Mind you, if I as a coach create a task that 'uke' stands still with two feet parallel shoulder width and I give the 'task' to 'tori' that 'Find ways to block out both heels of uke and knock them backwards making them fall on their arse.' This would still be 'eco' (since all learning is eco :)

Don't mean this to sound aggressive but I would say the task fails "representative design" and is just teaching technique but calling it a task. Whether it's eco or not, I don't see how skill development would occur from this.

I think that academic studies are challenging to apply in realistic situations (Sorry Jorgen:-) I also think that eco existed long before scholar started to study it. (Not totally useless because research has focused the light to an old system of learning/teaching) and BJJ’s previous system ”monkey see, monkey do” or learning from a model is not the most effective way to teach or learn. I like Rob Biernacki’s theory of BJJ and the way he teaches his concepts. When we are teaching techniques or even positions, what is the way we define the goal to a learner. Discussion might be easier by constraining it to a set situation. Lets say students are standing and starting to grapple. Game might be to get some kind of dominant grip or tie up? Want is the end goal? Person who can make opponent step (unbalance them) wins?

I don't know about you guys but I just watched the video posted with Francesco teaching guard retention at Globetrotters and it was not only entertaining but the content was friggin excellent. Must have been alot of fun for everyone participating in that workshop.

Thank you, I appreciate it a lot, but let me use this to point out again: old material, I can do better now and I would not use that class to show anyone what a eco/cla class looks like.

I'm in full honesty not going to explain everything here by typing it, because I don't want to consume my fingers on the keyboard. I'm always open to find time for a call with someone who is genuinely interested. I see Alex's point, but Alex, you can perfectly teach a technique through eco/cla. I prefer to teach other stuff, of which a technique is just an expression, but I don't see why I shouldn't use the game we elaborated with Jorgen to teach all forms of inside and outside trips. Give uke the task to offer all the resistence they can through hand fighting, and the game is perfectly usable. Of course the next step would be to remove the constraint of not moving the feet, add more freedom to tori and so on. I honestly can't elaborate a game further unless I see how it develops in front of my eyes. In other words, you can use eco/cla to teach a technique, or you can use it to have your athletes more adaptable and capable to manouver a strategy or a situation. Observe what happens, fix your constraints and goals, start again.

I don’t think eco is the only way to go.

I will beat this drum a while. Eco is the prevailing theory of motor learning in sports. It is how motor learning WORKS. Therefore one can not say a paired kata Aikido class 'is or is not eco'. It is. People are still learning -something-. The point is, given the reality of uncooperative FIGHTING, the training is not FUNCTIONAL. P.S. Found this cool fresh (2 years old) overview. Who is used to reading scientific material, recommend to read https://www.sciencedirect[...]9122000089

https://youtu.be/uzNqeYOb[...]kj2bHm1Uf5

Very much liked this clip!

I think technique Vs skill is a false dichotomy. A gymnast will also be called skilled. Despite gymnastics being a pure 'technical performance' (self controlled, low contextual interference). So you could say a gymnast is skilled in displays technique. However in grappling, being skilled in display of technique is little use.

I think gymnasts are very skilled. Performance has to be modified for different stages and also program that they do need adjustment. Every rep is not same. You need very good timing and coordination to continue from a little missed technique.

I think that the podcast said some thing like ”skill is athelites apility to modify technique so that it suits the task. I think that gymnasts need to apply their technique because stage differs and also their program has a chain of techniques and also you need to react to something that did not go as planned. Fix it on the ”run”.

A word of caution. Shy away from any defintion of “skill” that excludes olympic medalists. Ecology doesn't imply that dead drilling is bad. It says that dead drilling is an inefficient way to learn skill in BJJ because it doesn't transfer well to the circumstances under which we have to perform.