I talk to Lachlan Giles about his instructional style. He experimented with using the reverse classroom model to teach jiu-jitsu which involves students watching videos before attending class and then directing portions of their training over what they want to learn. We discuss this experiment, his thoughts and readings on skill acquisition in general for grapplers, and the launch of his new online learning platform Submeta.
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The Dilemma Lachlan has as a Coach
As a coach, one of the hardest things is trying to figure out how to structure the classes for the group. And it’s hard because no matter what you teach, some people might not use it. People have different ways of passing the guard, different ways of playing, and different ways of finishing the whole scope of Jiu-jitsu.
There’s a lot of individual ability to have their own individual style, and when you’re running a class, you can’t cater to that. You can show all the different ways of passing the guard, but that takes a long time to get that through in a cleaner.
You have to spend time on a theme as well if you want people to get it like you want to teach all the different types of guard, but that’s also bad because there might be two or three types of guard that the person actually uses, and you’re teaching them. So, most of their time is probably not optimized. It’s not the best use of their time.
What Intrigued Lachlan to USE A Flipped Classroom Model
Lachlan started using Flipped Classroom Model to solve the problem of reaching the most people with Jiu-jitsu. And just trying to find the best way to make sure that people get the techniques they’re going to use and do not spend as much time inefficiently working on techniques that they perhaps will not use.
Feedback on People That are Self-learning
People learn better if they have a bit of autonomy over what they work on. Like if it’s a skill that they’ve chosen to try to improve, they tend to improve better at that. And it’s more enjoyable too.
Lachlan Giles’s Way of Teaching
Some gyms like to choose everyone’s partners, which can be good. But people usually want to pair with people they know they like training with. So it’s, it’s a more comfortable training environment.
Additionally, telling people what to do isn’t the most effective method of teaching. The question has to come from them. It’s much more well received if the person says. “I’m having trouble with this. What am I doing wrong? Can you help me here?” That’s really valuable.
They won’t learn it well if they haven’t experienced why what they’re currently doing is incorrect. They need to be receptive to learn.
About his Submeta Website
Lachlan said when he was planning to build the website, he thought, “Well, how does it feel to be coaching and teaching?” There’re instructions through fanatics on the website. There are many styles, and you can mix and match different things together.
Submeta vs. Instructional Learning
Instructional learning is kind of a long format on a particular topic. Apart from the escapes one, they’re pretty much all alike. He says, “Probably one of the downsides is sometimes you get a white belt who’s watching it and it’s gonna be hard for you to sift through what’s relevant a few of the time. So, with sub-meta, I’ve gone by like levels. We’ve got your classes divided like the course of a first step, then a foundations course, so you’re now like basically a white belt course.”
The Uniqueness Submeta is Going to Provide
- The amount of content— there are over a hundred hours of content
- There’s content for specific levels
- The courses are like systems—you have systems that link together instead of just individual techniques
- There’s skill acquisition, exercises section, spaced repetition, active recall, etc
Lachlan Giles Resources
Lachlan Giles Quotes
“Trying to develop a culture where people ask questions is more important than a culture where I know everything and I just come around and tell you to do this and that. And I don’t think that works as well either.”
– Lachlan Giles
Lachlan Giles Links
- Submeta
- Lachlan Giles Instagram
- Lachlan Giles BJJ Heroes
- Reverse Classroom Explanation
- Lachlan Giles On BJJ Lesson Structure & Self-Directed Learning
- The Two Skill Acquisition Approaches: Key Differences by Rob Gray
- The Perception & Action Podcast by Rob Gray
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