For coaches and instructors
Coach Resources
Everything on this site is free to use in your coaching. This page collects the resources that are most directly useful in a teaching context — curriculum delivery guides, the invariables as a coaching vocabulary, professional standards, and the social dynamics content that shapes training culture.
Curriculum delivery
Sequenced curricula with completion criteria, session templates, and drill prescriptions. Build directly from these or adapt them to your school's structure.
Foundations curriculum
The ten-stage sequenced programme for new grapplers — invariable precedence, defence before offence, position before submission. Includes completion criteria per stage.
Foundations 12-week programme
Session-by-session delivery guide built from the foundations curriculum — 43 sessions mapped to 12 weeks with drill prescriptions and completion checkpoints.
Developing curriculum
The second phase — systems and connections. Half guard, back attacks, kimura, triangle, leg entanglement expansion, and heel hooks with explicit gating criteria.
Developing focus blocks
Seven system-by-system blocks with session templates and integration checkpoints — designed for 6–24 months of focused development.
Proficient and above
How to work with proficient practitioners — self-assessment frameworks, coaching mode guidance, and constraint sparring structures.
The invariables as a coaching vocabulary
The invariables replace lineage-dependent cuing with mechanical language. Rather than "do it like this," you can say "your connection broke when you moved your hips" — and your students can understand why, regardless of what tradition they came from.
Invariables index
All 47 invariables organised by context. The full reference — use this to identify which principles apply to what you're teaching.
INV-01: Connection
The first and most universal invariable. Every technique begins with maintained connection. Start here when introducing the framework to students.
INV-08: Position → control → submission
The sequencing invariable that underlies every curriculum decision — and the most important single principle for new students to understand.
Professional standards
Frameworks for the institutional and professional dimensions of coaching — what a mature school looks like, what a meaningful credential would require, and how ability-based progression works without a belt system.
School maturity standards
The five dimensions of a well-run school — safety culture, curriculum quality, coach competence, inclusion, and administrative competence. A framework for honest self-assessment.
Coach certification concepts
What a meaningful professional credential for no-gi coaching would require — separating technical competence from pedagogical competence.
Progression frameworks
Ability-based progression that does not depend on belt rank. How to assess, communicate, and apply developmental levels in a school context.
The living standards document
The site's institutional position on best practice. Version 1.0 — updated as the sport develops.
Social dynamics for coaches
Coaching involves power dynamics, physical contact, and the responsibility for culture. These pages address the problems most schools encounter and most coaching resources do not cover.
Building tapping culture
The coach's role is central. If you don't tap in front of your students, they won't tap. How to build and maintain the culture that makes training safe.
Coach–student power dynamics
The inherent imbalance and what responsible coaching requires. Structural protections, not just trust.
Recognising predatory coaching
Warning signs in others — and in yourself. The patterns that precede abuse in coaching environments.
Ego and aggression in training
Coaches set the tone. The culture you allow is the culture you have — and what to do when ego-driven behaviour enters your room.
Inclusion in the coaching context
Inclusive training environments require deliberate design. These pages address specific populations and what coaches do differently in environments that work for everyone.
Women in submission grappling
What coaches do differently in training environments that take women's participation seriously — from session structure to culture enforcement.
LGBTQ+ inclusion
Active welcome, not just tolerance. What it requires from coaches and what it looks like in practice.
Disability and adaptive grappling
Adapting technique delivery without adapting the invariables. What inclusive coaching requires when working with disabled practitioners.
Racial and cultural dynamics
What equitable training culture requires from the coach — not just policy, but active practice.
Health and injury for coaches
Coaches are responsible for training loads, safety culture, and the environment in which injuries either occur or are prevented. The health content is written to be directly useful in a coaching context.
Tapping culture — the mechanism
The physical and social mechanics of the tap. Start here before teaching any elevated-risk technique.
Injury prevention
Load management, prehabilitation, and the training culture decisions that determine injury rates.
Longevity in the sport
The habits and culture that determine how long your students train — and how long you do.