first start using CLA, they feel a little bit insecure about it because it looks really crazy and messy. So what they tend to do is they shrink the experience down and maybe focus on one aspect of grappling like the mounted position. But this is a mistake because over time, this is very limiting.

So rather than go specific to wide, we do it the opposite. We go from wide to specific over time. And that's what I'm going to introduce to you guys today. Now, the other way that we're going to look at this is we're going to start from what we call connected positions.

Connected positions are just any position where we start or we already have contact with our partner. This can be very helpful for new players who don't have context for the things we're asking them to do. It's much easier to pick up information and sense what we must do when we're touching a body rather than just looking out. So this is how it's going to be designed today.

I'm going to say one more thing and then we'll get started. The intention of practice is important. This is why I started out with this explanation on why we're doing what we're doing. We can set the intentions around the individual, the day, the week, or maybe a few weeks time like we're preparing for a tournament.

But either way, intentions lead actions. So if we know why we're intending to practice, this can help facilitate what we do during practice. Does this all make sense to you guys? Yeah.

All right. Great. Let's get started. So for the first situation, we're going to start standing here and we're going to start with our partner's ankle.

Now, I'm going to lead up to you to start. We can start. I know it's first thing hop around on your leg, right? We can start with the leg on either side.

Doesn't matter which one. Now, your first task is to keep the leg. We're starting here, but you don't have to stay here. Your job is to stay connected.

You can move your leg around however you want to keep a hold of it. But your job while staying connected to the leg is to try to put your partner on their hands. To put your partner on their hands, you could only use your connection and movement to try to get them to fall down to their hands. To win the game, once they fall and only after they fall, we're going to try to go.

We do this. We win. Then it's our partner's turn. Defending player, your job is to stay balanced.

And try to remove your leg from your partner's grasp. If you're able to do that, you win the game. Change back and forth every time somebody wins. Easy enough?

Yeah? I take silences meaning yes. But yes is also good. Yes, sir.

Let's go. One thing, and between the little breaks, if you want to run and grab water if you need it, I know it's warm in here. Also, to manage fatigue and space, if you guys would like to work in groups of three, you're more than welcome. You know, I know you guys are strangers and don't know each other, but.

All right. So something small. I'm going to give you each time I give a 30 seconds before I start speaking and then we'll get to it. But the first thing I want to point out is why I chose to do it this way.

But I'd like to get you guys involved in this process. Why do you think we started off, for example, with a little break? Why do you think we started off, for example, with the focus of staying connected to the leg and only using our connections of our hands to move our partner around to try to make them fall? Any guesses?

Say what? Oh, no, that's definitely the physical reason. But why did I constrain it in such a way that I didn't lie to anything else but use your initial connection? Anybody?

See a safety, right? So think about it. I said the intention of this practice was to give beginners or newer players a wide focus on how to engage in the game of grappling. Fear of falling and fear of injury.

This was called a rate limiter. It can stop the rate at which we engage, which can reduce time to learn a skill. So if we give them exposure to the basics of hopping around their leg and not fearing falling and constraining in a safe way, we can get learning to happen at a faster rate. Does this make sense to you guys?

Because no matter what someone's doing, staying away and hopping around is a necessity. So we're facilitating that initial experience. Now, when we want to add in more dangerous aspects, we think of it like this. Tactics as tasks.

So in this next game, we're going to add a tactic as a task to help us learn how to get our legs involved in the destabilization process in a more safe way. So we're going to start the same way as we did before with your partner's ankle on either side. But this time to make your partner fall to the floor, we're going to use foot to foot contact. So by foot to foot, I literally mean my foot going to my partner's foot to make them fall towards their hips or hands.

You cannot hack the knees. Anything like this, right? Foot to foot contact. The same as before.

Your partner falls. Go get the hips to win. Defending player, free the leg. Small thing, and I'll let you guys go to work.

If your partner falls on their hips, this is fine. Wait for them to get up. Then go get their hips, right? That's what you're being constrained to do.

Does that make sense? So defending player, if you fall, just get back up and keep trying to pull your leg out. Easy enough? All right, let's work.

To, it's from light to specific. OK. Every time? No.

No, not every time. You constrain based on what your goals are, what your intentions are. Yeah. But when we're teaching, like I'm trying to give the philosophy of when we teach a general class for beginners, how we might want to approach it.

Yeah, OK. So from you, we're teaching the arm bar? Well, that's different. That's a submission.

OK. So we would go from small to big. Yeah, yeah, it's the other way. That's a great question, though.

