Packing

My wife and I do two types of travel; heavy and light.

An example of heavy travel would be our trip to California and Arizona last winter. We were driving, and so had a lot of room in the car. We take big suitcases, along with several other types of bags. There are a few extra boxes to organize things. We pretty much take everything that we think we might need or want. Plenty of clothes, and shoes, and even a pair of folding bikes.

Sometimes we do the opposite. Normally, this would be when air travel is involved. We don't like waiting around in airports for luggage to arrive; paying extra for all those checked bags. Our response is to take everything we require in carry-on bags. Of course, we can't take the bikes.

Our carry-on bags are small, to fit within every airlines size requirements. We don't want to travel in a minimalist way just to have the airline insist that our cases be checked anyway. That would totally defeat the purpose. This means that our bags are ridiculously small. What are we able to take?

It isn't much. The only loophole is that airlines all allow an extra “personal item.” If this item is in the form of a bag, like one for a laptop, extra regular packing can be put inside. Small second bags are called “totes,” and must be of a certain small size, but it means more packing room.

For our most recent light trip, I took three sets of shirt, underwear, and socks. Only two fly in the bag, and the other set on my body. I wear one pair of pants, and the only other is in the bag. I wear the only jacket that I take, and one of only two pairs of shoes. A bathing suit doesn't eat up much room. Toiletries are very stripped down.

All I take is a toothbrush, toothpaste, a couple of disposable razors, and some floss. When crossing borders, one is supposed to carry any pills or medications in the original packaging. My only real “medication” consists of a single low-dose aspirin daily, but I do take glucosomine and omega 3 oil, which come from the vitamin department of the store.

I carry only enough of each to get me through the trip, and haul them in the original packaging as required. As soon as borders are done with, the pill bottles get dumped and the contents transferred into a wee plastic box. When I return home it's empty. No cross-border pills to worry about.

These days electronics are essential. When going heavy, I bring my big camera, a smaller one, my ipad mini, a laptop computer, and an ipod, along with all the necessary cables, cords and chargers. It fills a pretty big bag. Helen's similar load gets heaped on top.

Going light with electronics means my big, best camera can't come along. I take my tiny camera, ipod, and ipad mini. Helen wants her big camera, iphone, and full sized ipad. It is still a pretty big pile when going carry-on style. The chargers go into my single, clothing bag, and the devices onto my body.

I wear a travel vest made by the Scott-e-vest people. It has a stupid amount of pockets. The two ipads go into huge chest pockets, and my ipod and camera vanish into a couple of the others. Helen carries her own phone, and either carries her camera, or it goes into somebody's carry-on bag.

Helen travels similarly low in clothing and such. She does need a special pillow, which we have to figure out how to cram in someplace. To make it fit, it gets sealed into a special plastic bag from which all air can be sucked. It ends up looking very pancake-like.

So we toddle off to the airport, with our wheeled bags following along, and our totes strapped on top. We are effectively wearing 1/3 of our wardrobes onto the plane, and my vest is darn heavy being stuffed with electronics and odds-and-ends.

What this all means at the other end is daily sink washing. We only take fancy-fabric quick dry clothing. Cleaning a shirt, underwear, and socks each day per person is no great hardship, but means a steady flow of things to wear. Pants will have to be washed, too, but far less frequently. We save that for times when we have several days in a row in one hotel.

If you think it would be hard to get yourself to do that every single day for perhaps a month, I agree. That's why I have three sets along. Once in a while I can skip the task, but will have a double chore the next day with no escape. If you think you could only face hotel-room washing once a week, you'd have to carry 7 sets of clothing, plus one to wear on the last day. Now that would be a big chore. You still end up washing one set for every day.

This might all horrify you, and for a trip with flying, rental cars, and taxis it is quite optional. For a trip with flying, trains, streetcars, and walking it is not.

Let's say you are flying to Barbados to stay in a resort for two weeks, and then flying home, you don't need to do it our style. Get driven to the airport, check in a few bags, fly, pick up your luggage, grab a taxi, get to the hotel and relax. Reverse it all on the way home.

Instead, let's have you do the same when travelling in say, Germany, by train, and car. Check in your bags and fly, pick them up. Then drag the load to the train, and onto the train. It will be a wrestle all the way. Get them off the train, and down the street to catch the streetcar, then get them on, and off, and on foot for a couple of blocks, then up the stairs to your room.

