Conceptual Technique

Technique, being what it is, must be taught in a specific context.  Concept, being what it is, must be taught in a abstract way.  What if you could, however, teach and learn in a way that brings both technique and concept into play at the same time?

Here’s a concept of how to do so: teach the same technique from several different angles so that students can see the larger concept behind the technique.  Here’s the technique to try: guillotine from guard, guillotine from mount, transitioning from quarters to guard while closing the guillotine and transitioning from cross body to mount while closing the guillotine.

What’s the result?  Hopefully that students learn a specific technique but also begin to see that this specific technique need not be applied from a specific position.  Why might it work?   Because the technique is simultaneously being presented in several different ways.  Won’t that confuse students, to learn several different things at the same time?  Maybe but the hope is that because they are all somewhat similar (but different enough) that the students will connect the dots between the techniques and grab not just a single move but an understanding of how to apply a concept.