I was thinking about a different way to teach BJJ. Here is the usual way I teach:

5 minutes warm up.
Teach two or three techniques for 30 - 35 minutes.
Do some "hole" training i.e. One person under side control for three minutes trying to escape, when he does another guy jumps on; One guy playing guard for three minutes while his opponent has to pass.If he passes then a third partner goes in the guard.
35 minutes of rolling.

This is the way I've always been taught and seems to yield results. However if you have people of many different belt grades it means that sometimes you're teaching above or below some people's levels. Generally you only want to do 30 minutes of technique and the rest of the class is drilling or rolling.

So I was thinking about this for a class format:

Class starts at 6pm. At 6.15 pm the whitebelts get taught in one corner of the class. The rest of the mat is open mat. At 6.45pm the blue belts are taught in one corner of the class while the white belts roll amongst themselves and whoever else has shown up. At 7.30pm the purple belts and above are taught in one corner of the mat while the blues get to roll in the open mat with the whites. From 8pm to 9pm the mat is open for everyone to roll together.

Why do you think? Pros, cons?

When we're doing technique work, I always benefit more from practicing with someone who has more experience than I do. If I'm working on a technique with a brown belt who knows what he's doing, I'll be able to grasp it better than I would if I'm working with a whitebelt who's only seen the technique a couple times before.

Furthermore, I've been told by the more advanced practicioners that it is beneficial to them to help me with technique because they are forced to analyze it in more depth than usual. So, I think it would be a good call to teach technique to a group with a decent variety of experience levels; at least part of the time.

You only have a 5 minute warm up? Is it like I'll-fucking-rape-you-in-the-ass-sprints?

At our class, depending on the number of people, we either split up the white belts and the other belts, or do technique together. We get shown a technique, then do it a few times, then another, then drill it a while, then usually it's been 30 min and it's time for sparring.

Your format seems pretty much like ours, except that you split it into like two sections or something. Oh, and we only have 1 purple belt, so we can't have a 3rd section like that. :)

Is there anybody supervising the white belts when they do technique work/roll? Or do they just go off on their own?

I'd say it's a pretty solid format. Everybody gets to roll, and everybody gets to learn some technique stuff.

PL

Zing,
You're right that the higher grades learn something, but the problem with that is it stops the higher grades from being able to do the techniques they should be working on. There's only so much time that most of us have each week to train - unfortunately work, relationships, family etc get in the way so I think it's unfair - and boring - for a purple belt to have to work on white belt basics when he should be working on things to improve his own game.

Poop-Loops,
No, i don't usually do a tough warm up. I don't see the point. If people want to get fit then they can do that either by rolling or in their own time. I'd rather spend the extra time having people drill or roll or working a technique than doing conditioning work.

I was thinking that if when the blue belts are learning technique, the white belts will be rollig and there would be purple belts and above rolling or warming up at the same time. The lack of someone to watch over the whites when they roll seems to be the only flaw.

The reason I thought of this format was that it allowed people to get more time rolling. I know that for myself, I'm at the point where I'm not interested in learning new techniques, just improving my own game. I think anyone from high-purple belt and above is mostly better off rolling most of the time. By that point they should have worked out their game and so a lot of what they learn isn't going to be immediately applicable to them.

this place i used to go to had 30 minutes of arse ripping exercise (occasionally someone would run off to vomit), then 30 mins of techniques and drills which i would be too exhausted to do properly, then 30 mins of rolling which i would be too exhausted to do properly.

"too exhausted to do properly" - i love it when i reach this stage i feel that it refines my technique better than when i'm still going strong

when i'm going strong, i can afford to be lazy and muscle things, when i'm gassed, i have to rely on technique, i feel that is what makes me improve the most

You might try having one or two fundamentals practices during the week wherein you teach white belt grade stuff. The rest of week teach a blue belt and up curriculum. This way your whites have a night centered on their needs, the blues and up can review and help out the whites and the whites get exposed to material they will need later when they come to the non-fundamental class. Sorry for the run-on sentence, it's early here, yawn.

