Less time

Something really big happened last night at Jiu-Jitsu. I didn't really notice, but it's huge. I needed a bit of time to digest it.

At my level, I'm effectively the only student. There are technically about a dozen, but in the last two weeks only one has attended, and he came only a single time.
 

In the same two-week period, I attended every one of the six classes. I also practiced my material at the four open-mat sessions, and also had one private lesson.
 

The instructor knows that I'm trying to finish my level early.
 

Last night he said that if we structure things just a little differently we might be able to shave a week off the normal 3 week chapter review. He only mentioned this might happen for the current chapter.
 

I guess he knows I'll find enough time to do the equivalent of a third week of review on my own, which I will.
 

I'm already trying to compress 57 weeks of training into the next 40 weeks in order to finish by November. Maybe it is now 56 weeks worth of curriculum to work on. If it happens for the other four chapters, it might be down to 52.
 

Still a challenge, but considerably less so. The worst that might happen is that it doesn't work out. The best outcome would be that it becomes a regular thing.

 

Backs

Everybody I know my age has one; a back problem. Some call theirs a, “bad shoulder” or a, “bum hip,” but it's all the same.

It's defective structure. Who designed these things?

My own is about as slight as they come. Once or twice a year I get this twinge feeling. This is a signal that tells me to knock off everything physical, to cease lifting or twisting, and to get ready to be off work for up to a week.

This all ended about a year and a half ago. Since I've been training in grappling there have been no missed work days, and not even a single back-twinge feeling. This was the opposite of what I originally thought rolling around would do for me.

Nothing lasts forever, and finally, on Sunday I had a twinge. Not a full one, mind you, but something. I didn't know how to react. Would I still miss work? Should I still take things super careful?

I went careful. The bike riding to work stopped. The only risky thing I did at all was Jiu-Jitsu class last night. The techniques we were doing were as back friendly as they come.

Still 100% this morning. That's three days since the semi-twinge. I could feel absolutely nothing in my back at all.

I rode my bike to work. My back now feels a little stiff now.

Lovely.

 

Do it

If you want to understand what combat is, you need to think of it as a difficult activity. It is quite similar to algebra in this.

Imagine algebra, with a time limit imposed. You must solve the equation instantly.

When I was a kid, we started algebra in grade 8, and kept doing it until grade 12. Five long years of practice. I could do it pretty fast.

 

This is the problem I have with short, self-defense courses. There is only time to show a tiny part of what fighting is. It isn't enough. The people then head home, and proceed to not practice their small slice of knowledge ever again.

Imagine a person who has only had a few high-school math classes, done a decade before, being handed an algebraic equation to solve. If they cannot do so before the time limit expires, they will lose.

To have a combat skill, one cannot merely be shown something once. It must be drilled over and over, for years, until it becomes part of the practitioner's being.

I am over stating things. A short course does some good. The participants learn a few techniques that are the most likely to ever need. Perhaps they will be able to recall them when required.

Our Jiu-Jitsu school offers a women's self-defense course that is much more involved than most. The instructor really wants to do as much as is possible. This is good, but if any of these students join the main group, it is an even greater victory.

There they will face a more realistic challenge. They will work on a much wider range of skills, and do so in a more intense training environment. They will drill much more. In the women's class, they work strictly with other women. In the main class they work with women, but also with men. It is a much different challenge.

Fighting is a skill. It is one that can be taught, but it must be practiced. Good golfers play golf all the time.

This is true of almost everything.

Beating January

I earned my Blue Belt in June of last year, but didn't really start training for the next level until September. It has been exactly 145 days since then.

I should complete the training for my next level 433 days from now.

I'm trying to accelerate this, as it is such a ridiculously long road.

Helen and I plan on spending a few months in LA starting next January. While there, I will train like a lunatic at the main Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy. I want to complete my current level and test before we go.

An unknown is how long it will take me to perform my test.

The test consists of 6 parts. Three are 15 minute long demonstrations of specific techniques. The other three are 5 minute long sparring sessions. It takes several attempts to perform any one part well enough to submit for testing. If you can do one in a day you are doing well.

So you might think, “Six days. Big deal.” Wrongo.

It is realistic to plan on a couple of days of review for each part, and then a day to actually do and video it, at least for the three technique sections. I'd call it a week each.

The sparring is incredibly draining. You do over and over with the camera going. No need to review ahead of time. As soon as a good one happens, you're done. Time to move on to the next type of test sparring. I bet I'll never get more than one done a night. Let's call that another week altogether.

