Winter Training

It can be hard to be retired. Actually, I'm lying. It's great.

For the first time ever, Helen and I were able to take off for the months of January and February. We live in a place that doesn't get “real” Canadian winter, but those months are normally unpleasantly cold and packed with rain.

Off we went for two months to Los Angeles. We like the area, and visited the beaches, Disneyland, Hollywood, and much more. Mostly, however, we were there so that I could train with Rener and Ryron Gracie and their team at the main Gracie Academy.

I would very much like to repeat the visit every winter. Two months were too much, considering the way I trained. I attended every class aimed at my level. That added up to 101 classes. In the same period a dedicated, but normal, student might attend 24. A month would be perfect.

Winter here really starts in November, and runs until March. Those are the cold, rain, and cloud months. We always want to be near home for Christmas, so December is strictly off limits.

For this coming winter of 2014-2015, the current plan looks like we will have two California visits. One will be a week of training in LA tacked onto a holiday with friends in Arizona. The other will be an LA-only training trip of about three weeks duration.

A winter of 2015-2016 training trip might be interesting. If my next two minor promotions happen exactly on time, I might just be ready for evaluation by the Gracies for Purple Belt. Such a promotion cannot be given by one's home school, but must be by direct evaluation. Being ineligible to test due to time-in-rank would move Purple a full year farther away to a winter 2016-2017 visit.

It would be possible to be evaluated earlier, say at the annual Seattle weekend seminar that happens each September, but I wouldn't do that. I don't like “tests”. If I did it in LA during an extended visit, they would watch me for the 3 or 4 weeks I'm there. They would pay attention to me during sparring sessions, evaluating every day. That's how they do it for their local students, and being there long enough they could do it to me, too. I like that.

So either the winter of 2015-2016, or 2016-2017 is my target for a Purple Belt.

No plan yet at all for the winter of 2035-2036.

Mythbusting

The Gracie's are the founders of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. There are a lot of misconceptions about their story; some minor, and some major.

It is often stated that back in the 1920s, Carlos and Helio Gracie learned Jiu-Jitsu from Mitsuyo Maeda.

Almost, but not exactly. Mitsuyo Maeda was a direct student of Jigoro Kano. Kano was the founder of Judo, which he formed out of old Japanese Jujitsu. Maedo held high Judo rank and would continue to do so for the rest of his life. I don't know why it is claimed he taught the Gracies Jiu-Jitsu. By whatever label, it was Judo.

He taught a 14 or 15 year old Carlos Gracie for about three years. He did not teach Helio at all, who was 11 years younger than his brother. He only taught Carlos. Carlos went on to open his own school, and was his brother's instructor.

It is usually stated that Helio could not make the existing techniques work for him as he was so very small. His height is always listed as 1.7 meters; which converts to 5' 6.92”. I'm going to call that 5' 7”. The weight quoted for him varies greatly, but is usually someplace around 140 lbs.

Interestingly, the current women's UFC Champion is about that size. She is also a student of Judo, and nobody could ever say she can't make it work due to her size.

This is about the same size as his Helio's brother, Carlos. It is never stated that he had trouble with the technique. The current average height of adult males in Brazil is 5' 8.5”. In the 1920's it was most likely less. It would seem that Helio wasn't particularly small.

There is absolutely no question that Helio and Carlos totally reworked what they knew into an incredibly efficient martial art. Most likely this had nothing to do with the art Maeda had given Carlos being unsuited to small persons. Maeda's art, or Judo, was created and developed by Jigoro Kano, who was 5' 2” and very slightly built. Judo has never been considered a “large man's” art.

The Gracies' discontent with what Carlos had learned most likely came from the very short time that Carlos was Maeda's student. This learning period was only three years long. In three years of study it is possible to learn any martial art at only a most basic and superficial level. Ironically, if the family had remained able to train under Maeda, they probably would never have developed Gracie Jiu-Jitsu at all.

This is supported by the famous fight between Helio Gracie and the Japanese Judo player Masahiko Kimura. Gracie was defeated by Kimura applying the Judo move called gyaku ude-garami, which Helio had never seen before. They later adopted it, and in their parlance named it after the man who'd beaten Helio, calling it the Kimura. If they'd been longer as students of Maeda, he would eventually have taught it to them.

Anyhow, that's my two cents for today.

Parade and Demo

There are a lot of things I dislike about the martial arts. I don't like the exams at all, or competition, or doing demos. Strangely, I don't mind teaching, but that is something for another time.

All of the things that I don't like are similar. They all involve performing publicly.

After earning a Black Belt in Karate back in 1986, I never tested again. At first, this was partly due to the difficulty involved in being tested at all. For about a decade, an exam would have entailed a trip to someplace like Japan. After that, exams became available locally, but by then I felt no pressure to go for it. As a result, I've been a first degree Black Belt for almost 30 years. That just might be a record.

I've tried competition a few times, and didn't like that either, so I stopped.

Demos? Same thing. If it's part of a class I'm fine with it. I've been the guy demonstrated on many, many times, and have been the guy demonstrating. The difference between that and a demo is that in class it's a learning environment. A demo is not. It's purpose basically to show outsiders what we do. That I don't like at all.

Anyhow, our Jiu-Jitsu group is involved in an upcoming parade and demo. The idea is that we might gain a few new people. It is a good opportunity for this. I'm all for that. No problem walking in the parade wearing a uniform.

Whenever the demo was discussed, zillions of others seemed to want to do it. Great; no need for me.

Then, when the crunch came as to who would actually prepare for the demo, we were coming up short. I agreed to help.

