It can be hell being
retired. We have to fit all our lovely trips into our year in a
logical and satisfying pattern. It can also be a hassle trying to fit
Jiu-Jitsu progress into the bundle.
Neither Helen nor I wish
to do any travelling in the warm months, except maybe to visit
friends and family fairly close to home. That means we stay close to
home from April until October.
December holds Christmas,
and that's spoken for.
That leaves November, plus
January through March as our travel times.
We like having two trips a
year; one in November and one after Christmas.
In 2015, our
after-Christmas trip starts in the middle of February and and runs
just past the end of March. We are headed to Arizona, with a two-week
LA stop for Jiu-Jitsu training with the Gracies on the way down. This
isn't really a training trip, but I couldn't pass buy without tacking
on a couple of weeks on the HQ mat.
Our November 2015 trip so
far is looking like a month in LA again. More Jiu-Jitsu. Twice as
much this time.
I am hoping for a
promotion to Blue Belt Stripe Three before we head south in February.
This would make it possible to be Blue Belt Stripe Four in time for
the November training month.
Why does that matter?
If I am rolling around
with four belt stripes in November, the Gracies will know that my
next step is Purple. I will get treated differently than if I'm still
wearing three. They will expect more, but also give help and advice
appropriate to that next step.
Everything was on schedule
perfectly with my Jiu-Jitsu ranks, but a good thing has just made it
all kind of shakey. Headquarters just released the next level of
Gracie University examination. That's the good thing I'm talking
about.
That means all local
promotions are on hold until the instructors are able to complete the
exam. The exam requires a major commitment of time and energy to
complete.
I'm sure our instructor,
Shawn Philips, will get right on it. First, he has to get back from
Mexico. As soon as he does, we shut down for two weeks over
Christmas. Let's say he gets it all done in the month after that, and
submitted on January 31st. This assumes nothing pops up to
delay him. Let's say that the flood of exam submissions does not
overload the system beyond a normal, longish wait period for results.
Let's assume that this takes three weeks, and that on February 21st
he can again issue promotions.
That has me already in LA
training with the Gracies and unavailable for promotion. When I get
home early in April he'll likely award my my third stripe.
This means I won't be
eligible for a fourth until December, a month after my fall 2015
visit to LA. No special attention from the Gracies for me. Crap. My
next time in LA won't happen until fall of 2016 at the earliest, and
that will be the one where I get evaluated for Purple Belt.
It all still works, but
will be slightly less ideal for me.
So let's look at it
pro-actively (I hate that word). What can I do to get things to turn
out the way I want them?
I certainly can't get the
rules changed, nor can I speed up HQ's evaluation of Shawn's BBS2
exam. I can, however, try and help him get his exam done as quickly
and easily as possible.
He usually uses his son
Scott for his own training, but I can try and keep myself ready to be
a spare. It takes almost as much work to be a good partner as it is
to prepare the drills themselves. The partner needs to know all of
the appropriate behaviours for the test candidate to react to. Being
retired, I certainly have the time.
I suppose all of this
might make it possible for me to do the test soon, too. I hadn't been
planning to do so, but if it falls in my lap why not? I just might,
as long as this doesn't slow Shawn down at all. Perhaps I'd do mine
after his has submitted.
No comments:
Post a Comment