Three weeks for technique testing, and a fourth for the sparring. That's a month.

In January, we go to LA so I want the test done and submitted before that. We only train for the first half of December. That means I need to be finished with the curriculum and starting the testing by the middle of November. Assuming unforeseen delays, I'd better shoot for the start of November to be safe.

That means completing 433 days of training in 280 days.

It might be impossible, but I'm on it.

Housework

Our house is a little odd right now. We've had roofers around for a month or more putting on lovely, heavy-gauge, red steel. That includes a skylight in the bedroom.

We've also had some deck railings yanked off, and are getting our carport roof/deck re-surfaced.

In doors it is busy, too. The master bathroom tub is gone, and the replacement is coming. There is already a brand new sink and matching taps installed. There is going to be a new floor, and gorgeous glass tile wrapping the tub area.

The kitchen floor has been redone, and the old dishwasher sent away. The new dishwasher awaits the plumber; probably tomorrow.

We've also bought basement flooring for me to install after I retire.

Other future plans have the main floor bathroom getting totally redone. We also need a new oven, as the current one is busted.

I can't imagine how people go through this with time limits, or kids, or limited budgets.

Anyhow, we should have our kitchen back monetarily. The ensuite will take longer.

That will leave just the stuff that hasn't already begun; the basement floor, the oven, and the middle bathroom.

Things will be better when it's all done. I don't consider it a retirement project of any sort. If I could wave a wand and have all the work completed, I would.

It all takes time.

Day Class

It's almost time to retire.

Everybody tells me retirees need to keep busy. Somehow I don't think that will be a problem.
 

I do martial arts 5 evenings a week. That pretty much takes care of my after-dinner hours.
 

As my daytime hours are currently taken up school teaching, those aren't all organized yet. My only day activity is a single Jiu-Jitsu class Saturday morning.
 

I want to run more, and I'm sure I will. That might be daily, but will only takes an hour or so.
 

I'd love for there to be some sort of training a few times a week. I don't mean going to a gym or to the pool. I'd like a martial arts class. There are none anywhere nearby.
 

I've toyed with the idea of starting a Karate class but there just doesn't seem to be any demand. Karate is not in fashion. I also hate all the organizing that something like this would take.
 

I wonder if the Jiu-Jitsu school would like me to lead a morning class? If so, there wouldn't be much organizing for me to do. If that were to happen, it would be twice a week. That would be enough.
 

It's fun to think about it all.

Brain Picking

I am in my 31^st year as a student of Shotokan Karate, and my 2^nd year of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. I have also dabbled in Shitu-Ryu, Chitu-Ryu, Kyokushin, fencing, Iaido, Tai Chi, and Judo.

 

I have been a fan of boxing longer than I can remember, and followed Kickboxing back in the 1980s, and been a fan of MMA since it was invented in the 1990s.
 

The other day I was on the mat surrounded by a bunch of Jiu-Jitsu and Hapkido newbies. The only old hand was Stirling. He has a Black Belt in Hapkido, and is a rank above me in Jiu-Jitsu.

The rest were all rattling on about how they like to kick, or how they like to stand. Some were working on boxing skills with the pads. They were all very earnest, but the level of skill and knowledge was pretty minimal. It was like being in a kindergarten class as the kids try and discuss politics, or particle physics.

Please don't mistake what I'm saying. I am not any sort of expert in any sort of way. Call me perhaps the minimum standard for competence.

A couple of the newbies asked Stirling's opinion on a couple of points. Each time they drowned his answer out expressing their own, clearly-superior opinions.

One approached me for a little help with his Jiu-Jitsu, sort of. He actually didn't ask. He said, “teach me some Jiu-Jitsu.” I did so for a little while. He thanked me, and then headed over to kick at a padded target. When I mentioned one point where he could improve his front kick, he seemed offended and told me why his wrong foot placement was actually correct. I smiled and walked away.

My own philosophy as a student is quite different. If I'm training somewhere and they show me a different way to do something, I try and do it. This is true even if it's something I think I already understand and can do quite well. I do all I can to learn their version. I don't forget my old way, but rather learn and add the new. If successful, I'll have two variants instead of one. If very, very successful I'll have some improvements for my old variant.

Take the first kick I even learned; front kick. Shotokan has two variants. I've also learned over the years how to apply both with different foot angling, and different hip usage. I can't even remember where I picked these up.

