Closing The Distance

Dr. Rob Gray returns today to talk to us about an exciting concept called the differential learning effect.The so-called "ecological approach" is often used synonymously with the Constraints-led Approach, but it also encompasses other frameworks such as differential learning. Differential learning is about true randomness in practice conditions. The constraints-led approach is about purposefully designed environments. Both work -- so is there a way to combine both approaches and gain the positive effects of each?In fact, there is. In this episode, Dr. Gray walks us through a synthesized approach that he calls "constrained differential learning."So if you're excited to jump in, hit the subscribe button on your podcatcher and enjoy the show.---Join the email list now: combatlearning.com/newsletter---Find Dr. Rob Gray:Website: https://perceptionaction.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robgray29/Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShakeyWaits---Produced by Micah PeacockIntro Theme by Micah PeacockOutro Music is S

Today I'm joined by Nick Delgadillo, Starting Strength Coach, Head of Corporate Development at Starting Strength, and a lifelong martial artist. In this episode, Nick unpacks common misconceptions about strength training and how conditioning works for most athletes in combat sports.He introduces to the the so-called "Two Factor Model" of strength and conditioning for sports. Rather than spread your precious workout time across accessory exercises, he argues that most martial artists are better served by moving up their numbers on the big 4 compound lifts:- Back squat- Bench press- Overhead press- DeadliftThis keeps conditioning work and sport-specific work properly separated. Nick also gives tips on how to balance novice programming with the recovery demands of combat sports practice. If you're looking for a simple way to improve your performance on the mat, this episode is for you.Also, this is a special topic. The Combat Learning Podcast is and will remain focused on perceptual-motor learning, but I thought

Today I'm joined by Bryant Coston and Seneca Savoie, Historical European Martial Artists who specialize in coaching the sword at their club, Arena Weapon Arts.In this episode, Bryant and Seneca recount their journey from a traditional technique and drill-based sword coaching, to games-based practice, and finally arriving at a full-bore constraints-led approach. They go into detail about how they approach practice design, curriculum development, as well as coaching and correction. We also talk at length about representativeness and how previous experience in other skills can form "attractor states" that influence the way you move when acquiring and developing a newer skill. Of note also is their account of how training with more aliveness actually lowered their injury rates instead of making it worse.So if you're excited to jump in, hit the subscribe button on your podcatcher and enjoy the show.---Join the email list now: combatlearning.com/newsletter---Find Bryant & Seneca:Website: https://www.academyofwm

Today I'm joined by Dr. Ian Renshaw, Associate Professor in Exercise & Nutrition Science at Queensland University of Technology at Brisbane. Professor Renshaw is a major researcher in the Constraints-led Approach to motor learning. In fact, you'll see his name on several of the books and studies recommended throughout the Combat Learning Podcast. In this episode, Professor Renshaw teaches the "Environment Design Principles," a set of 4 considerations that help guide us into creating effective constraints-led training sessions. Those principles are:- Session intention. - Constrain to afford.- Representative learning design. - Repetition without repetition. If you've ever struggled to take the broad principles of CLA and create a framework for consistently designing good practices, this is the missing piece for you. So if you're excited to jump in, hit the subscribe button on your podcatcher and enjoy the show.---Join the email list now: combatlearning.com/newsletter---Find Professor Renshaw:Website: https:

Join the email list now: combatlearning.com/newsletter---Today I'm joined by Greg Souders, a 3rd degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and the owner of an academy called Standard Jiu-Jitsu.In this episode, Greg reveals how he runs a totally, radically "ecological" grappling program, where he doesn't even teach "techniques" in the way we've always seen them taught. Greg has stripped down everything we take for granted about teaching martial arts and rebuilt his program around the Ecological Dynamics and constraints-led coaching frameworks. He's changed everything, even the way he talks about jiu jitsu to his students, which frankly, I think might be revolutionary.If you're wondering how he introduces submissions to new students, teaches passing and pinning, designs practices, or manipulates constraints, or coaches or cues his athletes, all those questions will be answered during the course of this show.And before I hand you off to the interview, be sure to visit the Standard Jiu Jitsu Instagram account link