Let's go, Max. Yeah. This feels like it feels like my gym. It's hot.

All right, let's move forward. So now, as you can see, we gave a general experience focusing on the same thing, starting connected to your partner's leg and putting them down in different ways. But with the target goal of getting to the hips. Hope you guys understand the concept of tactics as tasks as a way to introduce things you might want to let your students do in order to more successfully have them achieve their outcomes.

Now, before I go to this next bit, does anyone have questions? What we've done so far, we're going to have time to have a question and answer, but I don't want to go into any craziness. But if you have a question over what we did, I'd like to answer it now. If anybody has any.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. If you have an injury. So for you, absolutely.

What we have to understand is we are teaching to a general room. We can't accommodate everyone. But if we have an athlete who, for some reason, can't start with this amount of dynamics, then we just constrain you in a different way. Currently, I'm working with a gentleman without a leg.

And so we always start standing in our our foundations class. And for him, I always have to change things, of course. Right. I can't have him hop on on one leg.

Right. So this is something we need to consider. Anything else? All right.

Let's keep working then. Back to your feet. What if people are pointing out just making people aware that if they do have any injuries. Yeah, for sure.

Yes. If anyone's injured today, you can't do this. Please say something. All right.

Please, please don't let me hurt you. I would feel very bad. This is vacation. This is fun.

Yeah. So Greg's an asshole. My knee broke. Please, let's not be that guy.

All right. So excuse me. Excuse me. Yes, please.

Yeah. You need another reason, right? Or at least five more reasons. I don't know.

Right now, we're going to start connecting in a similar way. But this time we're going to start with our partner's head and shoulder. So we're going to start with our partner's head underneath us. Connected at their shoulders.

You can connect your hands however you like. Underneath your partner. It doesn't matter. Now, your first task is to keep your connection.

No matter how you switch it around. We're trying to keep our connection on our partner's shoulders and keep their head underneath our body. While doing that, we're trying to continuously bring our partner's hand or hands to the mat. Once they touch, our goal is to leave the connection of our partner's shoulders.

We're trying to get our partner's hips. Now, you can take any path there. So for example, let's imagine you feel creative today and you want to use what we previously did. Get out to a leg.

Get out to an ankle. Put your partner down and get to the hips. This is completely fine. Any path to the hips is what we're focused on.

Does this make sense to you guys? Alright, so one more time. Start connected. Keep your head under.

Hands down. Go get the hips. If I close around the hips, I win. Defending player, your only job is to separate the hands.

Free your hands. Yes. No, behind. You have to get behind your partner to close your hands around the hips.

Yes, sir. Alright, once you get behind. No, I want you to have nothing in between your arms. So if they're still fighting, fight until either of you have a clear connection or none at all.

Yes, sir. No, just continuously put their hands down. You do not have to have the hands on the mat to win. We're just using that as a vehicle to get to where we're going.

Yes. Yes. Don't let any randomness stop you unless of course someone gets hurt, right? Yes.

No, sir. You have to put a hand or hands down before attempting. So once the hand or hands, then you can attempt continuously. Just once.

So you make a touch once. And then you can attempt continuously. Yes. So once the hand or hands, then you can attempt continuously.

Just once. So you make a touch once. You're still trying, but at any time during that time you can go get the hips. I thought that was easy.

I messed up. Alright, guys. Let's go. Let's go.

Something small. Variation is a feature, not a bug. This means we're not trying to get rid of variation. We're trying to allow it to exist in its functional form.

Again, we want the variation to be experienced so we can learn how to solve the problems they offer. So the reason I'm saying this, I had a lot of questions just now walking around. What if my partner falls down? What if they pull guard?

This is all fine as long as all of their actions are leading towards the intended goal, which is to separate connections and be on your feet. So anything that's in between where you are in that outcome is allowed to exist. Does this make sense to you guys? So, yes, sir.

Please. It's a way that becomes too indirect of them doing that. Indirect meaning what? For example, if I decide to pull guard, try and knock someone down, but in a very time-consuming way, while I'm staying grounded on my hips for quite a long time.

Let's imagine, so I've talked about this, classes largely need to be iterative, meaning once you put a game into play, you have to watch to see what happens. So let's imagine you have a culture at your gym of guard pulling, and we're trying to constrain that to get people more experience on the feet, and you play this game and everyone sits, and you feel like it's time-consuming, the experience isn't what you want, then it's up to you as a coach or as the person designing practice to say, hey, that's not what I want. So rather than say, don't do that, the next time you just say, we're going to do this one more time, but this time you can't sit to solve the problem. And so you constrain it, you take it out as a potential solution, if that's the experience you want your students to have.