Recently, I learned the Jiu-Jitsu version of the front kick. It is incredibly different. I didn't argue about the superiority of one kick over another, or resist the Jiu-Jitsu version. I am currently trying to learn it. It is inferior to a standard front kick in most respects. In one single way it is better. I am adding a new weapon to my arsenal.

As I know nothing about that version of the front kick, I let the guy who knows the technique teach me. No arguing. No contradicting. Each second of training is valuable. Resistance wastes time.

A good example of the right way to do it. Last summer Oishi Sensei visited from Japan. He is an eight Dan, and the head instructor of the Komazawa University Karate program. His program has produced more world champions than can be imagined.

Through an interpreter, he was explaining the correct timing of attack in competitive fighting. This is very high level stuff, and he is a true expert. The gym was packed full of Black Belts, and you could have heard a pin drop. Did anybody express their own opinions, or offer alternative theories? That would have been madness.

To comparison to the kid kicking the pad incorrectly, I am Oishi Sensei. He ignored me, and he kept kicking wrong. A real Einstein move.

We also have a guy who fights MMA. He is about halfway through his White Belt. He already knows how to do a lot of the stuff we do, but in a different, less precise way. He never resists anything that any of the Blue Belts as to offer. He listens, and tries it our way. Sometimes he gets really excited about it, and sometimes not, but he accepts it and wallows in it.

He does this even though a Blue Belt like me is not even close to a Jiu-Jitsu expert. I am less than a year ahead of him.

Who

The week is winding down. At Jiu-Jitsu the White Belt classes were full. We've even had a few new people give it a try. At least one has signed up.

However, the Blue Belt class attendance has stunk. Tuesday there were four of us, which is fine. Wednesday and Thursday it was just Stirling and me. Hard to get motivated without more people.

When I got my Blue Belt back in June, I was at the new guy in a healthy group in the advanced class.

That has changed.

As time has gone by, the number of us still training has slowly dropped. Of those still hitting the mat, most do so half-time or less. I am by far the most regular of the bunch.

For example; in the six classes since Christmas, 5 of us have attended at all. Of those, Stirling has been regular, Corey has been to a couple, Koko a couple, and Madeline about half. I've been to all of them.

I guess you could say I'm gaining on them.

Currently, Stirling is the club's assistant instructor. Whenever the boss is away Stirling takes over teaching responsibilities. There would be no weirdness, except he's moving to Australia in about a month.

Who does that make into the helper? Corey would be the logical choice as, like Stirling, he holds a higher-level Blue Belt than the rest of us. Logical, but he doesn't want to teach.

Koko is next in belt seniority, and then Madeline, but they are both teenagers. That doesn't always work well with an adult class. There are also legal issues. They will also likely head out of our small community after they graduate.

Right now the boss is in Mexico. Stirling can't come to the Kids classes, so Koko and Madeline have been splitting the teaching and have an adult in attendance. Stirling has been leading the White and Blue adult classes.

On the one night he couldn't come at all, the girls handled the Kids; I taught the White Belts and Koko lead review for the Blue Belts.

Maybe that is what we need; a team of helpers.

　

　

Haul

It's time for the long haul. The time between Christmas vacation and Spring Break always does. I suspect it will be better than usual, as our provincial government has added a holiday on February 11th.

I'm back to riding my bike to work. Today it was below zero, but at least there was no rain or snow. I'm not sorry that this will be my last winter that I'm doing this. I hate riding through a pitch black world, but as soon as the sun starts to make a morning appearance it will be grand. I hope this happens soon.

My martial arts continue rolling along. Throughout January we'll be completing one technique unit per week. February will be largely all review. This is fun and necessary, but one tends to lose any feeling of progress through the material. By March it will be back to a weekly technique unit again.

It is my plan to add a private Jiu-Jitsu lesson each week during review time, and then to work on the technique learned in addition to the usual review. I already do tons of review when it isn't review time. This should keep me feeling like I'm progressing.

So finally in March Spring Break will come. Helen and I will visit the family in Victoria. By then the year is warming up. Mornings will be sunny. The world will be alive rather than dreary.

The long haul will be over.

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

Grandmaster Bernardo Salinas

I love finding stuff on the internet. Last year it helped me find my original instructor, along with other old friends. Today I found somebody else interesting.