Join the email list now: combatlearning.com/newsletter---Today I'm joined by Adam Haniver, a boxing coach out of the UK and one of the founding members of The Box Gathering, which is a community of practice for boxing coaches.In this episode, Adam talks to us about how he has moved his boxing program away from the traditional approach to a constraints-led approach. Of particular interest, we discuss why padwork is not very good training (because it pairs the wrong affordances with certain movements), and then we discuss what you can do instead of focus mitts to make training more effective.If you're excited to jump in, hit the subscribe button on your podcatcher and enjoy the show.---Find Adam:Website: https://www.theboxgathering.co.uk/YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_Hz9bo30cUIW5NHBaViozg/videos---Produced by Micah PeacockIntro Theme by Micah PeacockOutro Music is Synergy by Juche Get full access to Combat Learning at combatlearning.substack.com/subscribe

Join the email list now: combatlearning.com/newsletter---Today I'm joined again by one of my best friends, Master Thomas Huskey, a 4th dan in taekwondo and a fairly accomplished Olympic TKD coach in his own right.In this episode, Thomas and I begin by explaining in detail why martial artists outside of taekwondo are wrong in their criticisms of it. Then we transition our ire inward towards the taekwondo community itself, and why it is also wrong about its own criticisms of the Olympic style.Please be forewarned, this was immediately following a lot of drama after the summer Olympics last year (2021). Our tone is generally very condescending and bombastic, but we don't mean to upset people who have made these criticisms before. In reality, our tone was in direct response to a few individuals who decided they were going to be obnoxious and unfair in how they responded to some significant victories for Team USA in the Olympics at that time. So full disclosure, we were agitated.If you're excited to jump in, hit t

Join the email list now: combatlearning.com/newsletter---Today I'm joined again by Greg Koval, a 6th dan in taekwondo and owner of Devil Dog Martial Arts.In this episode, Greg and I catch up from when he first appeared on Combat Learning. Since then, Greg has taken the Constraints-led Approach and overhauled his entire curriculum to great success. We also talk about training terminology and other problems going on in the taekwondo training world.If you're excited to jump in, hit the subscribe button on your podcatcher and enjoy the show.---Find Greg:YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh5-5RJmb96cYOH8lgykHswWebsite: https://www.devildogmartialarts.com/---Produced by Micah PeacockIntro Theme by Micah PeacockOutro Music is Synergy by Juche Get full access to Combat Learning at combatlearning.substack.com/subscribe

Join the email list now: combatlearning.com/newsletter---Today I'm joined by Todd Fossey, founder of Integrated Defensive Strategies and a leading figure in the combatives community.In this episode, Todd unpacks how to systematically inoculate yourself against the stress caused by the fight or flight state during high pressure situations. We also discuss the problems with typical reality-based self-defense approaches to this process as well as issues in affective and representative learning designs for training.If you're excited to jump in, hit the subscribe button on your podcatcher and enjoy the show.---Find Todd Fossey:Website: https://thisisids.com/---Produced by Micah PeacockIntro Theme by Micah PeacockOutro Music is Synergy by Juche Get full access to Combat Learning at combatlearning.substack.com/subscribe

Join the email list now: combatlearning.com/newsletter---Today I'm joined by Alan Dunton, a PhD in skill acquisition, human performance specialist, and lecturer at TUDublin. He also has a background in ITF taekwondo.In this episode, we discuss a couple important studies done on self-organization and how to simulate a more realistic level of anxiety to competition. Then we discuss how the point system for sport taekwondo can be manipulated to aid constraints-led training of specific tactics without over-constraining learners. Finally, we clear up how to understand the difference between predictive and prospective control of movement, which is one of the key divides between Information Processing and Ecological Dynamics theories of motor control and learning.If you're excited to jump in, hit the subscribe button on your podcatcher and enjoy the show.---Find Alan Dunton:Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlanDunton---Produced by Micah PeacockIntro Theme by Micah PeacockOutro Music is Synergy by Juche Get full access t

