How the Curriculum Works
The structure behind what your child learns each week, and why it's designed the way it is.
The structure behind what your child learns each week, and why it's designed the way it is.
If your child mentions a topic you've never heard of, or you're wondering whether they're "keeping up" with kids who started earlier, this page will answer both questions. The short version: your child is never behind.
The 42-Week Cycle
The GJJ curriculum is a 42-week rotating cycle. There is no "Week 1" that everyone starts on. Your child joins wherever the cycle happens to be, and it repeats. They'll see everything eventually.
This means your child is never behind. A kid who starts at week 30 gets the same quality of instruction as a kid who started at week 1. Every week is designed to be accessible to someone seeing the topic for the first time while still offering depth for kids on their second or third pass through.
What a Week Covers
Each week focuses on a specific area of grappling. Your child won't hear these terms in class, but here's what the major topic areas look like in plain language:
- Guard: Playing from your back, using your legs to control or create distance from someone on top of you
- Guard retention: Keeping that leg control when someone is trying to get past it
- Pinning: Controlling someone from on top, and escaping when you're the one being controlled
- Passing: Getting past someone's legs to reach a controlling position
- Kneeling and scrambles: The messy transitional positions where both kids are fighting for advantage
- Standing: Takedowns and wrestling, how to engage from the feet
- Submissions: How games end: chokes and joint locks (Golden Tigers only; no submissions in Little Lions)
Every topic is taught from both sides. A week on pinning covers holding someone down from the top and escaping from the bottom. Your child always practices both perspectives.
Why Some Topics Repeat More
Some positions appear more often in the cycle than others. The ones your child will encounter most as a beginner (half guard, turtle, back control) show up three times per 42-week cycle. Others show up twice or once.
The logic is simple: the positions that matter most get the most practice. A child who is comfortable defending from turtle and escaping back control has a foundation that applies everywhere else.
The Class Structure
Every class follows the same format, regardless of the week's topic:
- Warmup: Light movement games to get bodies ready
- Evergreen game: A recurring game that runs most weeks regardless of the main topic. These keep your child engaged with the big categories of grappling even when the week's topic is something specific.
- Recall round: A game from a previous week replayed with no new instruction. This is retrieval practice: recalling something after a delay is one of the most effective ways to make learning stick.
- Main topic: The week's primary focus, taught through games that get progressively more complex
This structure means your child is never just doing one thing. Even on a "passing" week, they're still playing guard games, pinning games, and standing games through the evergreen and recall rounds.
What This Means for You
Your child is never behind. The cycle repeats. Anything they miss the first time comes back around.
It's normal to feel like they missed something. They didn't. The curriculum is designed so that each time through the cycle, kids pick up things they weren't ready for the last time. A concept that went over their head at month two clicks at month eight.
You don't need to study the curriculum. Your child's learning happens through play in class, not through homework. The curriculum structure is here so you understand what's happening, not so you can teach it at home.
If your child mentions a topic ("we did guard today"), that's a great conversation starter. Ask them what games they played, what they tried, whether something worked. Not what they should have done differently.
Related Pages
- How We Teach: the methodology behind the games and why we don't drill
- Youth Program Goals: what we're building in your child through this curriculum
- Our Youth Programs: the differences between Little Lions and Golden Tigers
More in Understanding the Program