Our way in Germany would have you pulling a single wheelie bag behind you as you comfortable walk from place to place, easily lifting the small load when necessary, and even pumping it up the stairs to get to your room. You would even be comfortable shopping on the way, or visiting a restaurant.

It is so painless for us to wander about with our stuff, that we are able to take the easiest and cheapest route to get to Vancouver airport for our trips. We don't drive there, spending a fortune on parking and ferries.

Instead, we walk a kilometre to a bus stop in our neighbourhood, and ride to the ferry that way. We travel as foot passengers on the boat, which is a bargain, and catch another city bus on the other side. From that bus, we walk a bit downtown to get to the train, which takes us out to the airport. On the other side we likewise use public transit if possible.

Let's say the airline charges $25 per checked bag, and a couple is checking two. You might think it is worth $50 to travel heavier. You might be right. I might even do it, too. However, it would actually cost a heck of a lot more.

Take that example, and apply it to a 2-week trip to Britain, starting in London.

Couple A, drives to the ferry, rides, drives to the airport, parks, flies to London, takes a cab to the first hotel. Round-trip for the ferry is about $80, and parking for 2 weeks is a cost of about $200, and the London taxi is $20. Add on the $25 per bag airline fee. Don't forget that you'll pay again on the way home. It comes to $420.

Couple B, takes the bus to the ferry, rides, bus to downtown, train to the plain, no bag fee, and transit to the London Hotel, and all again going back. That cost is about $56.

Those two big bags end up costing $364 more than travelling light. Actually, it would be more due to needing taxis and rental cars to haul them from place to place. City buses, streetcars, and subways all become impractical. In Europe most people use transit, and we are able to move around like locals. It's part of the experience.

You would end up paying a lot more for a bunch of extra underpants, and shoes that you probably won't ever use.

If you must have more stuff, you could buy a pair of shoes at your destination, a half-dozen socks and underpants, and a few shirts, and still end up saving money, even if you threw them away before flying home. $364 buys a lot of underwear. If it would kill you to do that, buy the extras and when it's time to head home, buy a cheap bag and pay for just that one on the return flight. If you do, make sure you can handle dragging it home from the airport. If I did it, I wouldn't bring it home. Helen wouldn't let me throw it away, but we could surely donate it to a thrift shop or charity. She'd like that.

If you really get into going tiny, there ends up being vastly more room than you expect. Last time I packed light, I kept wondering what I was going to fill the space with. A pair of my favourite cargo shorts got added, but it wasn't enough. Luckily, Helen came to my rescue with some stuff that didn't quite fit in hers. There was still a little airspace inside, which is good. Might just want to buy something when on vacation.

So we get an easier trip to the plane, and get to move around like locals when we get to the other side. It also saves a significant amount of money.

It makes you think about what you really need to survive. Do you need all those clothing choices, or hair-care products? Do you really? At home I like an electric razor, an electric toothbrush, use mouthwash, and have preferred shower products. None of those travel with me when we go light. Instead, I take a few disposable razors, a regular toothbrush, no mouthwash, soaps, or cleansers.

Luckily, I'm bald and so don't need a comb or hairbrushes.

Slump

I just read a martial arts book what spends a great deal of time talking about training slumps and plateaus.

What's up with that?

I guess I better explain what a slump or plateau is in the first place. You are training away, week after week, making steady progress. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, nothing seems to be happening. It is as if you are stuck, not improving, or possibly even regressing in ability. Other people continue as before, and in comparison you are losing ground. This is a slump, or a plateau.

Funny thing, I've never had any such feelings, and I've been doing one martial art or another since 1981.

Ever have a “bad day,” where nothing seems to be going right. Really? Nothing? If we were to strap a lousy-ness sensor onto your wrist on such a day, would it really report that every single second was bad, and that none at all were good, or even neutral. I seriously doubt that it would. It might seem that way in retrospect. It might even seem that way at the time due to our having labelled it a “bad day” after the occurrence of a few disappointments or disasters.

If you went to get a cup of coffee, likely the walk was pleasant enough, or at least neutral. You got your coffee as you always do. Normally this is a positive occurrence, but you have decided that this was a “bad day.” You sat; you always like that, and then spilled your coffee in your lap. Nasty, true, but not all of the event was that way.

To me training is never like a “bad day.” It is a mix of exertion, camaraderie, mental learning, and body training. There is normally new material, and some review. If I were to put a progress-meter onto my wrist it would never register a total failure in any session.