Would you ever just make it a wing condition, like say, if you keep the hips grounded for five seconds? That's another way to do it. There are multiple ways we can constrain the task to get the experience that we want. We can take it out completely or we can make it punishable, meaning if we use it as a solution, but there's a time dynamic attached to it, if you don't accomplish the task in the requisite time, then you fail.

Does this make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Max.

Anything else about what we've done so far? Where are we at? Yeah. I think we've done a really good job.

But basically, in decision making, such as top guys that are winning points, just needs to get on top, we have no other choice. Could this be possible to make a decision making compared to the time and the score for the competition? What do you mean specifically, like they just have to do the big thing and that's it? I started with hip control in the last part.

Correct. In our application, it was the head stays up and the free, right? So he was about, he could actually pull guard, put me down, get starting free. If I want the top guy, not to care, the guy that's holding the head, not to care about me taking down, I'm losing the hip control.

Would that be a thing if I focus more on this exact scenario, taking the place and saying, we're going to only meet the submission or top position with hip control? Sure. Then you can make decision making in the same way. Correct.

So again, let's imagine right now I'm giving you a general experience. Like I said, we started this with an intention and all the games I'm designing are towards that intention. If yours is what you just asked about, then of course it's fine. As long as your students know exactly what's being asked of them, that's sort of the goal.

We're trying to take that source of information between us and our partner. And we're trying to constrain in such a way that what's happening makes sense. So we know what we're trying to accomplish. So if you're working with a room where you want that experience, they understand what you mean, of course it's fine.

There is no real set rule on how. Yeah, yeah, you're gonna be good to go. I think because the classes are like I said, for earlier stage, right? The more they can have their head out, you teach them to not be in the room.

So yeah, if it's a more advanced, maybe that's what he's asking. And inside and to guard, I don't think it's a good strategy for beginners. We can't think as people already with knowledge. We have to ask ourselves, what lessons did we have to learn to gain the knowledge that we now hold?

And it was through experience that we gained this knowledge. So we're giving our students the experience we once had, but in a more, I guess, direct way. Because sometimes, I mean, depending on when you started Jitsu, it was the wild, wild west, man. You didn't know what was happening.

So, all right, let's, oh yes, sir, please, one more. Maybe I had to understand why you were struggling getting behind the elbows. Maybe it wasn't the hands being on the mat. Maybe it was.

So I would have we would have to have a discussion. Maybe you and I as a coach athlete, Michael, what was your struggle? You defined the problem as the hands coming up when you tried to circle. You couldn't get behind the elbow.

So once we identify the problem, we can choose a new task or a new constraint to try to highlight that information source. We can experience the problem that we are facing. Maybe just depends. I know it's unsatisfying.

Guys, real quick, I don't want to divulge into a question answer yet. Let's move forward a little bit and then we can keep doing this as we go along. I'll make sure I leave some time at the end before Max's session so we can chat a little bit. Yeah.

Cool. All right. So now we're going to move to the floor. You're welcome.

So we're going to start similarly to how we did the first game. You don't know. You don't know me. No.

All right. So we're going to start a hold of our partner's ankle. Now, the bottom player has one job to free themselves from connections and get to their feet. Max has to pull his leg free any way he can and get up to his feet.

My job is to hold Max down. So I don't have to keep his leg, but I want to keep him grounded. All right. My only job is just like it was before.

Keep Max grounded and I need to go get his hips. So I need to manipulate the leg any way that I need to to create a path to his hips. Now, it doesn't matter whether we are front facing or rear facing. If I gain access to my partner's hips at any time, it doesn't matter where Max ends up.

Any part of the process, if I get his hips, I win the game. If I'm standing. Yeah. Even if let's imagine you jump to your feet and I go directly from where I am to your hips.

That'd be a win for me. I just have to connect my hands. Yes, it does not matter. Hands connect around the hips.

Anywhere on the body is good. He's job is to get to his feet. I have to close my arms around his waist. Yeah.

All right, let's go. Come on. This is why I might go. So if the whole room is struggling, so let's say six out of the ten people are fucking up and they just they don't understand.

It's my fault. If four out of the ten are fucking up, it's their it's their news. If one person is particularly struggling, I will go. I just change.

Absolutely. We have to be open to change and open to adjustment, but we also need to be relaxed enough to let things happen. You know what I mean? We have to not be overly controlling as coaches.

