Rich Guy

Let's just say that I make my goal of earning the first, cute little stripe to put on my Gracie Blue Belt before the end of this year. I'll be 57 years old.

My next milestone birthday will be 60. When I hit that, my Jiu-Jitsu rank will still be Blue Belt Stripe One. I might be getting close to the second of four stripes, but if Helen and I have traveled much I probably won't be.

If I had unlimited money to spend on my training, could that make a difference?

For about half of this month I've been going through the curriculum at over three times normal rate. It isn't overwhelming, and I actually quite like that pace. It's a kind of freak spurt to complete one chapter of my current level. I can't maintain this rate as the private lessons cost quite a bit. They are worth it, but not cheap.

At that speed a level can be completed in under 6 months. Travel doesn't disrupt things very much, as private lessons can be done in any order. Missing something doesn't mean you have to wait a year and a half for it to roll around again.

At such a rate, by the time I turn 60 I wouldn't be wearing a Blue Belt at all. I'd have finished all four Blue stripes, earned a Purple Belt, and added a first stripe onto that.

Quite a huge difference.

At such a rate, at age 65 I could be either a Brown Belt Stripe Four, or even a new Black Belt.

In the real world I'll still be somewhere in the Blue Belt ranks. It is quite likely I'll never make it as far as Purple.

This blog isn't either whining or complaining. It's an intellectual exercise. I like figuring out stuff like this.

I am perfectly content with what it is possible for me to achieve in the real world. Jiu-Jitsu is fun at any level. There is plenty to learn, and the rate doesn't matter.

In Karate I've been a Purple Belt already, and Brown, and have a Black Belt.

Don't need two of the things.

Rain and Travel

No run or bike ride today so far. The rain has been pounding down hard.

The next thing on the schedule is Jiu-Jitsu, but that will finish early. Might just be able to ride after I get home if the current break in the rain holds. We'll see.

Speaking of Jiu-Jitsu; my plan to finish my current level early is on track.

To pull it off, I will have to complete 19 technique units with private lessons and self training. After today, I will have 3 left to go. In a week, it should be down to 1. It will take a while to get the final unit done. We have some summer visiting interrupting my system for a bit, but I should be able to finish the last sometime in July. No prediction as to when.

By then I should have competed almost the entire level, except for the material on Back Mount. This will be covered at normal class in August and September.

Things would then shift into review and testing mode. I assume it will be done in the fall, and that I'll be successful.

Fall here can be very nice, and the weather often holds until well into November. Beyond that things can get cold, wet and dreary. For the last five years I've ridden my bike to work through the rainy, shortening days. No more.

The days will still grow painfully dark, and the cold will sink in. Christmas is equally cold and dark. Normally, we'd return to work after the holidays and again I'd ride to work unable to see beyond my bike's headlight, and return home with visibility almost as bad.

This won't happen, and not just because I've retired. Helen and I will return home, re-pack different stuff and head out again. No fears for our place while we're gone, as house sitters are already arranged.

We are heading south, like the stereotypical Canadian snowbirds. Down the coast we'll role, not noticing any weather change anywhere in Washington, Oregon, or northern California. Someplace south of San Francisco, however, it will stop seeming like winter.

I will be training twice daily at the main Gracie Jiu-Jitsu school in Los Angeles. Arriving with my level newly attained, and with no higher rank goals, I will immerse myself in the training. It should be glorious.

The training schedule has one class my level around noon, and another in the evenings. This will give Helen and I lots of fun time. There is so much to do in a place like LA I doubt we'll get bored.

By the time we head back, the worst of the dark and rain of winter around here will be over.

Time

When I finished my teaching career, I was nothing but happy. People would ask me if I was going to miss it, and my honest answer was, “no”.

My wife is finishing her school year now, and it taking all of next year off. Up until now, she's had mixed feelings. Mostly, she was sad that it was coming to an end. She isn't even retiring and yet she was a hundred times sadder taking a leave than I had been ending a career.

She's finally turned this around. There is one week of work left, making this her, “last weekend”. She keeps saying that her mind is boggled. She has stopped seeing things ending and started seeing how things are going to change in a positive way.

She is part of several musical groups. They all contain retired people who play during the daytime on weekdays. She has always been jealous, but now she can join them.

She hates the meetings, and getting home late. No more. She really hates doing report cards. No more.

Yesterday we were watching a travel show about the neighbouring city of Vancouver. They kept showing things that we've done, but not in many years.

Chinatown; “can we go there?” Stanley Park; “can we bike ride on the sea wall?” We haven't done these things due to time constraints. We are going to have no such time restrictions.