I have been to lessons that were aimed at people of much greater level than me, and ended up with a crappy partner, and also picked up a minor injury. It would be easy to think that no progress was made, but it would be untrue. There would be something.

A very clear example happened at the last Seattle seminar that I attended. It was lead by the superlative Rener Gracie, and covered material that I love working on. I ended up stuck, however, with the world's most useless partner.

We would be shown a movement or sequence extremely clearly, and given specific details to work on, and how to work on things. My partner, thought we were in the Gold Medal round of the World Championship, and would do everything conceivable to thwart me during my turns, and would do his turns by attempting to not only kill, me, but also my dog, and my entire family. As a result, I was not involved in even a single repetition, in either capacity of what Rener Gracie was showing us. Not only that, but it hurt. Was I stalled or was this the start of some kind of plateau? Not at all.

Mind you, I severely dislike my partner, and think he's a useless pile of dog excrement. After trying to do things correctly a couple of times, or to get him to change, I went with it. As he liked making it impossible for me to experience performing the technique, I did the same to him. As he was significantly less skillful than I, I was very, very good at doing this. When it was my turn, I would execute the first movement with speed and aggression so that I could at least get in a repetition of that part, and then when he tried to shut me down, made him work hard for it. Was I able to really absorb the class's lesson? No. Did I get to work a totally unrelated drill with my partner? Yes. Did it hurt? Not exactly. It wasn't comfortable, but I did top and bottom controls of my partner so that there was no risk of getting damaged.

Even at that subverted seminar session, when the learning should have been in the neighbourhood of a 10, I at least got to progress to 1 or 2, or maybe even a 3.

The graph of progress isn't always the same angle, but it usually heads up.

Might the overall total for a session be zero? I suppose. Could it be negative? Again, this might be possible, but even that isn't very likely.

Let's say you go to class, and is all review of stuff that you are not only comfortable with, but are actually bored by. The teacher explains it poorly, and your partner is useless. Then, during rolling time, everybody that you usually catch easily with arm triangles has become immune to them. You try everything, but just can't pull it off.

Could you easily go home calling that a negative progress day, or at least a zero progress one? I suppose you could, but why? It shouldn't be a slump.

Let's say that the material taught includes trap-and-roll, which is often the very first lesson that Gracie Jiu-Jitsu students learn. I am never bored with it. Are you equally good at it both left-handed and right? Be honest. That gives you at least one thing to work. Do it the way that is harder for you. There are three basic variations. Get your partner to change up his bad-guy behaviour, forcing you to come up with other options. But then again, I said your partner was useless. Help him if he'll let you, and if he won't, modify trap-and-roll for the incorrect indicators that he presents you.

If, during free-roll, your arm triangle don't work anymore, you should try and discover why. If it is because you are doing them wrong, you need to find that out. If, instead, the class knowledge-level in general has left them behind, you need to move on to something else as well. For me, at White Belt, mount was the position to achieve. As a new Blue Belt, it sucked and was dangerous, so side-control and back-mount were the things to shoot for. A bit higher again, and guard became my happy place. If I'd stayed static in behaviour, I'd have become one easily-dominated puppy.

As the recently-deceased baseball great Yogi Berra is credited with saying, “It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” Having a negative or unproductive experience during training is not the same as no progress at all for an extended period. A stagnant second does not mean you are in a stagnant minute. A lousy minute is not a stagnant hour. A bad class is not a meaningless week, and a bad week is not a stagnant month. One roll of the dice does not effect the next. A non-progressing moment can be just as easily followed by a good one, than by another lemon. Don't let your prediction of what kind of a lesson it's going to be taint things.

I don't let a failure paint over potential success.

And how did I get so wise?

Simple. When I first got involved in Karate over thirty years ago, it was my first commitment to any sort of sport or physical activity. Based on contact with previous sports, I assumed that I would seriously suck. Maybe I did, and maybe I didn't, but I certainly never expected progress to be easy or fast.

As a result, any learning or improvement was a wonderful, magical surprise. It turned out that I wasn't as horrible as I thought, but that didn't matter. The pattern stuck. Never had a plateau doing Karate either. The graph of progress continues its slow climb towards competency.

A slump?

Never.

As Yogi Berra said, “Slump? I ain't in no slump. I just ain't hitting.”

Men in a Women's Class

I am an adult male. What type of violence am I likely to experience?