This is hard. This is very hard. Yeah. But you remember where we're coming from.

We are people that have all this experience. We already we already did what they're now feeling. We can't cheat them of that. Do you understand?

And the more experience you get, the harder it is to to remember how it was to not have those. Exactly. Have you heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect? Everyone likes to talk about it.

It's that's what that means. So it's also the as your ignorance increases, so does your confidence. But it's actually as your expertise increases, so does your confidence. So we forget the path it took us to get to where we are.

Kind of feel ashamed of having been that stupid. And that's how you relate to them. I completely agree. We can't be those guys.

I got these. Not me anyway. I encourage failure. Safe to fail experiments.

Question. What he said about OK, he doesn't want people to pull guard. OK, do you do you have them do the mistake intentionally because you know it's going to happen? OK, now maybe.

But maybe I want it to happen. Like let's say let's say a recent example where from a connected position, a guard pulls very effective. Let's see, Akins versus Moody. Was it Moody in CJI?

Akins pulled underneath a connection and it destabilized Moody and he got to the top. This is good. If he would have been trained to not think outside the box, maybe he wouldn't have seen that opportunity. So there are some times we let that exist and sometimes we don't.

It's all centered around the intention of the practice and what exposure or experience we want our students to have. You know, this is a it's like molding clay constantly and that clay is constantly falling apart. We have to keep. Don't try to put it in the oven and make it.

Not at all. We want it flexible and adaptable. My first question, we got a close connection. Have to be the kind of.

No, anywhere. Anywhere. Yes. Random front hoodlars.

Random like a front hoodlars. You've got to get the hips. I don't care where you end up. This is fine.

No, no, no, no. You have the hips. This is a win. He has your hips, man.

Any close connection from anywhere around the hips is a win. Yeah. Just going to point it to a follower around the hips. Oh, no, you're good.

Do whatever you want, man. Yeah, yeah. I want to hear what you're saying since I can't join the training. Yeah, for sure, man.

Yeah, yeah. No worries at all, dude. Watch out for their heads, man. Keep fighting.

Keep fighting. Yeah. I said keep fighting. He's like, oh, you see that?

You have to be underneath so there can't be anything in between you could still a defensive structure. We want to move all the defensive structures out of the way. But once you break apart, it's over. Okay.

Yes. Hips, hips, hips. Yes. Sir.

Yeah, you again. About the question the guy asked with the problem in the technique. When do you go to your student and talk about his struggle? When he comes to you?

When he comes to me. If he doesn't, you don't. I don't. I want to teach responsibility for your own training.

I'm not hiding from them. I just want them to recognize there is a problem and be invested enough in their own development that they come to me. Okay. Once they can identify the problem, then I try to talk them to a potential new task to help them find a solution in a more measured way.

So, hey, Craig, can you help me? I cannot do it. Is it valid? I would say yes, please.

What do you want help with? Oh, man, I just I can't do it. Why not? What's your problem?

Oh, I don't know. Okay, go tell me your problem and then I'll help you. All right. And then he goes, oh, coach, man.

I got to my hips because I couldn't free my ankle. And then I would say, okay, so what did you try to do differently? I put my hands on the mat and he kept getting my hips. Well, I want you to try to get a break his connection before you put your hands on the mat and give him a new task.

Okay. And then you see. Yeah. Thank you, man.

I need to go to teach some classes. Already, man. You just got here. Yeah, I didn't think about to do it, but tomorrow and next days I will be here all training.

Perfect, man. Sounds good, man. Safe travels. Yeah.

Yeah. So like when you hear it, she like, for example, it becomes like a gun. It can be, but just kick her, move her. We're trying to get to our feet.

So whether you use guarded tactics, like make using your connections to make her fall or just pushing her way to get up, this is all okay. Because remember, right now you have that experience, but imagine if you were a new person, you wouldn't have a guarded experience. So you'd be more likely to just do what the task of being asked. And now you're trying to manage this task with your current expectations based on previous experiences.

So just try to erase that. I know you can't and just focus on the task. Yeah. Time.

Relax. Oh, you mean the one I just did with ways to practice. philosophical discussion with a guy. It's all jargon.

I loved it. It was great. But it's like, I'm looking through it three times. Like you probably shouldn't.

You probably should listen to somebody else. Need someone to speak to the bros. Yeah. All right.

Deandre. All right, guys. Good question for you before I move on. Oh, yeah.

No, I said question for you. I'm gonna ask you a question. No, no, no. I'm gonna ask you a question.

