CLA: The Training Method Behind PocketDojo

Whether coaches realize it or not, every training method is based on assumptions about how humans learn skills, from walking and riding bicycles to playing sports.

Two major theories offer different explanations of how learning works:

Understanding these theories helps explain why some coaches emphasize repeating techniques without resistance, while others focus on solving problems through live practice.

Information processing is the traditional view. Think of the brain as a computer controlling a remote-controlled car (your body).

Your senses collect information, your brain interprets it, selects a response, and sends commands to your body.

Let’s say you’re playing catch with a friend. As the ball approaches, your eyes receive an incomplete or “broken” image that your brain must “fix” to understand what you’re seeing. According to this theory, your brain then calculates where the ball will go and tells your body when and how to catch it.

This is called indirect perception: the idea that our brains must interpret sensory information to make sense of our surroundings.

These ideas have influenced two common coaching methods:

Technical instruction can introduce possible solutions, but static drilling removes the resistance, timing, and changing opportunities athletes must learn to deal with during competition.

Ecological dynamics offers a different explanation. Rather than treating skill as instructions stored in the brain, it sees skill as something that emerges through the interaction between a person, their goal, and their environment.

Perception is considered direct, meaning we can detect useful information from our surroundings without the brain having to reconstruct the world from incomplete sensory inputs.

Consider the baseball example again. The brain doesn’t need to “fix” the image received by our eyes. As a ball approaches, its image grows larger. The rate of that expansion provides information about when it will arrive, allowing us to adjust our movements without calculating its exact path.

Another important concept is perception-action coupling: what we perceive guides how we move, and how we move changes what we perceive.

Imagine walking through a crowded room. As people cross your path, you adjust your speed and direction to avoid them. Each adjustment changes what you can see and where you can go next.

Through experience, we also become better at recognizing opportunities for action. In jiu jitsu, an opponent posting their hand might create an opportunity to establish an underhook. Whether that opportunity exists depends on your position, abilities, and their reactions.

Ecological dynamics also emphasizes self-organization: how our movements become coordinated around a goal without following step-by-step instructions.

Think about learning to ride a bicycle. Nobody tells you exactly which muscles to activate or how much to shift your weight. Through practice, your movements gradually become coordinated around staying balanced.

This leads to the idea of repetition without repetition: repeatedly solving the same problem without trying to reproduce identical movements.

For example, a grappler might attempt to pass guard hundreds of times, but each attempt requires different movements based on their opponent’s positioning and reactions.

The Constraints-Led Approach (CLA) applies ecological dynamics to training. Instead of prescribing exact movements, coaches design activities that encourage athletes to discover effective solutions.

They do this by changing constraints: the conditions that influence what athletes can do. These include individual factors (height, strength, experience), task conditions (rules, objectives, starting positions), and environmental factors (space, surfaces).

For example, a coach might have one athlete start in an armbar position with the goal of maintaining control, while their partner tries to escape. The attacker is not allowed to finish the submission.

Both athletes actively resist and adapt to each other. The coach can adjust the rules, starting positions, or objectives to make the problem easier or harder.

Unlike unrestricted sparring, these focused games allow athletes to repeatedly solve specific problems while preserving the resistance and unpredictability of live grappling.

This follows the principle of representative learning design: practice should preserve the important information and interactions athletes encounter during actual performance.

CLA doesn’t prohibit demonstrations or technical instruction. It prioritizes developing skills through meaningful practice rather than memorizing predetermined movements.

Most BJJ instructionals focus on teaching techniques, often providing little guidance on how to develop the skills needed to apply them against resistance.

PocketDojo takes a different approach. Our lessons teach athletes how to develop skills through purposeful practice, not memorize predetermined movements.

Each lesson includes a small-sided game with:

Our Session Builder allows athletes and coaches to organize these games, adjust training conditions, and create complete training sessions.