Edit: I incorrectly called Cortez one of the newer students in this video Rahul. I apologize for getting his name wrong.
Unlike the first two parts, I recommend reading the text portion before watching the video.
I’ve been asked for a while now by many listeners on the podcast and reddit on examples of how I run my classes and how I apply Constraints Led Approach (CLA) for Judo. I hesitate to call what I’m doing Ecological Approach since I’m not an expert on it (I’d also like to stay out of the drama surrounding it). I’m also constrained by what I’m allowed to teach to beginners in my classes which has to follow our dojo’s curriculum, and in doing so I’m not fully adhering to Ecological Approach principles. But my practice designs are guided on the literature I’ve read on the subject. This post is focused on breakfalls but it will overlap with using CLA / Eco principles to teach throws at the same time. I might do a more detailed post on that in the future if there is interest.
My guess is some of those who have read/watched the first two parts will think it’s nothing new (mostly the games/drills). It’s all stuff you have seen or heard before in some capacity. But where I think the difference and difficulty is, is in how and when to apply them. I have yet to see a Judo dojo that steps outside the traditional way of teaching beginners Judo. The video on this part aims to showcase how I apply the concepts I mentioned in the first two parts to my classes.
I’ve only recently been able to start recording my classes (2 total so far) so that I could provide the video portion for this part. Usually with the new year, there’s a surge in beginner sign ups, and I have an adequate amount of few months experienced beginners to partner with those surge in new sign ups. However with the dojo’s growth causing crowding on the mats, and my desire to separate groups out in order to have more accurate data to do comparisons with, I have swapped to a quarterly promotion system at the end of the year so vast majority of people get moved up as a group to the intermediate and advance classes. December 2024 was when I promoted the first group. The class I didn’t get to record that occurred before this video is where I only had one yellow belt, and a group of 6 new first day sign ups. This would mean I have mostly day 1 beginners pairing up with each other. You will see the same people in this video (which would make it their 2nd and 3rd class) and I will point them out. Here’s the summary of what we did that class to introduce break falls using the concepts we talked about in part 1 and 2. The goal of the class was to introduce the principles of destabilizing the opponents base and strangulation mechanics in addition to simple backwards and front ukemi.
Butt pushing game to introduce front ukemi
Introduce Strangulation mechanics and juji jime (cross collar choke)
Scissor sweep / guard pass ukemi game with cross collar choke as threat.
Dummy sweep and tripod sweep ukemi game
Introduce Ko-uchi-gari and Sasae-Tsurikomi-Ashi.
Constrained randori with Ko-uchi-gari and Sasae-Tsurikomi-Ashi where it can occur on either side making the ukemi less predictable.
In the video (which is class 2 and 3) the principles will be on maintaining body contact and being able to start taking ukemi with harder forces and having uke go semi-upside down. This post should give everyone a rough idea of how I approach teaching beginners how to fall. Leave a comment or send me a message if you’d like to see more videos like this or what progression happens after this class.
In part 4, I will give some Shiai examples of those who have moved on from this style of beginners program.