I know everyone's like, no, me, me here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Those of you guys who raised your hands, I'm gonna ask you a question. Does anyone see something consistent in what we've done so far? Say what? Ah, hips.

Hips have been a central focus. What? Keeping your partner grounded. Huh?

Huh? Sure. So this is something that I find pretty important. I get a lot of questions like, oh, you can't just create a bunch of series of games to teach people to be random.

Well, yeah. So the way we create it is to give a fluid experience. We're trying to connect the different experiences we have from different starting points to a common end. This is what Jiu Jitsu looks like anyway.

Think about it. They always say the goal is position before submission. You want to pass your partner's legs, hold them down chest to chest to back and try to submit them. Jiu Jitsu is very redundant.

Okay. We're always interacting with the same parts of the body for similar reasons. So starting with that simple idea when designing practice can help new players take a shitstorm of information and make it make sense initially. If they can see that all connected paths lead towards somewhere meaningful, this can help them orient themselves around as things get chaotic, confusing, or novel.

Sure. Yeah, so I've done something interesting. So for two years, I didn't tell my students anything. Just we're going to play these games today.

And it had no negative effect. Everybody learned how to play Jiu Jitsu. Now as a recent, I'm switching things around a bit. I'm telling them the intention of the class before we get started.

What I've noticed the difference is emotional adherence. When you talk to people about why they're doing something and you give them an emotional connection to the behavior, they tend to be more interested in performing it. So we're not just robots walking around doing what our coach told us, because most of you guys aren't even listening, but it's completely okay. But instead we're humans having a human experience.

So how can we take that, make it meaningful, and connect it to the physical things we're asking our students to do? So yes, telling people what the practice is about I think can be very helpful to get people engaged. Well, attention is guided by the tasks themselves. We're going from this point on the body to this point on the body.

That's what I mean. So it's one in the same. I'm giving them a human place to look. An intention could be to get to the underhook, right?

That's a symbolic intention that once you have experience I can use. But I'm talking to new players, they don't know what an underhook is. But if I say go from the elbow to the shoulder, this is where their attention is going, but it's also connected to the intended thing that I'm having them do. Yes.

It's general practice in the game, but you made it more common about, so you put it into a more serious foot lock position. Would you still give them the same instruction, or would you give them more specific instructions of how to do it? Well, I'll give you a quick example. It's a good question and then we'll move on.

I like to think about it. I like to think about it. I like to think about it. I like to think about it.

I like to think about it. I like to think about it. I like to think about it. I like to think about it.

And then we'll move on. I like that though. Yes, so we could use the same ideas, we could add variation to it. We could start an advanced player in an entanglement where the bottom player is fully connected to the hips in some way, right?

My job would be, let's say the task would be to keep a hold of both legs and keep my player grounded until I get a hold of my partner's toes, right? And this could be what I'm going towards. I can start here, I don't have to stay here, I can switch around. But once I reach my outcome, I win.

Bottom player's job, separate connections, get to their feet. If they accomplish that, I win. Or he wins, right? So this forces me as the bottom player to keep him grounded while I work towards the end, which it allows them to experience how to break connections to get to their feet.

So this is something that we would do for people who already have a skill in this area. Yeah? Yeah? Okay, let's move on.

Oh, never mind. Are you sure? Well, so you talk about this in the, like, when you mentioned the Ethereum practice. Yep, yep.

No, you sound right. So, in the last game we did, one thing that happened with my partner was that our objective was to get up to orbit, to avoid the connection to the hips. And we would figure it out that if we are on our back, it's harder to get to the hips because there's no space. But at the same time, it turned the game more to a guard passing game rather than trying to get up.

Sure. So, what did you change that or darken it down? I just spoke about this with another person here at the camp. So here's the problem.

You have a previous experience. So you have a concept of guard and its function. That's going to color your experience. So you might lean towards using that as a tactic to help accomplish your task or as a strategy.

But new players, if they have no concept, they'll be less likely to see it the way you see it. So if I'm dealing with a room that has an expectation of using the guard and I don't want them to, I would change that. I would change something about the way you were interacting with the partner to afford the opportunity to stand up. So this is why the goal was to get to your feet because I can't simultaneously be connected to my partner in a guarded scenario and get to my feet.

Though I could use the connections of my guard to get my partner away and then get up. Right? This is fine. But as long as your intention is to stand up and I see you doing that, I would change nothing.

Does this make sense to you? Yeah? All right. So all fours.

