IT'S EASIER TO BUILD STRONG CHILDREN
THAN FIX BROKEN ADULTS
At GROUNDWORKS our mission is to utilize Jiu Jitsu as a vehicle to guide our students to develop strong character traits and habits. With this mission as our Northstar the Jiu Jitsu journey becomes a manageable experience.Jan 2024Why you’re here
You see kids as an opportunity to influence the future and want to make a positive impact.
The type of Coaches at GROUNDWORKS have these traits.
Empathy is a must.
Authenticity only.
Problem solving skills are crucial.
Patience required.
The reason for this meeting is to bring you all on board with the concept of GROUNDWORKS and encourage you as Coaches to create your own best practices and protocols.Rank isn’t the absolute measure of whether you can make an impact. It’s a choice.
If you give a damn and show passion, that’s what it comes down to.
Show you give a fuck or 2.
So how do we measure success?
The strength of the team is each individual member
The strength of each member is the team
TOGETHER EVERYONE ACHIEVES MORE
What is your strength?
Goals for today
Things to address
Program DNA
GROUNDWORKS Vision
New developments
Coaching tactics
The Future
Thoughts
PROGRAM DNA
Harmony is an agreement of ideas, feelings, or actions, or a pleasing combination of different parts:
Permaculture is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems.
GROUNDWORKS is my “farm-to-table” approach to Jiu Jitsu. Inspired by the harmony of permaculture, we create systems that incorporate the diversity of individual students, harness their strengths, nurture their talents with a watchful eye, and foster a sense of teamwork and companionship as we navigate the journey. We build this in the heart of the city and have faith that our students will return back to their families and community as valuable assets.
Each individual adds to the entire garden. As seasons change, so will the experience that each student and Coach bring to the environment. This is an organic process that requires more hands on with students because we see them as individuals, not just a number. This relationship is transformative and inviting, not transactional and fleeting.
Our role in this is to guide young students to learn the required behaviors in the training room for the specific tasks at hand. As they bloom, they will be able to recognize patterns on their own and ultimately create their own connections. Sorta like the open-source world.
Our awareness to these needs and our relationship to the process gives us a unique perspective in creating better experiences for our students growth. I believe this cannot be manufactured and this approach to the training process is what sets GROUNDWORKS apart.
Embrace. Encourage. Empower.
GROUNDWORKS VISION
EXPERIMENT
We embrace their struggles and develop relationships through empathy.
We encourage good habits and behavior by modeling what we stand for and holding students accountable.
We empower others by giving them the space to make mistakes, learn, and solve problems.
Our academy allows students to equip themselves with belief, habits, and technique.
New developments
Teens program
Adults program
Open Mat
CompClub
Women’s only Open Mat
Girls only class
Can we expand on this?
Program to include gay peeps?
Program to include disabled peeps?
Coaching tactics
Hitch’s hodge podge
Buy-in, visual story-telling, analogies, Socratic method (ask, review, be curious)
What am I trying to share with these foos?
How do I challenge their behavior and spark curiousity?
Ask, is this a good position? How many sandwiches do I have?
Illustrate and tell stories. Use examples and analogies.
I like using food, hand-writing, ABC’s, learning a language is not natural why do we speak English and not French. Students are capable of learning anything. Everyday, relatable things like brushing teeth or tieing shoe-lacks… but kids where crocs. Cars of course and movies.
Your ability to CONNECT to a new generation is extremely valuable!
Challenge them and hold them accountable. Show them you give a fuck.
Manage your own expectations
Remember some of these kids can’t even wipe their own ass. They don’t all respond well to sequential style teaching. They need to feel, experiment, and find their own aha! moment.
So I can expect them to fuck up their first try. It reduces my own anxiety too.
I ask myself what am I trying to share and what is the big picture. What is the the main idea that we can begin at.
If you think of painting a person, don’t start with the nostrils and lips. Start with what you see 20 feet away- the shape of the body. If you begin with the details students will get lost and could interpret it as an animal.
And then ask yourself again, did my communication style help me share my intention and the results I wanted to see in my students- how can I adjust?
Back Control - Big Picture use your arms and legs to hold your chest to their back. Build 3 sandwiches and smush them together.
If they move, you keep moving and keep the sandwich together.
Details - Pinch knees together, Ear to ear, hand over hand, etc Don’t you hate when they mis-align? My sandwich fell apart- enter the forward shrimp. Build a tall fence and move the goal.
Constraints + Gamification
With games based lessons we communicate what the overall goal is for different positions and then give them up to 3 maaaaybe 4 tasks to focus on. If they learn how to behavior in the major positions, they will be able to make their own connections in time.
One major benefit to these games is that students practice with full resistance. In action you can simply throw out verbal fertilizer to the entire class in the form of general statements. As those who need the reminder absorb the information, it gives you pockets of time to address specifics with different students.
Are your arms protected? Close the windows?
Kill 2 birds: Hey, you have to make sure you pin after you pass, she’s got really good guard recovery.
If necessary, take a step back and address the entire class with what you see during the next group circle.
Bring people into the process. XYZ was doing something really good here. ABC had the best effort. Highlight their mini wins and celebrate their training behaviors. Only if you can give solutions, then call out errors. You were running into this problem and couldn’t solve it because you did A, instead try B and maybe C.
Like a garden, everyone needs sunlight, water, and nutrients. I give them that in the form of overall tasks to focus on. But I will keep an eye out for specifics. 5 out of 15 students are missing this. So thats what I address. Vs. teaching a very specific set of steps and fixing each little fuck up they do as if they are factory clones. Are they generally following the tasks and shooting in the correct direction? Is it a technical issue or behavioral? If I put all this effort in, and the student fails to absorb the information, it might not be a me problem, but a you problem. With as much empathy I have and try to help, my own sanity requires me draw the line at some point as I’m not a therapist,
Coaching myself not to Coach too much
Sometimes I let them fuck up a lot. I try to create buy-in and value through this context. Get messy, then clean it up. Sketch and burn thru paper, not trying to master one painting and attempt to perfect it the first time I ever do something. This is my iterative process to coaching as I allow both students AND myself to mistakes. We are on the ship together.
What does being a great coach mean to you?
To win?
To get a team to rise to beyond their potential?
To help people get more from themselves than they can on their own?
the future
AT GROUNDWORKS, WE WANT THE SHY, THE SMALL, THE DOUBTFUL KIDS.
ALLOW US TO GUIDE THEM TO OVERCOME, BELIEVE, & ACHIEVE MORE THAN THEY THINK THEY CAN.
As our student base grows more mat space will be required. Ultimately the ideal environment will have multiple mat spaces to address a wider spectrum of needs. With the ideal training facility we will be able to run low and high intensity programs simultaneously, and continue to experiment with different methods, techniques, and business practices.
However, the reason for this meeting is to bring all on board with the concept of GROUNDWORKS and encourage you as Coaches to create your best practices and protocols.
The only thing that poses a real problem are our own expectations of the rate of change we seek, because the way I see it the effect of our impact is inevitable. What do you need to shine?
Is it something you need?
Is it a problem you have identified and haven’t yet solved?
Help me understand and we will work together to create a resolution.