Dancing with the Stars

The new season just started on the popular show, Dancing With the Stars.

Those folks face a difficult task. They have a week to learn a complicated dance routine. There are a ton of moves that all must be done in sync with their professional partner. I timed a couple of the dances they do, and they run just over one minute.

An expert partner and a one minute routine.

How much harder would it be if the routine were 15 times longer? What if all the repetitive movements were removed? You know; no sets of step step step kick, step step step kick. Every move has to be unique.

How about losing expert partner? Have a teacher spend one day teaching the given sequence and then the contestant has to practice all the movements alone.

And then it's performance night, and the contestant tries to do the dance with an unprepared partner.

Suppose they have to have three of these 15 minute routines ready to go.

That's what the first half of my Jiu-Jitsu exam looks like.

It could look a lot better. What if it could all be done with a single partner who is also learning the exact same set of routines, and who will also be there on test night?

This suddenly becomes much more manageable.

I have been without a consistent partner. There are about half a dozen Blue Belts that I train with. Some attend quite rarely, and others are nowhere near to being ready to test. The one closest to testing is soon going to be moving far away. There has been really no point in her working like a crazy person with no possibility of completing the exam.

She was supposed to be leaving this week. A pity, really, as she is just about to complete the fifth of seven chapters of material. Only two more to go.

Suddenly, her departure date was moved back two or three more months.

Our instructor jumped on this. Could she be ready to do her own test within that time? Probably impossible, unless she has a training partner who already knows the material. Gee, that sounds like me.

She is really quite gifted at this sort of thing, and already has a Black Belt in Hapkido. She could probably master the Standing Chapter within a couple of days. The Leg Lock Chapter would be harder for her, but that is quite doable within the time she has if she works like crazy. She feels motivated, and wants to go for it.

So I suddenly have a partner to help me through my exam, at the price of practicing with her to get ready for her test. Every minute of practice for me is a minute for her, and vice versa.

This will get both of us through the three technical parts of the exam. We might also partner for the three sparring sections, but any of the other Blues are quite competent to perform those segments.

And we don't even have to make it all fit to music.