Now we're going to start connecting to the shoulders like we did in the standing situation. Our main task is to keep our partner's head under our body while keeping their arms, hands, elbows on the floor. But just like the previous game, our job is to change our connection from our partner's shoulders to our partner's hips. And just like before, it doesn't matter how it happens.

As long as I'm connected to my partner's hips, I win the game. Even my partner turns to face me. If I stay connected to the hips, I win. Defending player has two ways to win the game.

Get to their feet, separate all connections or your favorite, recover, put their legs in front of you, pull guard. But you have to break all connections. If he gets his legs in front of me, then I get the hips. I win the game.

But when putting his legs in front, he separates from my connection. He wins. Yes, sir. You can do anything with your body that you would like, as long as it leads you to closing your hands around their hips.

I think the method, if you're holding onto my leg, like this is a form of connection, is this over or is this continuing? I think it was a question. This would keep us moving. This would be continued.

So it has to separate. Now, even if he were like connected and he's guarded, fully guarded, it would stop all engagement. This, since I'm still, he's still under threat of what could possibly happen. You'd have to remove this.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, any guard really, as long as they're not around your hips. You good?

Let's go. Be more important. Right? And it's all relative to what my partner's doing.

So priority changes as things change. Would you count like half guard variations as a... Here right now, yes. But my gym, no.

We typically, the only half guard variation we count when we're protecting hips is like a knee shield variation. Typically, we'll do on the side knee shield, seated or standing. Yeah. Like, or in closed guard sometimes we don't want people to get trapped in the legs.

But just getting your legs back in front with your back on the mat, we don't like that because we don't want to create a culture of belly up play. Yeah. We want to create a culture of progression. In any time I give a wide experience, we break up the starting position to three different types.

Standing, or stuff that happens from the feet. Guarded, stuff that happens in front of legs. And then pins, stuff that happens past legs. And so we do this because if we were to chop up Jiu-Jitsu into its component parts, if we could even say that, these are the big lines between where we are.

On our feet is obvious. Any standing situation. In front of legs is obvious. Anytime we're in front of legs and pins are any times past legs.

And so this helps us paint a picture for our students as the path we're taking from one part of the game to the end part of the game. Does this make sense to you guys? So in this last bit, we're going to start past our partner's legs, but we're going to have similar goals. So we're going to start with the bottom player on the side.

Yes. Top player is going to start with their hands locked around bottom player's waist. Bottom player starts with their hands in contact. So whatever your lock is, bottom player gets to start with their hands on you.

Our job as a top player is to try to get past our partner's hands any way we can. Even though we're starting connected, we don't have to stay here so we can open up our connections to address what's in front of us. But either way, our job is to get past our partner's hands, change our connections from our partner's waist to our partner's shoulders. Now when we make a connection to our partner's shoulders, we want to be at least under one of the elbows.

One or both doesn't matter. One or both elbows is fine. But to win the game, we have to cover our partner's hips. Either chest to chest, again hands connected under at least one elbow.

Or chest to back, covering the hips, connected under at least one elbow. By covering the hips, I don't care the orientation of your legs. One leg, two legs, in any orientation. If you're covering the hips and attach to the shoulders, this is fine for now.

We win the game. So hips, shoulders, cover hips. Both conditions have to be met. Is this clear for the top player?

Yes, sir. Bottom player. We're going to work. No, you got it.

We're going to do the same as before. The bottom player's job is to get their legs back in front with no connection. So no connection being nothing like around an ankle or around the body. No connections.

Okay? Or get to your feet. No connections. Easy enough?

All right, let's play. All right, y'all, listen up. Now for the last thing we're going to do is we're going to give each of you an opportunity to explore the complete open space. But we're going to center our focus in the open space around what we've done today.

Now this is something that's critical because you hear this all the time about traditional gyms. We go from warm up to drilling to sparring. And there's no in-between. There's no stuff to get us from a completely static thing to a live thing.

We don't want to commit that same atrocity, right? So these small games are designed to create a focus of intention that, when practiced, has an effect on how we play the whole game. Right? Especially for new students.

When you first get into the entire game, you shake hands and go. This can be overwhelming. What should I do? But if they spent all week performing little tasks that get them from their feet all the way to a strong pin like we did here, this adds clarity to the process.

Does this make sense to you guys? So now we're going to do this. But this is how we're going to start. Since we're starting connected, we're going to stay with that rule.

We're going to start on the feet. Every time it's our turn, we're going to alternate from starting connected at our partner's shoulders and connected at our partner's ankle. Our goal as the attached player is to perform the little tasks that got us all the way. Chest to chest, chest to back, shoulder connected, hips covered.

