Changes

There are interesting changes happening at our Jiu-Jitsu school.

Part of it has to do with age.

Take our advanced group. There are currently about a dozen of us. The absolute youngest Blue Belt is 20, and the oldest is me at 58. There is only one youngster, who is currently a few weeks too young to receive a Blue Belt, and trains with us wearing a White Belt. He is 15.

Our White Belt groups has been similar. Until recently everybody has been in their 20s or 30s, at least until I went off to Southern California and Arizona for a couple of months.

Let's call the average age to have been about 30 for the entire group.

The White Belt class has totally altered. A large group of new students has joined, all in their early teens. The average for the entire beginners' class is now under 20 years of age.

This will become even more noticeable when the old hands in the group get promoted up to Blue Belt, leaving only young folks behind.

I hope I don't sound like an old fart decrying the decay of our training environment with the arrival of the young folks. Quite the contrary. I think it's refreshing.

There is another change; this time to do with female participation.

For the longest time, our club has had exactly two female practitioners. That works out to only about 10% of our population. Both of them have been on the mat for years. One has a single stripe on her Blue Belt, and the other has two.

Sometimes a new woman will join for a while, but it has been rare, and they haven't stayed long.

Now, within the new group of young people, there are two girls. This has already doubled our level of gender equity.

They seem to be having fun, and usually partner either with each other, or with our two Blue Belt women. I don't know how they feel about training with gentlemen, but it doesn't seem to be a problem right now. Best get the hook in deep.

Again, a great development.