Join the email list now: combatlearning.com/newsletter---In part 2 of 2, Scott Sievewright returns to discuss the opportunity cost of traditional training methods. For those who haven't heard that term used for training, opportunity cost basically refers to the benefits to learning that we're potentially missing by spending time that *could* have been used on live training methods to do dead, formal, or isolated training methods instead.We also talk about the problem with copying elite coaches and how our biases surrounding them has screwed up talent development pipelines inside of combat sports and led to resistance to new and scientific ideas in training methodology.If you're excited to jump in, hit the subscribe button on your podcatcher and enjoy the show.---Find Scott Sievewright & Primal MKE:Website/Blog: www.primalmke.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/primal.mkeYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChx8iNb2b8VSBrAoEybCLpw---Produced by Micah PeacockIntro Theme by Micah PeacockOutro Music is

Join the email list now: combatlearning.com/newsletter---Today we're joined by Scott Sievewright, host of the Primal MMA podcast and an MMA striking coach who teaches a striking program almost entirely on an Ecological Dynamics or constraints-led approach to motor learning.In part 1 of 2, Scott and I work through why Ecological Dynamics is so hard to get the hang of. We have a discussion on how to balance representativeness and safety in training, since greater levels of representativeness make training more like competition and thus more risky. We also talk about when more isolated training methods might be warranted.If you're excited to jump in, hit the subscribe button on your podcatcher now and enjoy the show.---Find Scott Sievewright & Primal MKE:Website/Blog: www.primalmke.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/primal.mkeYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChx8iNb2b8VSBrAoEybCLpw---Produced by Micah PeacockIntro Theme by Micah PeacockOutro Music is Synergy by Juche Get full access to Combat Lea

Try Martial Arts on Rails -- the easiest gym management software you'll ever use -- 30 days FREE, no credit card or sales call required: combatlearning.com/rails---Join the email list now: combatlearning.com/newsletter---Daniel Marino, 4th dan in tang soo do and founder of The Naihanchi Project, returns today to talk about training progressions in traditional martial arts.In part 2 of 2, we scrutinize the logic, or lack thereof, behind highly isolated, scripted, and formal exercises that are often strung together as some pertained middle ground between basics forms practice and free sparring. These intermediary exercises bloat curriculum and delay experience in the most practical learning methods available: sparring and live drilling. As the up and coming generation of martial arts masters, we have a responsibility not to pass down these ineffective time-wasters down to the next generation of martial artists, our students.If you're excited to jump in, hit the subscribe button on your podcatcher now and enjoy

Try Martial Arts on Rails -- the easiest gym management software you'll ever use -- 30 days FREE, no credit card or sales call required: combatlearning.com/rails---Join the email list now: combatlearning.com/newsletter---My guest today is Daniel Marino, a 4th dan in tang soo do, and the founder of the Naihanchi Project.In part 1 of 2, Daniel and I discuss our process of coming up through the ranks in Korean martial arts and how we both came to the conclusion that its time for a renovation of the way we train and think about martial arts. Of particular interest is a historical discussion on the origins of the pedagogical approach we now think of as a traditional martial arts program. In fact, as you'll hear, it's a Western idea from the modernist way of thinking.If you're excited to jump in, hit the subscribe button on your podcatcher now and enjoy the show.---Find the Naihanchi Project: Facebook: facebook.com/naihanchiproject/YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UC21N7Ijp_uq8dok6CKxpO7Q---Produced by Micah Pe

To end season 2 with a bang, my guest today is Stuart Armstrong, who is well known in the sports science and skill acquisition community through his podcast, "The Talent Equation." Which is highly recommended.Stuart thinks of himself as a "pracademic" -- a practitioner with an academic background focused on the practical application of the science of coaching to real-life coaching. We've touched on the constraints-led approach to motor learning quite a bit throughout seasons 1 and 2, but only in a cursory sense. In this episode, Stuart walks us through more specific ways we can use the constraints-led approach to improve our martial arts training.One of the main breakthrough concepts here I want to direct your attention toward is that Stuart repositions skill development NOT as knowledge transfer from instructor to student but as an adaptation to environmental stress. In other words, skill is developed in sufficiently *representative* practice environments the same way that muscle grows in response to progres