The pros seem to be more individually met needs and more rolling time as a whole. The major con I see is that when learning a technique or drilling a technique in a particular class I like to try and use that technique while rolling later (toward the end of class). That could be a preference thing, but I feel that although alive drilling is fine and dandy, that you never truely understand the nature of the technique until you have tried it sparring.

If you taught the lower belts first so that they could try their newly learned techniques later, then refresh the higher belts who aren't nessecarily learning as much new stuff, that might work out well. You're the teacher and the pro, so it's really up to you in the end. Remember that if it isn't working well you could always change it back.

this place i used to go to had 30 minutes of arse ripping exercise (occasionally someone would run off to vomit), then 30 mins of techniques and drills which i would be too exhausted to do properly, then 30 mins of rolling which i would be too exhausted to do properly.

We have 30min warm up, but it's not ass ripping. Not usually. ;) And I like being extra tired, that means that I have to rely on technique, not strength to get moves to work.

PL

Sounds like it would get complicated quick and like you wouldn't be able to keep track of what all is going on since you have the class seperated.

Something similar is sometimes done at my school sometimes where during an open rank class everyone gets split. Usually teaching then has to be delegated and some poor schmuck of a purple has to come teach us white belts. This is often a limited technique session when there's lots of newbies though.

Everybody learns differently. Better to mix it up a lot. No set regimine.

Unfortunately I think that BJJ class revolves too much around sparring these days. When I first started I saw sparring as an opportunity to tap people out, and thus justify my training. After a few years I prefer to do more drills. Repetitive, boring, mindlessly dull drills. Because PERSONALLY I get better through repetition.

But you can't deny people the process. Gotta let white belts be white belts, let em bang heads hard and often.

I like to change it up. On the rare occassions I get to teach sometimes they get to do NO SPARRING. They freak out when I tell em no sparring. I put them in limited situational drill sparring, like the ones you mentioned above. Start side control 2 minutes, reverse roles. Start mounted 2 minutes, etc. Sometimes I say, no armbars only chokes! Sometimes I say no submissions, first one to 10 points (teach them aggressive positional transitions).

Some days we have killer warm ups that send people to the bathroom. Some days we stretch and BS then spar for an hour straight. Some days we take a few minutes and talk about strategy. Some days we drill way too much. Some days we don't drill enough.

Personally I don't like to seperate the class from belt levels. A lot of reasons TO DO THIS, including letting white belts work with white belts. But other times white belts pick things up better when a blue with more experience does it to them. Or the whitebelt realizes how effortless things are when a purple belt does it. Also when drilling, oftentimes the white belts will be doing the basic drills while the higher belts will be doing much more advanced stuff. Sometimes those higher belts....*ahem*.... should also be practicing the basics. Trouble is, they get a little ego and think they dont have to drill the basics anymore. Same thing with sparring, the higher belts dont think they should have to spar the lower belts. I say...hey, its a team effort here guys. Work together.

Far be it from me to offer advice on how to teach a class though. I am just giving insight into our/my training and what I do/don't like about it. Keep in mind you can't please everyone all the time.

Thanks for the responses guys. I'm not sure what is happening with my own training and teaching at the moment - whether I'll be teaching much more, or whether I'll be opening up my own school. So I was just trying to guage what people like and if what I was thinking sounded feasible. Unfortunately there's no definitive "This is the absolute best way of teaching BJJ guide".

Class starts at 6pm. At 6.15 pm the whitebelts get taught in one corner of the class. The rest of the mat is open mat. At 6.45pm the blue belts are taught in one corner of the class while the white belts roll amongst themselves and whoever else has shown up. At 7.30pm the purple belts and above are taught in one corner of the mat while the blues get to roll in the open mat with the whites. From 8pm to 9pm the mat is open for everyone to roll together.

I'm not sure I can make it to Richmond before 6:30 :)