Probably, none. I suppose I might be robbed, but the odds of that are pretty slight. I could also be attacked for no reason, but that's even more unlikely.

Might I be sexually assaulted? Figures suggest that about 10-20% of sexual assault victims are male. Sexual assaults happen, but will they happen to me?

Most likely not. A very large proportion of males who have experienced sexual assault suffered the abuse while children. Of those that face it as adults, it is often at the hands of a present or former male partner. I certainly would never wish to diminish the seriousness of any such experiences, but they are not about to happen to someone like me.

I, and people like me, are at very low risk for sexual assault.

That's why it makes me crazy when somebody from within my demographic complains when a self-defence course for women isn't open to men.

They wish to be included in a program that addresses the very real fear that women face every single day.

Typical figures given for the danger of rape within a woman's lifetime put the danger at anywhere from 1-in-3, to 1-in-6. Please keep in mind that the 1-in-6 figure is the most optimistic such statistic I can find.

Like males, this includes the danger of assault during childhood, but unlike them it does not largely vanish upon becoming an adult. It continues throughout a woman's entire life.

The most shocking are studies done that did not rely on generally accepted statistics, but instead had men and women replying to survey questions that did not use terms such as rape or sexual assault. The respondents were asked many, many questions and asked if the scenario in each question, or something very like it applied to their experience. The expected figures occurred regarding women, about 1-in-3 having been sexually assaulted. The big shocker was that a very similar number for men ended up reporting that they had committed or attempted sexual assault.

I do not disagree with the idea that self-defence courses for men are a fine idea, but special programs are necessary for the differing situation that women face.

If a man wants to learn self-defence, he can just sign up for any martial arts class that he finds interesting. The vast majority of the people he trains with will be male, and the presence of females should not cause him any undue difficulties. If he has been a victim of sexual assault in his lifetime, it is overwhelmingly likely that it was at the hands of a male.

Conversely, a great many women walking into a regular, mixed, martial arts class find it extremely daunting, even if they have never been a victim. Let's say a woman walks into a class of 15 students, ten of whom are male. There is a very good chance that 3 or 4 of the men she will be training with will have previously committed or attempted sexual assault. That is what the data would suggest.

She would be crazy to feel comfortable, especially if she has already experienced sexual assault. There are a great many women that would never put themself into a situation where they would be working with men in such a setting.

Think of it this way. Let's say a pit pull almost pulled you to shreds. Some years later, you are thinking of getting a little dog, and so take a dog handlers' course. You walk in, and there are ten pit bulls in the room. The instructor says, “don't worry, 7 of them are very friendly, and only 3 are vicious, and have attacked people before, and are likely to try and kill you.”

Honestly, I don't know how women can stand being around men at all.

That's why there are separate classes for women. It is so they will be comfortable in attending. In any such group, there WILL be women who are scarred by the horror of sexual assault. They do NOT want men there, and if men are present, then they will not be.

“OK class. We're not going to practice what to do when an attacker is sitting on you, and pinning your arms to the ground. Hey, 250-pound Sam, why don't you sit on the chest of that 100-pound woman who was sexually assaulted last year, and beaten half to death. I'm sure she won't mind. Try and ignore the panic in her eyes as she experiences flashbacks to that event.”

There will be women present who never want to be touched by a man again, ever, and can barely tolerate being near them in a crowded mall.

If you are a man, and think you belong there, you are wrong.

I have taught self-defence classes to women, and being male and in the room is even an issue regarding the instructor. My friends at the Jiu-Jitsu school who teach their women's program have experienced exactly the same tension.

There are many logistical considerations when teaching such a course. Who is the instructor going to do demonstrations with? It cannot be a random class member. There will have to be at least one person prearranged to be the partner. It is also better, if a female instructor is unavailable, that the partner is a woman. That way the partner can be the one performing the protagonist roll while the male instructor becomes the assailant.

The Women's Empowerment Class taught at the Gracie HQ academy in Los Angeles does it right. The instructors are Rener Gracie, and his wife Eve Torres. They go pretty much 50-50 in the leader/explainer role, and she always beats the crap out of him, not the other way around.

They have many assistant instructors, mostly women, to help. All must have gone through significant preparation for their role in this particular environment.

There are some men that will fail to understand what I have just said, and insist that self-defence for women classes are sexist. Of course they are, justifiably so.