My guest today is Les Bubka, a thoughtful karate instructor out of England and a contemporary of Iain Abernethy.Les employs a different approach to teaching karate that he calls the "inverted pyramid," a way to teach minimal techniques to beginners, grow their technique base as they progress through the intermediate stages of training, but then narrow their focus again as they become advanced into the black belt grades. This leads into his very learner-centered approach to training karate, allowing his students the freedom to find out how karate techniques work for them instead of forcing them to master a single formally "correct" way of doing things -- and construct their own style of karate in that process.So if you're interested to learn more about how this training approach works, hit the subscribe button on your podcatcher now!---Join the Combat Learning Newsletter now: combatlearning.com/transfer---Where to find Les and check out his work! Website: https://lesbubka.wordpress.com/YouTube: https://m.youtu

Today BJJ black belt Jestin Icasiano returns once again to discuss getting back into training after a long break. Coronavirus has caused a lot of us to have spotty or no training over the last year, and many of us are just now getting back into the swing of things. We talk about what to keep in mind so you don't hurt yourself or burn out too quickly. We also talk about what's working for us in terms of diet and supplemental exercise, which can help ease the process.So if you're excited to listen, hit the subscribe button on your podcatcher now.---Join the Combat Learning Newsletter now: combatlearning.com/transfer---Thank you so much for listening!  If you have any feedback, you can email me at josh@combatlearning.com or send me a message on facebook.com/combatlearning. If you got value from this episode, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcasting platform. So many shows pop up and fizzle out, and we're talking about stuff that almost nobody is talking about, so leaving

My guest today is Master Greg Koval, a 6th dan black belt in taekwondo and BJJ purple belt.In this episode, we compare and contrast different training styles across the spectrum, debate the merits of traditional training, and find common ground between new and old methodologies. Greg is a veteran instructor with diverse martial arts experience, so no matter who you are, he has something of value to offer.So if you're excited to jump in, hit the subscribe button on your podcatcher now.---Join the Combat Learning Newsletter now: combatlearning.com/transfer--- Where to find Master GregYouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCh5-5RJmb96cYOH8lgykHswWebsite: https://www.kovaltaekwondo.com/---Thank you so much for listening!  If you have any feedback, you can email me at josh@combatlearning.com or send me a message on facebook.com/combatlearning. If you got value from this episode, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcasting platform. So many shows pop up and fizzle out, and we're

My guest today is Matt Thornton: a 4th degree black in BJJ, founder of Straight Blast Gym international, and an influential thinker in the world of martial arts training methodology.In this episode, Matt talks about the concept of "aliveness" in training, and how you can start to train with aliveness immediately, even as a total beginner. He also explains why he does not believe there is any such that as "advanced techniques" and what that means for curriculum design.Whether you're a traditional or modern martial artist, I'm confident there's something here for you to learn. And if you've struggled to understand how to teach with aliveness without resorting to all-out free sparring, you definitely don't want to miss this episode.So if you're excited to dive in, hit the subscribe button on your podcatcher now!---Join the Combat Learning Newsletter now: combatlearning.com/transfer---Where to find Matt ThorntonSBGi Website: https://www.straightblastgym.com/Personal Website: https://mattthornton.org/Twitter: http

My guest today is Mo, a two-time national collegiate sparring champion in taekwondo for Cornell University. He also operates a sparring-only taekwondo club.In this episode, we explore how Mo structures training and promotions without using formal methods like poomsae (which are kata) and one-steps. Instead, he takes the extra curriculum space this affords him and builds his taekwondo into a robust striking program.This episode is definitely of interest to traditional martial artists, but there's a lot here for modern martial artists as well. So if you're excited to listen, hit the subscribe button on your podcatcher now!---Join the Combat Learning Newsletter now: combatlearning.com/transfer--- Find Mo!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mokwondo/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mokwondo/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaLb7LXvya5hE2Z9kKgYP1Q/videos?view_as=subscriberWebsite: https://www.mokwondo.com---Thank you so much for listening!  If you have any feedback, you can email me at josh@combatlearn