We are not the kind of people who will go days on end without leaving the house. We have friends who putter in the garden, but I'd literally prefer going to the dentist. Read a good book? Sure, on the ferry on the way to spend the day riding the skytrain from mall to mall and eating Korean food downtown.

I think Helen is going to love living this way so much that she won't be able to return to teaching after her year off is over. This would be OK, as we have enough money put aside that she could take off a second year, or even start an extra early retirement.

She just said again, “I'm so excited.”

Birthday Boy

Yesterday was my 57^th birthday. It was a perfect day.

The day started with Helen wishing me a happy birthday, and giving me the sweetest card.

Headed out in the morning with a couple of things to mail at the post office. This absolutely meant that I had to stop somewhere for coffee. As a retired guy, price matters.

I could have gone to the nice place for breakfast and coffee for about $15, or just get a fancy latte at Starbucks for $5. Went instead to McDonald’s. Got pancakes and a pensioner's coffee for just under $4.50. Can't beat that.

The second trip out was to attend a little thing at my old school for a longtime colleague who is joining me in retirement. It was great.

Afterwards I parked at the waterfront for a lovely 5k run.

It was a busy night at the White Belt Jiu-Jitsu class. There were 25 people on the mat. It was a little strange, in that the instructor was away and the class was being taught by Madeline.

During the lesson, she did maybe 7 or 8 demos. For each one she needed a partner. There were three other Blue Belts present that she could have chosen. One is an experienced young woman about Madeline's own size. One was a young guy a bit bigger than either of the girls. The third was me, an old guy twice her size.

Our usual instructor usually uses the younger Blue Belts for demos, as he's trying to groom the future generation. Madeline has no such motivation. Who did she use, and why? She used the girl once, the small guy twice, and all the other times it was me. I took it to be a vote of confidence in my technique.

Later, for the Blue Belt class two more arrived for a total of 6 on the mat. Several of us recalled the first slice of the night's technique well. Our instructor wanted us to continue into the second slice, but he demoed it last time incredibly quickly. We wouldn't have been able to do it, except I had reviewed the online video before heading to class. It isn't a hard one, so I taught it.

We were done our drill with lots of time to spare, so we rolled. I ended up with each of the other three guys. It was good fun.

Climbing into the car, my phone rang. It was my wife telling me that she'd ordered and paid for sushi, and could I pick it up. I love sushi, and was happy to comply. We had a lovely, late supper.

It might just have been my best birthday ever.....

Uke

The Japanese word is uke. It is pronounced eww-kay. There is no English equivalent.

An uke is the person that acts as a practise dummy for somebody doing Judo or Jiu-Jitsu techniques. They perform the way the bad guy is supposed to for a particular reaction by the person practising. Typically, they end up getting thrown over and over and over.

Normally at open-mat time, I work away alone on my own material in an empty dojo.

Last time it was quite different. We have a young woman named Elizabeth who is on the verge of starting her Blue Belt exam. She wants to do extra practice to help her get ready. I acted as her uke. We went through all four technique sections of the exam.

There were also two beginners present working on the few things they have learned. They called me over for a few pointers, and I was happy to help.

About then, our instructor got changed and called me over to help him as he works through his own level. As with Elizabeth, he needed an uke.

By the time he was done, open mat time was ending. The Hapkido students were spread all about chatting, and waiting for their class to begin.

I'd say that was the busiest open mat time I've ever attended.

Competition Rules

Last year the Gracies put on a different kind of competition down in San Diego.

There were no points awarded, nor decision victories. The only way to win was to submit your opponent, or it was a draw.

They also doubled the usual competitive Jiu-Jitsu limit from ten minutes to twenty.

They also streamed the event on the internet for the extremely low price of $20.

There were six matches in all, featuring an elite crew of competitors. Of the six matches, three were decided by submission and three were drawn.

After each draw, I was quite content for there not to be a winner. Each was darn close. In each, both guys won.

This year they've put the event on again. For some reason they decided to fix something that wasn't broken. The new rule change had each inconclusive match go to a panel of three judges for a decision. I really don't see why.

Did it matter? I think it did. This year the participants were much less aggressive. I attribute this to their need to look impressive for the judges.

This time only one of the six fights ended in a submission. Of the remaining five, the judges called a winner three times, with two being called as drawn.

Let's recap.

Old rules; 3 submission victories and 3 draws.

New rules; 1 submission victory, 2 draws, and 3 decision wins.

I hope they put the old rules back, but I doubt they will. They already have another bright idea to name one of the matches a “Championship”. What the heck?

Seattle

Sometimes things don't work out, but sometimes they do.

I should be finishing my Blue Belt Stripe One Jiu-Jitsu curriculum by the middle of September.

Every so often a member of the Gracie family does a training seminar. There are a lot of Gracies, and a lot of cities in the world.

