Closing The Distance

Today I'm joined by Cal Jones, a 5th dan in Judo and one of the most qualified Judo coaches in the UK, especially Wales.In this episode, Cal Jones fills in some gaps with how to use the constraints-led approach for martial arts, specifically grappling sports.First, he walks us through a system of understanding and controlling the degrees of representative learning design. This is a tool from an academic paper he's in the process of publishing with a research journal. Then Cal walks us through task simplification and how to teach Judo throws to beginners with minimal instruction and no reps or drills. Of note here is his discussion on how you use constraints and why you should never "overconstrain." While many people think that CLA is about "just doing jabs" or "just going for arm bars," that's actually not how CLA is supposed to work because it creates unrealistic behaviors.Also of interest, Cal even reveals that he doesn't teach breakfalls -- and there are big Judo teachers who aren't ecological who also don