I know that as a man, I look like a rapist, and I walk like a rapist.

That is simply a fact, and it isn't sexism to make allowances for that in a class designed for women who have concerns about sexual assault, or who have already experienced it. I shouldn't be in the room if at all possible, and if I am there performing some role that demands my presence, I should be extremely careful of my behaviours, particularly regarding physical contact.

Now, of course, violence against women isn't only sexual assault.

Imagine a you are riding on a city bus. Everybody on board is adult, and exactly even by gender. The bus is full.

I wonder how many of the people on board have been recently beaten up by anyone. I'm willing to bet that most of those that have been are women.

No, I don't think that women are out getting into a lot of bar room brawls. They face domestic violence, and they face it at the hands of men.

Perhaps some woman in the self-defence class has never been sexually assaulted, but has been beaten by a boyfriend or a spouse. Do you think there is any room for men in a class presented for her?

The presence of men as fellow students does nothing to improve the experience.

In years of involvement with such programs, I have only seen one role that men can have in such a class that cannot be better filled by women.

A couple of times over the years, I've been called in to help with the such a course's final session, or graduation. I, and other properly prepared male martial artists play the role of attacker to class members who want to see if what they have learned will work against a much larger, and stronger, aggressive, and yelling, male, mock attacker.

With some classes this is not appropriate, and even with those where it is, it is certainly not for every participant. Some people, however, want to test what they have just learned. Even women who only watch such encounters report it as both terrifying and enlightening. Some are unable to stay and watch. Even a simulated, but realistic, attack can be too much to see.

Unnecessary men do not belong in a women's self defence class. If men are there at all, in any capacity, they need to be prepared for their role, and sensitive to the damage they might inadvertently cause.

Ratio Up and Down

Do I think that women belong in Jiu-Jitsu? Yes I do. They belong everywhere that they want to. So do men, but that isn't a problem in martial arts.

Typically, less women give Jiu-Jitsu a try. It might be that it is of less interest to women, I don't know. It also might be that it is more intimidating, which is a shame.

In any case, less women than men try it out; far less. Maybe a quarter or a third of people that walk in the door are female. A lot of those disappear after the first class or two. A higher percentage of men return.

Of those that settle in, very few stick around until they have completed the beginner program, which takes vaguely a year.

Only 6 females students here have ever earned as high as a Blue Belt, compared with about four times that number of men. That's only 20%.

As low as that ratio is, it is better than any other Jiu-Jitsu school I've visited. The Victoria school I dropped in on had no female students of any level present on the night I was there. The only woman was an employee at the front desk. The Scottsdale Gracie school had no women either, and while the Phoenix school had two, they were both beginners.

The only exception is the Gracie Academy in Los Angeles, that has a similar ratio to ours.

There seems to be number of factors that discourage women from participating.

If a class is running and a new student shows up, we try and welcome them without being overwhelming. Likely they are feeling a little apprehensive, and wonder if they are going to fit in. If it's a guy, he'll look over at the other White Belts and see a lot of people very much like himself. If she's a woman, she'll look over, and if nobody else is female, it has to make a negative impression.

Sometimes we have no female White Belts at all, but have been very lucky in having a number of Blue Belt women. It is an incredibly rare occurrence that none of them are present for the White Belt class.

Not only do new female students see that women belong, but that they have attained the higher levels.

If other women are around it also means that they won't have to be partnered with guys every single time. I don't know if that matters, but it certainly might.

Sadly, things are changing a bit. Of our three active female Blue Belts, one has just headed off back to university, and another is planning on moving to the city in another month or so. They are the two that attend the White Belt classes. Soon we will only have one female Blue Belt left.

That means that to a new student, all of the instructors and assistants in the beginner class will soon be male.

The good news is that we currently have a larger number of female White Belt than ever. There have been seven either regularly training, or who've tried it out in the last few weeks. I suspect one has decided not to return, and two more have only attended a single class, but the other other four have been coming for quite a while.

One of these has attended for about 3 weeks, two for several months, and the has reached the halfway point in completion of the course.

With so many around, I'm pretty sure that the women who've dropped in recently to give things a try certainly felt that their gender clearly belongs in our school.

I think the same effect works to keep female membership high in the Los Angeles Gracie Academy. Their White Belt classes are routinely attended by about 40 students. Even if only a small percentage are female, there are always several present. They also get lots of crossover from their self-defence for women program, that has even larger classes, all female.

