19 Dec Elevate MMA 2025 Curriculum
We are always seeking to evaluate what we are doing and make tweaks to everything to improve. For the past four years we have run monthly curriculum that attempt to move in a natural progression. We are going to make a large departure in the coming year.
For 2025 everything will rotate weekly.
MMA:
1. Blending Striking w Takedowns
2. Ground Striking
3. Wall Work
4. Escapes & Rides
BJJ/No-Gi
1. Back
2. Pins
3. Guard & Passing (includes leglocks as well)
4. Turtle & Front Headlock
Takedowns
1. Shooting Hips (Single, Double, Hi-C)
2. Upper Body (Body Lock, Back Body Lock, Front Headlock, Foot Sweeps, Judo)
Striking
1. Closed Engagement (2 weeks/month)
2. Open Engagement
3. Clinch
We have a large amount of variation in our academy with students ranging from Day 1 of training all the way through professional fighter and experienced black belts. With this structure if you train with us for one month, you will have seen enough variety to hopefully have a general understanding of the whole picture. For those with upcoming competitions you will have spent time working in all positions in the lead up. That seems like a huge benefit compared to needing to wait a full year before being exposed to a lesson plan again.
Frequency of exposure to the ideas will go up
Do less things overall so we can do them better
Have a “balanced” month in terms of training volume
Avoid overuse injuries
I’m excited to see the results – and I’m sure we will keep tweaking & adjusting as we go
Let’s have a huge 2025
2026 Updates and Ideas!
Okay, so I really liked how the year ran last year but we do want to make a few tweaks.
Leglocks get more time! So the plan is: week 4 of the month will be turtle/front headlock for two months and leg locks on the third. You can absolutely still include leglocks in guard related weeks as well.
“Mixing” our wrestling. Stand up grappling isn’t just the battle for connection while on the feet. We can transition low to high, or high to low. Defense can flow into offense. And we can work from positions where we are already on the mat (low single, crack down, sprawled out, dog fight) Feel free to bring even more variety into how we teach.
Striking – just pick something! The categories we are working in are very broad, feel free to hone down on smaller categories within the week (boxing, kicking technique, footwork, cage cutting, feinting, evasion, counters, defense, etc)
Add some seasoning – are you super inspired to teach a certain thing? Feel free to take sections of a class or even the whole session off in a different direction. Variety is awesome and I love when coaches teach what is top of mind for them. The curriculum is OUR framework so we can always discard it when convenient and pick it back up when needed.
Lastly – our constant focus is going to remain the same
Tune in to the students on the mat, focus on being present for them. Do they need to be brought back to focus, or do they need more energy. Is the room lagging, or are they having fun exploring. Mix things up – don’t get locked in on one way of running a class. We don’t have to start in any certain place – grappling classes can start on the ground (generally safer in terms of injury risk), and then we can work more from standing positions once everyone is warm and loose. We can spar open rounds in the middle of class and then finish with more constraints based games or even some technical tinkering or exploration of options within a position to finish.
I’m so excited to watch everyone’s continued development as coaches. Continue to make time for your own training, try to come by and audit classes when you can as well (this is where I get a ton of my best ideas.
All we do is Elevate – last year was the best we’ve ever had in terms of teaching and student development. I feel like we are going to roll those lessons forward and be even more potent this year as a result.