It sure would be great if there were a seminar right around my testing time, somewhere nearby, and taught by one of the two Gracies who head the program I'm in.

Son of a gun, on September 27^th and 28^th Rener Gracie is heading a seminar in Seattle. A bunch of us are going.

This is perfect for me. Just the thing to help me brush up right before testing.

Helen is going, too, which makes it even more perfect. Maybe we'll add a day and poke around Seattle.

Zombie Walk

Delayed onset muscle soreness is literally a pain.

It's that painful, stiff feeling that happens a day or two after an doing an unaccustomed physical activity. A familiar activity can also cause it, if taken beyond what the body is used to. At the start of softball season, I bet a lot of winter, couch potatoes end up walking funny for a few days.

When it's really bad, I call it rigor mortis. I've had this level of muscle stiffness every time I've run a half marathon.

Karate seminars cause it. When we'd have them up north, we'd train hard Friday night, and then again all day Saturday before our bodies had any chance to recover. Sunday morning we'd go again. Attendence after the seminar at the regular Monday evening class was almost nil. I always had to be there Monday to teach. I'd barely  be able to move, shuffling around like a zombie.

Yesterday was a Karate seminar day in Chilliwack. I was up at 5am to make it by the 9:30 start time. Training ended at 4:30 in the afternoon, and I was home by 9:00pm.

The stiffness hasn't started yet. It usually hits me two days after the activity is over. Tomorrow I might just be hobbling a bit.

All Bended

For the vast majority of my life I had perfect vision. Near or far made no difference at all.

Then I got old. Far is still OK, but near seriously sucks. Reading is impossible at anything like a normal font.

No problem. I just wear glasses now. They make wonderful ones called progressive. By a subtle movement near, far, and everything in between comes into focus.

But I'm just not a glasses wearer by nature, and both Jiu-Jitsu and Karate are not lens-friendly activities. I am forever removing my glasses and putting them down.

99.9% of the time this is no problem. Sometimes it is.

I found them yesterday on the floor near my gym bag. My bag was on the table, and my specs had been on top.

Luckily the lenses are not damaged, but the frames look like play glasses a kid might make by twisting wire.

This means a trip to the eye shop for an unbending.

Can't go through life as blind as this. Funny how my old glasses, which were fine a month ago, just can't take up the slack.

Busy Time

Friday and Saturday, I usually work alone on the mat. Each of those days there is time set aside for whatever the students want. Very few take advantage of it. Often, I'm the only one there for most of the time.

I don't mind. I review my level's curriculum. I probably look pretty silly rolling around by myself, doing the same thing over and over.

Suddenly, things are getting more lively.

This last Friday, Tobias was looking to do the final segment of his exam. The instructor made a point of being there as well. Tobias and I worked for maybe 20 minutes on what he was going to be doing, and then it was video time. I acted as his partner for the fight simulation drill.

For the rest of the time, I worked with David. He's been away for a while, and wants to refresh his technique back to what it used to be. He'd asked me if I'd work with him. I agreed, but let him know that Tobias's test had priority. We still have half the time left after the test video wrapped up.

Either of these two activities would have made this a particularly active open-mat time. Together it was outstanding.

I had even had to turn down a third person when he asked about working together Friday. This week I was going to be too busy.

Our instructor is finding it hard to progress steadily in his own training. What he needs is a regular partner to act as what the Japanese call an 'uke'. This person is sort of a training dummy, but one who knows enough to perform the victim role correctly. I am the logical choice. He was the third guy who wanted to work with me Friday.

I am happy to be able to help him, and so this will become my priority during open-mat time.

It won't screw up my own progress, as my only goal is to finish my level before Helen and I go to LA at the start of 2014. My schedule has tons of leeway built into it. I should have finished all of the curriculum by the end of September. Giving up some review time now just might mean some a little more in the fall.

I like it busy on the mat.

Blue Wave

At Jiu-jitsu, things are going very well.

Lately, I've been complaining that the number of Blue Belts has been dropping. We've dropped to five. Of those, one barely comes at all, another misses sometimes due to work, and two are about to move away.

The good news is we're riding a crest of White Belts about to turn Blue. One gentleman received his promotion about a month ago, and another finished his test yesterday and is awaiting his results.

During the recent advanced White Belt class there were more participants than ever. Five eager students were there preparing for their own upcoming exams. Some might be ready to start in a couple of weeks.

This could mean a total of nine Blue Belts sometime soon.

This means a healthy training energy, with partners of every size, strength, and speed. If one person is away things roll on. As it is now, I'm sometimes the only student at the Blue class.

Maybe in a year the class will be a dozen. Better still.