They also get so see lots of female role models present to help them. Lots of Blue Belts, Purple Belts, and even a Brown Belt or two. The main instructors for the self-defence classes are Rener Gracie and his wife Eve.

Not only do participants work with other women, with lots of high-ranked women there to help, one of the main leaders is a woman as well.

Now if we can just hang onto our current White Belts until they can morph into the next generation of high-ranking female role models.

Or is that roll models....?

Mexico

There are two heads to the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu organization. They are brothers, and physically quite similar. However, they couldn't be more different in their teaching style.

Ryron Gracie describes things by feelings, and by motivations. If somebody asks him about a specific component of a technique, he'll say he doesn't know, do the move, and then have an answer. Let's call him a “feeling guy”.

His brother Rener is a “detail guy”. He will show everything in very specific pieces. If somebody asks him what his left foot is doing in the middle of a move, he'll already know the answer, and the reason for why it is moving in that particular way.

Both are fabulous, but very different for people of different learning styles.

I am a details guy. I find Ryron's style to be quite frustrating. Nothing in Jiu-Jitsu is easy for me to pick up. If I don't know what my left elbow is supposed to be doing, it will usually be doing the wrong thing. The Rener style is perfect for me.

Just as many prefer Ryron, and say that Rener talks too much.

Being a detail guy, I need a detail instructor. I have that at home. My teacher Shawn is a detail guy. I only get maybe half value, tops, out of a feeling guy.

Sounds perfect, doesn't it.

Then last night it all seemed doomed.

Shawn and his family has had a long-time dream of living in Mexico. They have a place down near Playa del Carmen, but only get there a few weeks a year. They are planning to move there for a year, with a few visits back. They have things pencilled in as far as next Summer, with him returning for a bit in early Spring and then heading south again. He returns in early Summer again, and I bet goes once more to finish off the year.

With him gone, his son Scott would take over the main instructor role here. He's a feeling guy, not a detail one.

This was also to be the year of my Purple Belt, could that still happen with Shawn away?

I tend not to freak out over news of things like this until I've played it all out in my head. The old spreadsheet has been getting a workout, I can tell you.

Did all the calculations like the math geek I am.

Best I can figure, I would have been heading off for my Purple Belt test after 13 months and 160 full-value advanced classes. They would have been a mix of Shawn lessons, group classes in Los Angeles, and visitor classes in Arizona.

If I count up all the sessions that will see Shawn away, I will miss 75 of those predicted classes in total in the same time period. That would make the total look like only 85.

What can I do to fix that? There are some very simple things, really.

The first is to attend more classes when I am training in Los Angeles. I will be there for two weeks early in 2016, and for at least two more right before my exam. If I go to one more group class each week, and manage one private lesson per week as well, it adds up quickly.

I also expect to be in Arizona for about a month, doing 2 classes a week. I can easily double that.

That all changes the shockingly-low total of 85 turn painlessly into one of 110. That is much better.

I also shouldn't over emphasize the effect Shawn's absence will have. There will still be classes my level happening here, taught by an enthusiastic, hard-working instructor, in a fine facility, with people I love to train with. If I call the non-Shawn classes to be worth around half value to my detail-obsessed brain (actually they are worth more), the total turns into 145.

So let's call the total 145 instead of the 160 if Shawn were still here.

That's not so bad.

There will still be a big hole to fill. The only problem with doing so is my built-in laziness. At our twice weekly open mat times, although I always attend, I don't always get maximum value.

I think the only way to do so consistently would be to have a regular training partner or two, and get going on working the BBS2 part of the curriculum, with an intention to record the results, and eventually to submit them for evaluation. If I manage to arrange this, the project would easily keep me going for most of the year in question.

In effect, I'd be adding the equivalent of two classes onto every week of home-town training.

That changes the picture from being at only 145 classes, as opposed to 160 if Shawn didn't go away, into something very different indeed.

That would make the total into something over 200.

That's right; about 25% better than if he stays home.

Mexico could be a big boost to my ability by the time I go for a Purple Belt.

Who have thunk that?

A Purple Belt with Ten Stripes Someday

Robert is a great guy, and a fine student of Jiu-Jitsu.

He is there for every class that he can possibly attend, and one of the hardest trainers. I love working with him.

He does, however, have two major flaws.

