Cycle-time

I get a kick out of Jiu-Jitsu people who just can’t keep straight how much we really work on. New stuff must be learned, but it is just as important to re-polish what has already been learned.

Often, even experienced practitioners estimate it takes as little as a month to cover a chapter, or perhaps a year for the entire cycle.

It never, ever goes that fast, and if you try to do so you are robbing everybody in the gym.

Consider who long the headquarters school of Gracie University in Los Angeles takes to cover the curriculum cycle.

Down there, they break each of the seven chapters or positions into various chunks, such as “Mount: Submission Counters.”

Altogether, there are 27 of these chunks in the entire cycle. Gracie University invests 3 weeks of training in each, making a full run last 81 weeks. On top of that, they add a week of review on to each full chapter, or 7 more weeks.

Therefore, not counting school closures, a full cycle at Gracie U takes 88 weeks, or about a year and 9 months.

Even so, not everything is covered in each time looping through the cycle. 21 months to get through.

What I can’t tell you is how long the entire cycle takes us now at my home school. We don’t stick strictly to any timetable.

I would pick the Gracie Headquarter’s cycle speed if I were in charge of such things. Slow and thorough is my motto.

There is also a simple alternative for more speed whereby the chunks that HQ does in 3 weeks get covered in 2. That tightens up a full cycle to 15 months.

I don’t need that kind of acceleration, but many feel that the cycle just takes too darn long.

The issue with a longer cycle shows up best if an example is created with a student new to the advanced class. Let’s say Edward gets promoted to Combatives Belt, and joins the day after we finish review on Leg Locks. Let’s say his school follows the Gracie University Headquarters model.

He never misses a class, and starts learning the standing chapter. After a time, the groups switches over to Mount techniques. Edward will receive his promotion to Blue Belt about the time that the class leaves Mount and gets going on Side Mount. 

A year goes by, as the chapters on Guard, Halfguard, and backmount are covered in turn. It won’t be until after Edward has been in the advanced class for almost a year-and-a-half that he will receive his first instruction regarding Leg Lock technique.

During all of that time, he will be helpless in this area. The same will be true for every student who joins the class; they will have weaknesses that takes a very long time to be addressed.

So rush through, leaving out the depth of material, just to get a dusting? That’s not good either. My vote is always for better coverage.

It the Edward in the example wants help in some particular area, such as Leg Locks, he can draw on the help of his seniors. Our school has open mat sessions, and there are always people willing to help.

Let’s say he gets tired of being caught by techniques that he knows nothing about, and doesn’t want to wait, he can make a few dates with, perhaps, a Purple Belt.

They can train together on whatever he needs. Not only will this make him happier about his rolling, but when the class finally reaches his weak area he will be better prepared to absorb the lessons, and higher technique will make much more sense to him than if he’d just patiently waited.

The only real weakness in a slow cycle is that it encourages people to take more responsibility for their own training.

No, wait! That’s a good thing.