So you're going to use the focuses to get you to where you're going. Now, I know some of you have experience, so I'm going to I know I'm going to see some craziness, but that's OK. You only win as the attached player when you get shoulder connected with your arms. You get the hips covered with your legs, chest to chest or chest to back.

That is your goal of this game. Defending player at any time. Break all connections, make your way to your feet. Even if it starts right off at the beginning, your partner pulls his head out.

Switch. If you're almost there, but they push you off and stand up, switch. You guys got it? All right, let's work.

Strangled. This does not mean you're going to be this all the time. Unless maybe you wrestled for 30 years and you're used to using your head to move somebody. This could be a case where it's a problem, but for the initial experience, not so much because maybe now.

So if you want to take 10 minutes, have a discussion, anything you can. Anything's on the table if you want to ask about it. And I'll do my best to answer the questions if you have any. Yes, sir.

Say one more time. Oh, invariance. So I use the invariance. So I would only point them out as they're necessary.

If the task is directly connected to something that must happen, I will absolutely point it out. But if it isn't, then I won't. So invariance are things that must be true. So we think about invariance.

The way I think about it anyway, the way I've justified it to the PhDs who are supporting me is that there are invariant features of the human body that we use to accomplish these physical tasks. And there are invariant functions about how we interact relative to the game we play. These aren't we don't necessarily tell people what these are, but I believe that the games should be connected to them as a way to control the information source to make things more digestible. Yeah, I just wondered if you can match it where students can be aware when they're there.

Only when I need to. So I try to keep everything I say and do effective. If it isn't, I must do something different. So necessity is important to me.

I don't like to do more than what's necessary. I know I speak like I'm a very controlling person, but it's actually the very opposite. I speak so directly so you understand my opinion, but I let the world be what it is. I let the environment tell me what's going on, not the other way around.

So when I see students engaging in behavior, I typically let it exist unless it's non-functional. So if it's of a variation that doesn't produce effective outcomes or at least the beginnings of effective outcomes, I'll try to change it. Otherwise, I leave it be. Remember, with new players, we're not just helping to learn techniques.

We're helping them learn how to play the game and we're helping them learn how to develop capacity to play the game. That's the physical demands. So if somebody's squeezing, this is good because squeezing is a part of what we're doing and I might want them to get a better squeeze. And then also they'll be fatigued so they get to experience that awfulness.

And then that may be the lesson they need to not squeeze so hard next time. So yeah, I let it exist. Hi, here, here, here. Global would just be what is the same as we play the whole game.

I have to connect to you to move you around. You're global. Local would be what's required in a given situation like an armlock. I have to hold you still relative to me to apply breaking forces.

So that's local to that. Now, this is also global in all submissions. It's true. The more still we hold the body, the more breakable and strangulable the body becomes.

Stillness can be expressed in two ways relative to the mat or relative to me. Relative to the mat, think chest to chest pin. Relative to me, think backtake, backpack. As you run around the world, I stay attached to you.

So, but again, this is local and then global would be I use my connections to move you around. Global would be I use my connection to move you around. Local would be I must hold you still to break or strangle you. Well, I got you.

One second. I have two and then. Yes. Yes.

So remember, variation is not just in the task. It's also in the partner selections in the time. It's even day to day. So you're not the same person every day.

By Wednesday, you're pretty tired. So even if we're doing the same class, it's going to affect you differently. So we put variation in wherever it's necessary, wherever it's needed. So, yes, so typically in my school, we would do the same constraints for beginners throughout the week.

Oh, yes. This is something we do often for new players. Because this is something that's required in the game. This is something where all of our attachments lead to.

So let's see. Body locking requires access to the hips. Leg entanglements require access to the hips. But sweeping requires a relative hip to hip closeness.

So hip centric focus is something that I use often to design my games. Typically, yes, because there is phase transition between those states. Those states don't exist in a vacuum. When we play the whole game, there's constant change between standing guard and pinned states.

So letting students experience those phase transitions is critical for helping them develop a sense of continuity as they play the game. Have you guys ever noticed people that drill a lot tend to be very, very good at this? So let's see. So let's see.

So let's see. So let's see. So let's see. So let's see.

Have you guys ever noticed people that drill a lot tend to be very segmented and rigid in their action? This is something we want to avoid. So I design the games as such. When you're coaching, it's a room that's pretty mixed.

