BJJ Focus Journal UX Case Study
CHALLENGE
After training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for over a year I was looking for a way to get more out of each session and fast track my improvement. I knew from my studies in music that it wasn’t practice that makes perfect but perfect practice that provides the key to mastering any skill.
RESEARCH
My research consisted of readings from books and papers, user interviews, observational and contextual inquiries.
I started with the question “how do I get better at Jiu Jitsu”. I wanted to find peoples approaches to training, tools or systems they used to guide their improvement and uncover patterns amongst high performers.
JOURNALING AND INTENTION
The universal answer was to “train more”. However, people had many different ways of approaching their training.
What was interesting was that many high performing athletes were using a form of journaling to document and focus their training.
People who did not keep journals we more subject to approaching training with a mindless attitude, performing moves on instinct without real focus directed towards a goal.
People who kept journals were better able to identify specific areas they wanted to focus on, set goals and implement strategies towards achieving them.
The problem people found while journaling was that they easily become full of useless information.
Effective journaling was simple. Athletes defined clear goals and a way to achieve them. Good journaling should move away from recording techniques, which many beginners barely understand, and rather be used as a document to keep one accountable, on track and provoke questions that aid learning.
PROBLEM SOLVING
Essentially Jiu Jitsu is a problem-solving tool. The problem being “How can I prevent a person from seriously hurting me”?
The pathway to learning how master this art is complex. There are so many techniques that one has to execute under pressure against training partners who are not only already better than you are but against a group getting better at the same rate.
Everyone takes Jiu Jitsu seriously and people are looking for an edge.
Australian black belt Kit Dale expressed that there is value in using a problem-solving method to guide his development.
Evaluate — Select — Execute — Reflect.
He stressed moving away from learning just a series of techniques instead breaking down the system, evaluating it, selecting a goal within an area of focus, putting it into practice for a period of time then reflecting on what is and isn’t working.
UNDERSTANDING THE SYSTEM
Australian 3rd degree black belt Dave Hart emphasises the need for students to develop a complete understanding of Jiu Jitsu. How all positions relate to each other and how techniques flow into one another. A student who develops this understanding will build a more rounded “game”.
A Game consists of the strongest techniques a person can execute from the 9 major positions. Within these 9 positions a person should be able to execute a submission (choke or joint break) that finishes the fight from the top or bottom of an opponent, a pass or top transition allowing you to pass an opponent’s defenses establishing a dominant position and a sweep from the bottom, reversing the position from a weaker position to a more dominant position on top.
Once you begin to understand what techniques work for your body and personality you can funnel an opponent into your strongest areas.
The best way to develop a strong complete game is to start with your strongest area, which people discover after a short time training, hone that area then expand out to the next closest area.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
There are currently many journaling software applications for Jiu Jitsu. They all share the common function of submission tracking. Although useful to see what is working for you and what you are getting caught by this feature not only neglects passing, transitional and sweep techniques but avoids developing the understanding of the complete game.
There are some basic goal setting features, but these generally are linked to submission achievements such as “50 triangle chokes”.
Other applications serve as technique reference banks which students can use to learn any move. Not only is this overwhelming but hinders improvement because the student is encouraged to try out new moves all time rather than focusing on perfecting one.
PROBLEM
In essence, there is too much learn in Jiu Jitsu. People get lost learning to many new techniques and training without any real purpose aside from the desire to win. People along with current applications are failing to address proper goal setting, hindering their ability to develop a complete understanding of Jiu Jitsu and the ability to implement this understanding into an effective game.
I worked with the statement:
How can I facilitate mastery in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?
Along with the concept of “how can we develop in a student a more complete understanding of Jiu Jitsu and help them develop an effective game”.
Within a 2-week sprint.
SOLUTION
I solved this by creating a mobile journal that centered around the idea of focus and goal setting. Implementing the problem-solving algorithm; Evaluate, Select, Execute and Reflect with a visual breakdown of the major positions and sub positions with their technical elements.
The Student is able to easily identify the 9 major positions thus instantly becomes aware of the complete system. They can then set techniques within these positions consisting of three basic elements, submission, pass and sweep. This means that they are developing their game as they assign techniques to each position.
I avoided putting instructional breakdown of techniques in this app due to the wealth of information available on the internet.
Once techniques have been set they are prompted to assign them as a focus and set a time period. These move over to a quick view screen from which a student can access and observe at a glance, establishing their purpose for training that day, week or month.
Once the time period is complete the student is prompted to reflect on this period through a series of short questions. This phase encourages brief thoughts directing the student away from writing to much, just enough to revisit what was working and what wasn’t.
They then can return to the full game break down and can see that depending on how much time they spent focusing on an area the position has filled up indicating experience in a position. People then can easily identify where they are strong and where they need work and repeat the process.
Key Learning.
The biggest challenge of this project was at what level was this directed at.
It was interesting to see that both 20-year black belts and complete beginners needed prompting to establish the goal setting function this application.
Pairing each screen with an explanation that could be dismissed once read solved this problem.
What’s Next.
Advanced goal setting tools — A way for the student to customise and set goals with increased depth.
Metric Measurements — A way to expose techniques that are working and what is working against you.
Using this application as proof of concept I have partnered with Dave Hart head instructor of Dominance MMA to develop a system which can develop students understanding of Jiu Jitsu quicker also allowing the coaching staff to identify individual and team strengths and weaknesses.
Say Hi.
I’m Rigel, A Human Centred Designer and Artist. I have a passion for developing solutions that allow people to take control and unlock their potential within the world. I love collaborating with creative teams to uncover hidden ideas and deliver awesome experiences.
If you are interested in training: http://dominance.com.au/richmond
