Link to this concept chart: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DCSsjUAUT8qM-phPEzrgpbXHYykpwdtr/view?usp=sharing

In October 2023 I got the chance to take over as the primary self-defense instructor at my BJJ academy. Before I showed up, the self-defense classes were a weird amalgam of the cheesiest parts of Krav Maga, some Filipino knife dueling, a little wrestling, and a whole lot of low-percentage flashy Systema-looking stuff. Everything was taught shotgun-style… whatever the coach felt like covering that day. It was kind of the laughing stock of the gym, and I knew I could revive interest in the class.

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My Audience

The main people I was teaching were folks who had signed up at the gym but were only one toe into combat sports. At the lowest membership level you got cardio kickboxing and self-defense. So the curriculum had to be approachable, not too physically overwhelming or scary, and self-contained enough that a prospective member could jump in for a trial class and not feel completely lost. At the same time I had to keep enough variability that the regulars didn’t get bored. I didn’t want to waste anybody’s time with jumping jacks and push-ups. I wanted to respect the hour and give them an honest experience that left them a little more dangerous after every class.

My Approach

None of what I’m about to say is unique or something I invented. I just had 15 years of BJJ, multi-disciplinary self-defense, and some MMA experience, and I knew the answer to fixing the self-defense classes was to teach them the same way those other things get taught.

Anyone who’s trained seriously in combat sports knows the secret sauce is aliveness—training against an opposing will that has goals opposite of yours. So I started racking my brain on what that would look like inside a regular hour-long class instead of the usual seminar format you get from Craig or any of his contemporaries.

Luckily for me, Shawn from Antifragile Training had recently livestreamed a few weeks of his curriculum on Instagram. I sat through every one of them, took notes, and proceeded to steal a bunch of his classes while filling out the rest of the curriculum with subjects I wanted to cover that he hadn’t hit. What I ended up with was a bunch of mini-module seminars: tidy hour-long blocks that I could mix and match as needed.

I built this 33-class curriculum over time and was able to run the whole thing about five times in two years. I even taught a six-hour teen self-defense seminar broken into three 2-hour sessions. The modularity made that dead simple.

The Ecological Dynamics Brainworm

Parallel to all of this I started getting deep into Ecological Dynamics and the Constraint-Led Approach for motor learning. This post isn’t really about that, but the general idea is worth laying out because it changed how I built some of the classes.

The traditional way most of us were taught to learn a skill is called information-processing theory:

• The brain is treated like a computer that takes in sensory input, processes it, picks a response, and sends commands to the muscles.
• Skills are learned by building and refining internal motor programs through repetition.
• Practice focuses on “correct” technique, isolated drills, and reducing variability early.

Ecological Dynamics looks at it completely differently:

• Movement emerges from the interaction between the individual, the task, and the environment.
• Perception and action are tightly coupled—you don’t first think, then move. You perceive opportunities (affordances) and act.
• Coaches manipulate constraints (task, environment, individual) so athletes discover effective solutions themselves.
• The whole point is exploration, adaptability, and representative practice.

These two views are basically at war with each other. In Eco the idea is that we learn best by fucking around and finding out.

That mirrors almost every white belt’s experience with, say, an armbar from guard. Most people get taught the step-by-step “perfect” armbar in sequential order. Then they go spar and realize that when they finally land one, it happened in a totally different way than how they learned it. It took enough fucking around in live sparring before they could even see the opportunity (the affordance) to hyperextend the arm and get the tap.

So an Eco instructor would argue there’s no real need to teach the step-by-step “armbar from guard.” Instead you explain what makes an arm breakable no matter the orientation of the two people, then create drills that let each student fuck around until they start hyperextending arms—however that happens for them.

That was a huge breakthrough in how I understood my own progress in grappling, and it directly shaped a lot of the drill selection I used in the self-defense classes. You will see more eco-style games sneak in the later you get in the document below.

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How’d It Go?

I definitely wouldn’t say I’m the best coach around, but I got nothing but positive feedback from my students. My goal was always for people to go home sweaty and smiling and with the added benefit of some morsels of info that might keep them safer. I grew the class from maybe 2 students at first, to over 20 by the time I had to stop coaching. The regulars shows real progress and their ‘test’ was being able to train with new people off the street. So I think the bones of the curriculum are pretty good. Unfortunately I had to stop coaching in November because some health stuff sidelined me (and continues to).

All that said, I wanted to pay it forward by posting a google doc link to my curriculum for you to have. Excuse the shorthand, typos, and diction errors. This was only supposed to be for me to keep things in order and remind myself of what I wanted to teach, not a script. You’ll find some weeks are better fleshed out than others. I didn’t bother editing it much because I don’t think it’s worth the time and I didn’t plan on releasing it. But I don’t think I’ll be able to coach any more so I am open-sourcing it.

If you have a training group and need some ideas, or are looking for a start for your own curriculum like I was, I hope it helps you in some way. If you think I’m a dumbass, then at least you got what you paid for. If you are confused about a terminology, you can email me or message me on fb or IG (GROWINGUPGUNS for each of them, @gmail for email) and I’ll try to help.

If you find it useful, I don’t ask anything other than maybe a thank you or that you mention where you got it to your crew. Or buy a sap or wallet from me if you need one.

I’m also including my BJJ eco/CLA games. It is roughly organized and you need to understand that just having a pile of games doesn’t make what you’re doing truly eco. But it will get you started while you are experimenting and reading the books.

Mark’s 33-Module Self Defense Curriculum

A 2 year collection of Eco-Games for BJJ (similarly disorganized)

Thanks

Thanks to Shawn L., Craig Douglas, Cecil Burch, Larry L., Chris Fry, Paul Sharp, Chuck Haggard, Greg Ellifritz, Jerry Wetzel, the Knife Control Concepts guys, and all my coaches over the years for the info and guidance.

Donations:

Someone asked if they could kick me a little money for the documents. So I’m going to post this here, but don’t feel any pressure to do the same. I’d be happy if you just get some value out of it and I can pay it forward like others have to me.