You've got advanced player players, you've got someone who's maybe there for the first time or just a couple of weeks. Who do you actually, do you watch the entire room or do you watch someone like specific where you're like trying to adapt the session as it goes on? So it's basically the intention of the class. Let's imagine it's a class for beginners, but I have advanced players there.

I don't care about the advanced players, so to speak. I want to be there, I want to give out for them because that's the intention of the class. So that's one rule I follow. So again, if it's a basic, I want to focus on the people who need that experience.

If I have a competition class, someone jumps into it for the first time, it's going to be tough, buddy. But it's going to be focusing to be on the people who are there consistently. I separate my levels, so I have beginners only training beginners and then mixed training, mixed and competitors training the competitors. school so it can be rather difficult to give everyone the experience they need.

So I use the separation as a way to manage that. Would you add tasks like if it's a mixed class? No I typically just design it where anyone could benefit from whatever task focus we have whether they be advanced or otherwise. So I try to keep things as general as I can when I can because the truth is is general class is put upon us by the nature of the gym but I don't think it's optimized for learning it's just something we have to work within.

No I mean like if we have even something in there, what's that for? I don't know. So we do like level one, level two, let's go keep this one. So he did a scaling focus for you guys.

So scaling is a way that we can add varying levels of difficulty in a mixed room. So let's say we want something complex like an arm lock to be experienced but we want to start from the mount. We might have three games that build off each other and we can only move from one to the next if we win the previous. So this is a way that I've historically dealt with a mixed room.

I play a game like this and there's an opportunity for submission. Do you take it or do you still take it? Focus on your goal. We get better at what we intend to get better at.

We do what we intend to do. If I'm just jumping an opportunity, this is not bad but it might not be conducive to the training session. Remember intention should lead us. Now you're also speaking as someone from previous experience so you recognize the opportunity for submission because you've had the opportunity and it may have been exposed to that level of ability.

If you haven't, I couldn't expect that. Nor let's say you're working with somebody who's never, doesn't realize that's an opportunity that might be beneficial to them that day. So I typically like to keep my students task focused and there might be times I break from this rule like we could be playing this and I said today all submissions are live all the time but that would change the nature of the exchange so it depends. I had yes.

Is your perspective on any particular, not necessarily specific, but any field of your perspective on invariant score in what you believe in various to be ever shift over time or change? This is going to sound arrogant but no. I look at this all the time and I feel like I have it pretty dialed in. I'm waiting for somebody to prove me wrong.

The best day of my life in the next 20 years when a guy comes to me and shows me that I'm full of shit. I can't wait for that to happen but it hasn't happened yet. So far I feel pretty confident in what I see because it hasn't been challenged. So can you give me one?

Sure. Well I think this is a problem with analysis. So if we define entanglement as isolating one leg from everything else while staying hip attached then everything that requires those conditions must be done from inside positioning. But let's say reverse clothes guard.

This is not isolating one. This is isolating both. So this is now a new thing at a certain level of analysis. So we'd have to determine where does that new thing fit into our previous analysis.

This is also the problem with analyzing a complex system. Sometimes we get these bugs where they don't fit in but so then how do they? So then we have to come up with a new definition of what it is. So that's the mistake.

And so I think that's also where my model fails as well. Any analysis of a complex system will ultimately fail. But we want to see how stable it is. So I think my concept of invariance is pretty stable as far as using it as a backbone to teach behavior.

But up short, it's not perfect. There always is. But I think it's not optimized but I think it's effective for what it is. Yes ma'am.

So I noticed that when I teach kids I was kind of using this approach without even really realizing it. But if you teach kids do you explain more why we do specific things? Zero. Kids are the opposite.

Right? There's a lady I spoke to recently. Please forgive me for forgetting her name. I just did a little podcast with her.

She's a wonderful kids coach. I think she should be highlighted. People should look at her. She does what's called a story.

She tells the kids a fantastical story about why they're engaging. And this is much better than, well the reason we're grabbing both legs is because having growth legs makes them fall down. Kids don't want to hear that. But if legs are dragons and by capturing them you make the castle fall down this is interesting.

So all we need for children is to engage. What will get them to engage in a focused and meaningful way? That's the language we use. And of course it's different from adults.

Can you imagine kids listening to me? They would die. Right? So, no.

Bad. Guys, I don't want to be disrespectful to Max. I want to stop it here please. I'm sorry.

I'll be here all week. You can bother me as much as you want later. But let's get rested. Let's take the five minutes.

Thank you for your attention and time. I really appreciate it.