Here is a small glimpse of the Harris International Associate, Level Two, Grappling Instructor’s Course:

I. THIS COURSE IS ABOUT YOU

A. The Apprentice level course laid a foundation for you, your students and our association. It taught you the basics of grappling, some basic guidelines and principles, some basic techniques, as well as how to present to a varied group clientele. This associate course will not be about your students or the association. Instead, the focus will be on each of you!

B. Attendance at the Apprentice level course, the requirements to stay in touch and pay your yearly association dues were all a test. How so? Well, I knew that some people would take the course JUST so they could get their hands on my instructional manual. So, I purposely hid some very obvious things right inside the manual. This is why several who’ve taken the Associate Instructor Course have referred the instructor’s manual as, “The Harris Code” after they were given the keys to unlock what was written on its pages! Once you learn this key, you’ll be glad you remained a part of our association!

C. The Associate level course will help you develop specific parts of your game. In other words, this course was not designed to help you to become a better instructor. Rather, the focus of this course will be to help you become a better practitioner.

II. PHYSICAL TESTING

A. I told you about these in the Apprentice Level Course. Now you have to pass this exam! The test is not THAT hard, but it will require effort on your part. So make sure you prepare!

III. REVIEW OF SOME OF THE BASICS

A. 48 fundamental movements – explained and demonstrated. Yes, this list has expanded beyond what you had previously learned.

B. Techniques – their mechanics, the purpose for teaching and learning them. For example, many ask, “Why do we teach the basic upa (bridge and roll) technique to beginners?” We teach this technique to beginners for several important reasons. Here are two:

1. To help the student develop the habit of paying attention to detail. They will need this skill as their belt color becomes darker. Why? Because this is the entry point into the development of the four physical attributes of maturity – the four attributes that counter the youthful attributes of Speed, Power, Explosiveness, Endurance.

2. To teach the student the most basic and important movement of all: THE BRIDGE! All too often, beginning level students develop lazy habits by focusing exclusively on shrimping / snakey type movements. As a result, most tend to want to replace the guard rather than go to their knees. Well, with the advent of wrestlers into the grappling game, and with the plethora of instructional DVDs out there, pulling guard is much more difficult these days than it used to be 20 years ago when I was coming up through the ranks. Additionally, since all of your escapes begin with a bridge, and since 85-90% of your submissions end with a bridging type movement, it is imperative that a student learns from day one that they need to learn to bridge with their hips.

Several years ago, I gave a purple belt test to one of my students. It was a memorable test because this one student did what I had asked him to do. I told him that he could not do enough bridges and rolls between now and the date of his test. Long story short, when it came time for his purple belt test, no one could hold him down – not even the brown belt who outweighed him and was assisting with the exam could hold him down.

So, since the bridge is one of three UNSTOPPABLE movements, it needs to be trained and developed!

IV. TRAINING METHODS

A. Ten training methods to challenge you (mentally and physically) and keep you on your toes.

V. COUNTERS TO THE POSITIONAL BASICS (with good timing)

A. Counter the bridge and roll escapes
B. Counter the elbow/knee escapes
C. Counter the go to the knees escapes.
D. Counter the basic under the leg escape.
E. Counter the basic over the leg escape.
F. And more….

VI. SUBMISSION ESCAPES

A. Multiple escapes to arm locks, chokes and leg locks.

VII. TIMING and AWARENESS

A. Making the effort to define them (for the student, the instructor/coach)
B. How to train them

VIII. YOU’RE GONNA LOVE THIS SECTION. I can’t say what it is here.

IX. POSITIONING

A. What is it? Trust me, there’s a lot more to positioning than JUST the major positions (i.e. mount, side mount, guard, knee on belly, north and south, etc…) and the minor positions (i.e. the in-between control positions).

X. EXTRAS

A. Unlocking THE HARRIS CODE (What is contained in your manual that most do not see).
B. A list of all the new HARRIS JIU JITSU INSTRUCTIONALS.
C. Eleven-hundred and nine (1109) areas to train in Jiu Jitsu.
D. Some of my recent discoveries.
E. A DVD of our time training together.
F. A LITTLE MORE……

I look forward to sharing all of this info with you!

Roy Harris