The Grappler's Diary

The Grappler's Diary

Lessons From Experimenting With CLA In My Classes

Is it the future of Jiu-Jitsu coaching?

Chris Wojcik's avatar
Chris Wojcik
Sep 22, 2025
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CLA — “The Chris Led Approach”

When I first started teaching Jiu-Jitsu, coming up with curriculum for my classes was my favorite part of the job.

Creating fancy sequences, using the sequences to explain concepts, and helping each student hit the sequence perfectly.

It was fun. I filled notebooks and note pages in my phone with as many classes as I could.

Recently, however, I’ve been gradually changing the way I run my classes.

This is for a few reasons:

  • I’ve learned more about grappling this year than ever before

  • Most of the students in my classes are pretty experienced and benefit from a more modern approach to their Jiu-Jitsu education

  • I don’t want to run classes that are very different from the way that I am training myself to these students

And thus, here we are.

Here are some things that I’ve learned from experimenting with CLA in varying degrees in my classes:

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