Yvonne O’Connell: The benefits of a transition from a traditionally drill-based approach to coaching to a more ecological dynamic approach in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

My background: In September 2024, I enter my final year of Sport & Exercise Management in Munster Technological University (MTU Cork). My main interest during my time in MTU has been coaching across the lifespan, from children to adulthood, and through the performance spectrum, from novices to elite athletes. Since beginning this course, I have become qualified in both holistic and sports massage therapy which has given me the opportunity to work in high performance settings, such as Cork GAA U20s hurling squad and the Irish Masters Hockey team for the recent International Four Nations tournament. I have spent the last five months working in the Skill Acquisition Research Team in HExSpo in MTU as a Research Assistant. My main personal interests involve the promotion and development of women and children in sport, especially in a close contact combat sport like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ). I have been a BJJ practitioner for over 5 years and I currently coach children and women in my club Aontach in Cork city. So far in my BJJ career, I have won numerous medals here in Ireland, all over Europe and Brazil with my most prestigious medal being a bronze from the European Championships. 

The role:

I have learned new methodologies of coaching throughout my time at MTU which has greatly impacted my ability to coach effectively and efficiently in my BJJ club. I have been able to utilise a more dynamic approach to coaching and have moved away from the traditional drills-based, direct instruction approach. In my early days of learning BJJ, we focused a great amount on drilling techniques and submissions with little to no resistance. Oftentimes the techniques would not link together and would not be applicable to many of the students games. When it came to sparring, I would often fail to hit the techniques when met with resistance and forget many of them. Creativity and individualism were not hugely supported, and I ended up playing a game that I no longer would consider my strong point today. The type of training I was originally exposed to was not athlete centred.

Studying and learning about an ecological dynamics approach opened so many doors for me. We opened a new gym, and one of the Blackbelts had already completed the course that I am currently doing. The other Blackbelt has been extremely open-minded and willing to try this other methodology to coaching. We now focus on live training for as much of the session as possible. Due to the nature of BJJ, there does have to be an element of drilling included when learning submissions, however we keep this to a minimum, creating a blended approach to our classes. The warm-ups include techniques that are transferable into a sparring situation but with less resistance from the defending partner. We sometimes refer to this as play practice and it aids in the warmup of the athletes decision-making skills at the beginning of the session. Though there is less resistance, athletes are rewarded when their technique is correct and able to hit the move they are trying to achieve. If the technique is poor, then they must analyse what is going wrong for them. A constraint led approach (CLA) has been adopted into the classes. This forces athletes to work on certain positions from both an attacker and a defender’s point of view. For example, the athletes would be constrained by having to start in a certain position and must either hold that position or progress to a more advantageous position. This forces the athletes to work from a position that they may not be able to progress to in normal sparring. We also utilise rule constraints when training to aid in the development of a particular technique for either the offensive or defensive athlete. An example of this would be not allowing a guard player to use any grips while the passer tries to pass. This will manipulate the difficulty level for the passer and help them develop their guard passing skills with more success. The games that we use also have an element of competitiveness in them which keeps the class engaged throughout its duration. Time is allocated after positional sparring to allow for athletes to discuss challenges they faced, and what was working for them. As a group, we come up with solutions. By doing this, there is a sense of autonomy in the gym, and athletes gain the confidence to help and guide each other.

I started women’s classes for competition preparation after some discussions with the female members in the club. My personal experience in the club when competing has been that sparring women can be quite different to sparring men. Though sparring male counterparts is hugely beneficial, it is also important to spar with people of same sex, similar weight and similar ability to experience a competition setting. The same CLA approach is used in these classes, but the reactions tend to be different from a 80kg male to a 60kg female. Though I did not train with many women and was still able to medal at national and international majors, I believe that having more female members to train with allows for more transferable sparring into competition. 

If I was to assess the success of the new methodologies to coaching based off the performances of the athletes in competition, I would say that using an ecological dynamics approach has been affective. Since opening in 2020, a large number of members have won numerous medals at national and international competitions. Focusing on the fundamentals of BJJ and exposing the athletes to a high volume of live training which is transferable into a competition setting has aided in the success of our athletes and helped them with their decision-making skills on the mats.

Any advice for anyone interested in a similar role:

As a coach, be open-minded to all methods of coaching. Don’t feel like you must coach athletes the same way you were coached. Research new emerging methodologies and get feedback from your athletes. Aim to allow athletes to make mistakes and learn from them rather than being too quick to jump in with corrections and instructions. Don’t be afraid to reach out to other coaches that use a similar style to you to garner advice and guidance when trying other coaching methods.

Author Bio:

I am currently entering my 4th year of Sport & Exercise Management in MTU Cork. I have developed a great interest in coaching methodologies during my studies. I have been practicing Jiu-Jitsu for over 5 years and have been very successful on the national and international stage. I have been teaching Jiu-Jitsu for 3 years and though we apply our skills to mainly team sports in college, I try to adapt all I have learned and apply it to Jiu-Jitsu.

LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/in/yvonneoconnellsportandexercise