BJJ learning theory?

I was flipping through the pages of my cousin's textbook a few months ago and came across an interesting concept- the development of fine motor skills. The book was speaking about a child's development of skills such as walking, writing, riding a bike, etc. It broke it down into something like --> observation, emulation, repetition, and mastery.

Immediately I thought of BJJ and the process of learning and being able to apply technique.

This may or may not be new information, but I think the application of it to BJJ would help to put it into some sort of framework that might help in teaching and learning BJJ.

I searched online for more info on cognitive development in sports learning, and came across a social cognitive model of sequential skill acquisition by sports psychologist B. Zimmerman.

If you're interested in the full article that cited him, you can see it here-
http://gseweb.harvard.edu/~t656_web/Spring_2002_students/kothuri_smita_sports_learning_tk.htm

The model breaks it down into four sequential levels: observation, emulation, self-control, and self-regulation.

Observation-

The first level in the acquisition process is the observation level. This level of skill is characterized by modeling. In this stage, the learner is forming, through observation, a mental model of the activity from the other person’s actions, hearing descriptions, observing consequences. Modeling, as the word suggests is the modeling of the learners’ behavior by observation of the other person’s actions, hearing the descriptions of the actions, and observing the consequences of those actions.

In BJJ, this would be the primary stage of learning technique. The instructor shows a move a few times and breaks it down into steps as the students watch. If it's the first time a student is seeing a technique, they have to draw a mental map and get a general idea of what is going on and how it applies in the larger picture.

A mistake I've made in the past would be to insert finer details of techniques into my initial explanation of a move. I would try and show a move and break down everything about it, but if the person I'm showing it has never seen it before they won't be able to absorb everything and might just end up overwhelmed.

Emulation-

At the second level, viz. emulation, the learner mimics the motor experiences in conjunction with the observational learning that has occurred in the first level, and uses social feedback from others. Emulation is the process by which information is gained from efforts to enact a model's performance. Achievement at this level is defined by the learners’ ability to emulate the general form of a model's skill. These emulative performance experiences provide developing athletes with sensorimotor and often social feedback to refine their performance and to develop standards of correct performance that are essential for higher levels of learning.

This would be the drilling part of the class. After the instructor shows the technique, the students practice it through repetition. Even if the technique isn't perfect the first time someone does a technique, they should at least try and get the major movements down. The finer details and adjustments can be made after the large muscle movements are worked out.

During this stage, a BJJ player is still thinking through moves. This is why new white belts are initially slow to respond in live sparring- they must search their mind for possible solutions to problem situations, and likely have not mastered the moves that would be appropriate.

I remember many times of pausing and thinking, "ok, what now" when I first started rolling. After awhile, things became automatic, and there was no more delay.

Self Control-

The third level of Zimmerman and colleagues' model is self-control. In this stage the goal is to achieve automaticity in the athletic performance from self-directed practice. To attain this level of proficiency, the learner compares his practice efforts with personal standards acquired previously from a model's performance. When the learner focuses on performance processes rather than on outcomes, automaticity in technique seems to be achieved more easily.

This would be repetition and practice in live sparring. The BJJ player would begin to recognize situations where the move would apply and be able to execute it automatically.

An example would be if someone felt a hand in the collar and recognized the cross choke setup. They would quickly duck their hand under the choke and block it, effectively applying a skill learned in drilling during actual live combat.

Self-Regulation-

At the final level of Zimmerman and colleagues' model, self-regulation, students learn to adapt their performance to changes in internal and external conditions. Students now shift their attention and focus from modeled processes to performance outcomes.

This would be the final step in learning a technique. A BJJ player would refine and adapt a move according to the situation in the match. This is where finer mechanics can be thrown in- adjusting the angle here, raising the hip there, rotating the wrist here, etc.

This might be the stage where a BJJ player begins to consider possible setups and entries into positions and techniques. They've already mastered the basic motor movements enough to recall them instantaneously, so they begin to link them all into the larger picture of BJJ and develop a cognitive map of the game.