His name is Bernardo Salinas. He is a Grandmaster of Sinkatan Arnis, which is a Philippine stick fighting art. He studied it early in life, returning to it in the late 1980s.

Salinas is also a 5th Dan in Shotokan Karate, and has a small Karate association of loyal students centered around his home in Fort Saint John, BC.

He first walked into the Fort Saint John Karate Club as a White Belt in January of 1983.

At that time, half of the classes were being taught by the Club’s Sensei, Perry Foster. Foster Sensei lived an hour drive away, so the other half of the classes were lead by the Club’s senior student. That guy only wore a Green Belt.

That Green Belt guy was me. I was a Brown Belt by the time I inherited the Club, when Foster Sensei left to live in Japan.

By then, several of Bernardo’s sons were also training. Two are still martial artists and continue under their father.

I earned my Black Belt at the end of 1986, and Bernardo got his at the start of 1988.

The last I knew of him, Bernardo was training, and a Black Belt. Now I find out he’s still training, a high-ranking Black Belt, and a Grandmaster besides.

I love the internet.

First Week

It's been a long week. It always is after holiday time.

It wasn't just the work week this time.

In martial arts, it was interesting and full as well.

Monday was a question mark. Would anybody return for the new term? There were 8 of us training just before Christmas. For this first class, there were 5 of us. One of the others has let me know that he's moving on, but we still look pretty good. There will be 5-7 of us.

Tuesday it was Jiu-Jitsu, but it was very weird. I was the teacher for the White Belt class. That's the first time that's happened. I think it went OK.

Wednesday was normal, as were Thursday and Friday. Almost normal, anyhow. With the instructor away in Mexico, the assistant did the teaching. He's really good, but it was a little different.

A long week, in several ways.

　

　

　

　

Teacher?

　

　
It was kind of weird. At Jiu-Jitsu tonight I was the instructor. I'd had plenty of warning, and so thoroughly reviewed the material to be covered, but it was still strange. It went fine.

Not really a big deal. It was a single event due to both the instructor and the assistant instructor not being available.

Last year at this time I was still a beginner.

All my life I’ve been rotating between being a student and being a teacher. It is still happening.

I wonder if that’s how it is for everybody.

　

　

Miracle Cure

In the last three weeks, I've been on the mat exactly once, and that was over two weeks ago.

I'm looking forward to going today. It is an informal, open session so there is no way to predict who will attend.

I like my normal training routine. I have a Karate class on Monday, two Jiu-Jitsu classes on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, and Thursday. On Friday and Saturday there are open mat sessions. Nothing on Sunday.

By the time I retire the weather will be better, so I'll also run every day.

Why so much?

I started Karate long ago because I liked it. Running and biking got added because teaching martial arts wasn't keeping me fit enough. Jiu-Jitsu got added for fun.
Now I dare not stop.

My social circle includes many people of about my age. I am the most active person in that group. Of my friends in their forties, about half are already hobbled up pretty bad. Of those in their fifties, 100% have problems.

The problems I refer to are things like plantar fasciitis, other foot conditions, ankle problems and bum knees. Hip problems are endemic, and so are shoulder issues. Don’t even ask about back problems. I have none of these.

The only thing I am doing different than all these other folks is my level of activity. It makes sense that it is doing something.

What I am doing should either cripple me faster than my friends, or help minimize such age-related damage. It seems to be working in my favour.

I like it, it keeps me fit, and seems to stave off age-related structural issues.

At some point I’ll have to cut back, but that time is currently nowhere in sight.

　

　

First Class Back

Got home today after Christmas vacation with family in Victoria.

On the ferryboat during the last leg of the voyage home, info came in that there would be an open mat Jiu-Jitsu session on Saturday. I was hoping for something just like that. I love the internet and cell phones.

I also got an email regarding the first official day back at Jiu-Jitsu class on Tuesday. The main instructor will still be in Mexico, and the assistant cannot take over as planned on the first day.

The email was asking me to teach the White Belt class.

I've been teaching Karate since 1983, and been a school teacher almost as long, but this is different. Last year at this time I was a student in the White Belt class, and now I'm going to teach it.

This is a very rapid turn over in martial arts terms.

The classes are very structured and challenging to teach correctly. I'm supposed to teach "positional control in side mount, and double-leg takedown". I have access to videos of the curriculum and so can review ahead of time.

For most of the White Belts it won't be their first time doing the lesson. For some it will be.

It is important to do it properly, and to cover all the teaching points.