This morning, at the demo practice there were very few people present. Therefore, I became part of the demo team. Nuts, but not a big deal. I'll just be rolling with Scott for about 3 or 4 minutes.

Rather not, but I really, really want our school to succeed. At best, it will draw a few new members. At worst, it won't, and I'll have had to roll around for a couple of minutes in public.

The upside is great, and the downside is no biggie.

But where were all the missing folks?

Good Rank

Rank within martial arts plays three roles.

The silly one is that Belt Color allows somebody to instantly know how good somebody is just by looking at their uniform. Maybe. Not going to get into a debate over this, except to compare it to a High School Diploma. One kid squeaked by, and the other has had no mark below an A, ever, and is headed off to a big deal University. They both are grads. Are they the same?

Promotions also act as motivation. It's the reward at the end of a unit of training. This is more valid. Many do work hard to become worthy of the next rank. Even in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, where the rank is pretty invisible to outsiders, people work hard for it. Who cares how many little stripes are on a belt, or what is printed on those stripes? The students care.

The last is the least understood, and the greatest attribute to martial arts rank.

Often, I've thought I've known all about a particular student. They are a certain way, and act in a predictable manner. Strangely, almost everybody changes after a promotion.

Take the promotions that happened here last month. In particular, let's look at Ryan and Elizabeth.

Ryan earned his Blue Belt over a year ago. He's a strong guy, and always rolled trying to use that strength. It's as if he trusted his body more than he trusted his training. Slowly, over time, he managed to relax during rolling and became as much as I could handle. However, somehow, he always seemed intimidated by my slightly greater experience.

He had a stripe added to his belt last month. Almost instantly he changed. He started to trust what he knew. I think that in his mind his promotion acted as confirmation that he knew what he was doing. He has started beating me regularly. His technique is much better than mine, plus he's bigger and stronger, and he is totally relaxed in rolling.

Ryan receiving a silly little stripe has released him to be vastly better than he was.

Elizabeth also received a stripe on that same night. For a long time she was the smallest person in the advanced class, and also the newest. Her attendance is as close to perfect as can be imagined, and she seems to learn the material well. I often go to her to get caught up if I miss a night or two.

In rolling, she only ever defended. I guess it's hard being the 120 pound kid in a group of much bigger and more muscled folk. In the last few months, she's been attacking more, but only in a limited way. She was still always the defender.

Then she was promoted; again validation. The other night she was rolling with Owen. Own is much bigger than her, but he's new to the advanced class. Instead of clamming up, Elizabeth went for it. She submitted him over and over, and in between controlled every movement.

Later, in sparring with me, she still liked to defend, but would then explode with an offense that was extremely hard to handle. Sometimes she got me.

This is the finest aspect of rank in the martial arts. In effect, you receive a new rank, and then expand into it.

You become the rank you've been given.

Fat Math

Ever wonder if you are overweight, and want to get all scientific about it?

The thing that is done these days is calculation of your Body Mass Index. You take your weight, and divide it by your height squared. If you can use pounds and inches if you like, and then multiply the lot by 703. This is to align it with similar metric calculations.

For example, a person 5'10” who weighs 150 pounds comes in with a score of 21.5.

Sadly, this doesn't tell you anything about the person being fat or not.

Person One has an overall weight of 150, and also has a lower than typical amount of body fat, and more than the normal amount of muscle. Her percentage of body fat is a very athletic 10%. Absolutely not fat. This is Olympic athlete level. As stated earlier, her BMI is 21.5 , or normal.

Person Two is also 150, but is a bit of a slug, having significantly less muscle than average. Her body fat percentage is 33%, while her BMI says she's the same as our Olympic athlete. Her muscle mass and high fat level makes her clearly overweight by any standard. She almost scores as obese according to her fat level. With these numbers she may not look particularly overweight, but she is. Her BMI is also 21.5 , or normal.

Body fat percentage is by far the superior method of calculation, so of course, BMI is the more used scale. It's only advantage is that it's easy to figure out. The disadvantage is that it is pretty meaningless.

To measure body fat is harder, although getting easier all the time. There are even bathroom scales now that will use a tiny electric pulse to measure it for you.

On a Sunday

It was about 8 oclock on a perfect summer evening. We were all out on the back deck.

The woman who rents the downstairs suite came up and strangely asked, "who is good under pressure....I don't think my husband is breathing...."

Jen and I flew down the stairs..."he's in the bedroom..."

I got to him and didn't find a pulse..."phone 911..."

I was pumping his chest. Vomit on his mouth. No breathing. Jen pumped him while I blew, inflating his chest a few time. Then I was back on his chest. The 911 operator wanted him on the floor, so we got him down. I blew again a few times and then was back working his chest.

The emergency crew arrived and took over.

Jen and I were out with the wife, as she struggled with the questions of the response team. More arrived. We had at least one ambulance, a fire truck, and a couple of cop cars.

A machine was breathing for him, and the team alternated on CPR. Pretty soon they were bathed in sweat.

They worked for a very long time until they decided to move him. Was that a good sign, or bad?

Jen drove the wife to the hospital, and stayed with her.

The team had left some equipment behind. I got the firemen to collect it.

The apartment looked like a hurricane had blown through, for of course, it had. I didn't think she should have to return to that. I vacuumed up the floor, and picked up the wrappers and such, and a spent needle. The firemen had tried to get it all but that would have been impossible. I put the furniture back. Oliver washed the stained bedding.

We went back upstairs. A text came from Jen.

Chris was gone.