Few topics generate as much heated discussion as training methodology. At the heart of this debate is the ecological approach to skill acquisition versus traditional drilling and explicit instruction. Lachlan Giles, competitor, coach, and founder of Submeta instructional platform, recently shared his nuanced perspective on this contentious topic during an appearance on the Partizan Grappling Podcast.
Giles, who famously secured bronze in the absolute division of ADCC 2019 despite competing several weight classes up, addressed the ongoing debate about how practitioners should best develop their skills.
“This is a hard one because I feel like it’s quite an in-depth thing to go through,” Giles explained when asked about his position on the ecological versus traditional approach. “Overall, I mostly agree that if you can train it live, you’re gonna get more out of it. It is a way to train your skillset live. Overall, I think there is value in being taught and in taking information in and learning that way.”
The ecological approach, which emphasizes learning through live feedback in realistic contexts rather than isolated drilling, has gained significant traction in recent years. However, Giles questions whether the theoretical debate is always helpful for practitioners.
“I sometimes get a bit confused about what actually defines it because some people say you have to train this way and then others say that all types of training is ecological,” he noted. “If you can view everything through an ecological lens, then the debate around that is kind of useless to some degree.”
Rather than pledging allegiance to one camp, Giles advocates for a pragmatic blend of approaches.
“My opinion is a mix,” he stated simply.
Drawing from his own experience, Giles shared how explicit instruction has enhanced his game:
“I worked berimbolos for ages. And even like recently, I sort of worked on the Nogi bolo game a lot. And then Levi, I rolled with Levi. And I’m like, he was like berimboloing me, of course. And I’m like, what are you doing? We stopped and looked at the position and I’m like, why am I not doing this?”
This moment of insight might not have happened through implicit learning alone, Giles suggests.
“Despite being in that same situation, if we’re looking at from an ecological lens, like the affordance was always there. I never picked up on it until I was aware of it and I’d been shown it.”
Giles also challenged the notion that watching instructional content or studying tape is fundamentally different from receiving direct instruction:
“I don’t understand what’s different between watching someone doing a move and you’re going like, ‘oh, he does this’ as opposed to someone saying, ‘oh, he does this.’ Or saying, ‘I do this.'”
The debate extends to the effectiveness of instructional content, which Giles has contributed to extensively through his platform Submeta. He points to the rapid skill development during the COVID pandemic as evidence of instruction’s value:
“I look at how good everyone’s gotten. And I think instructionals have been absolutely crucial in that.”
Even Levi Jones-Leary, whom Giles described as “maybe the best guard player in the world,” incorporates drilling into his routine.
“Levi even does solo drills now,” Giles revealed. “He’s doing solo drilling and he comes back better, which is crazy.”
Reflecting on the success of his standout athletes, Giles observed that dedicated practice in specific positions is a common denominator:
“Pretty much everyone that I’ve seen is good studies and they’ll often come in an hour before training. You look at Belal and this was the same with Jeremy Skinner when he was here – someone was like, ‘dude, you’ve spent like 60 hours in the past three months just sitting there holding a foot, practicing different angles that you can apply pressure on.'”
Ultimately, Giles sees value in multiple approaches to skill development. Whether through explicit instruction, position-specific drilling, or live rolling, what matters most is continuous improvement and adaptation.
“I just don’t see it being valuable, putting yourself in a box where it can only be one way,” Giles concluded, encapsulating his pragmatic philosophy toward jiu-jitsu training methodology.
