It's YOUR learning

Are you fully engaged in your learning?

Not your training, but your progression and growth.

We run a coaching-heavy environment and as such it is a two-way process. The athletes who get most from the training are the ones who roll their sleeves up and get stuck in on a mental as well as physical level.

This is full engagement.

Traditional martial arts have an instructor-centric approach, students learn when the instructor gives them answers. The main problem with this is that students rarely learn more than they are told, discovery is virtually zero. In a modern coaching environment the opposite happens, athletes explore their own game and the coach helps them to problem-solve and troubleshoot.

It is vital that you embrace the second method to ensure continued development. Discovery based learning linked with reflection and goal-setting are the key aspects of an athletes progression in this kind of coaching system. I can teach you tools but you have to find your game.

So how does this work?

• Experiment - remember, training revolves around being able to fail without consequence


• Reflect - look back at what you have done, did it work or not?


• Interrogate - ask questions of yourself and your partners


• Listen - take onboard the suggestions, advice and coaching given to you


• Adapt - grow your game based on what you have found out


• Experiment some more - begin the cycle again

While working this process you need to keep realistic goals in mind, if you have been training for a few months you won't be ready to tap BJ Penn or knockout Vanderlai Silva, so don't get frustrated if your game doesn't match up to someone else's. You should be concentrating on your game, not theirs, anyway.

Too many people come in and start to focus on results — kicking themselves if they haven't tapped out a more experienced player or berating themselves for getting submitted. Is this healthy? No. At the end of a session you find yourself frustrated because your results haven't matched your expectations then you are not concentrating on the process.

Throw away results-based thinking and embrace process-based development and you will continue to grow.

Your learning is in your own hands. The coachs can show you doors of opportunity but you have to step up and walk through them. Pick the right doors at the right time and your game will develop in a healthy way.

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