The first is that his work sometimes interferes with his attendance, which means that his progress has been slow. Instead of getting a stripe every eighth month, he is only averaging one every 12 months. He currently has a Blue Belt with two stripes. At this rate a Purple Belt would be about 3 years away, a Brown Belt 5 full years after that, and a Black Belt 5 years after Brown.

Rob's other major flaw is that he has passed his 50^th birthday.

The other night he expressed a concern that I share. He said that he expects to get his Purple Belt, but that he doubts he'll ever get a Brown or Black one.

I'm a decade older than Rob, but without the work conflicts I have been able to gain stripes more quickly. I will soon have a Blue Belt with four stripes, and have picked most of those up close to the 8 month minimum time.

We both plan on training until we no longer can, but don't think we can face the type of exams that Belt promotion require after we do the one for a Purple Belt.

That is reality, but it sucks.

A Purple glass ceiling for us old farts.

If we were Gracie Jiu-Jitsu students at the main academy in Los Angeles, and not distance students, things would be much different.

Down there, the students don't face any exams. They train, accumulate stripes based on attendance and 8 month periods, and when the Gracies decide they deserve a new colour of Belt, they receive one.

An old guy down there working away, night-after-night, month-after-month, and year-after-year certainly would eventually be rewarded with an eventual Brown Belt, and even a Black Belt. They would be one of the boys; part of the family. You don't punish family for getting old.

We have no similar leeway. We have to pass massive tests. These are not administered by our local instructor, but are done by the Gracies, requiring a trip to California. They are not written exams, by any means. They are physically demanding. I don't think it is realistic to think we'll be passing them in our sixties or seventies. I can't imagine packing up to go to LA to test for a Brown Belt when I'm not physically likely to pass.

I think I've figured out with an old-fart glass-ceiling rebellious compensation plan.

So let's say Rob and I eventually get Purple Belts, and then pick up the maximum four stripes during the normal flow of time. That would be our last real promotions.

When it would be time for a next promtion, we should sneak on to our belts some kind of tiny, barely-visible mark where a 5^th and subsequent stripes would go if there were such things. On every aniversary after getting our last real stripe, we should add another bit of fake stitching.

That way, in the time that a Brown Belt without testing should take, we would be wearing Purple Belts with 4 stripes and 1 geezer stitch line on them. Instead of making it to Black Belt, we would have Purple Belts with 4 stripes and 6 almost invisible stitch lines.

Meaningless, and petty, but harmless.

It would make a fine standing joke.

Rolling on the River

Let's say it's time to spar, and that the buzzer has been set for 100 seconds. Nobody has said what type of roll it's going to be, so it's up to each pair.

The buzzer rings and off they go.

I just watched a video of a hundred seconds of a nice roll. It started from mount, went to modified, to guard, to an armbar attempt, to triangle setup, to back mount, to triple threat position and back to mount. Mixed in with all that were a lot of attempts to shift, and to reverse, and to set up submission, and to do counters. There was almost constant movement. They were only in any one position for a few seconds.

Another roll starts with other participants. They start standing. After a bit of inconclusive grabbing, one participant pulls guard, and drags his partner down. The partner tries to break the guard and pass, but is locked down and unsuccessful. Other than 10 seconds on their feet, they spent the entire time locked into the guard.

Group A practised a great deal of technique and movement. Group B did not.

What was different? The first pair were rolling to learn, and the second were rolling to win, or at least to not lose.

Those are very, very different things.

Let's start over, but set the buzzer to go at a much more normal 5 minutes of time.

Let's have the entire class rolling like the first people. They roll until the buzzer, trying things and not worrying much about the outcome. They are relaxed and fluid. They rotate partners at the bell. They remain fresh.

Let's have another class roll like the second pair. They do everything they can to submit or dominate their opponent. Most of the time they are locked together and burning vast amounts of energy. Rolling this way for any length of time is incredibly draining. They also rotate to new partners, but are soon exhausted as the drill continues.

In the second group, success seems to come to people who are larger, and more experienced.

In the first group, these factors are less important. The goal is for both people to get to try things. It also doesn't matter to the “better” person if they get submitted.

In the second group, somebody big and experienced would never let anybody get control of them, let alone to permit them to try a submission.

In the first group, big people try to match their partners for power. Sometimes more experienced people let their less-skilled partner achieve a superior position, and to launch a submission attempt.

This is good for both people. The less-skilled partner gets to practice submissions on a moving target, so to speak. The more-skilled gets to practice escaping from a submission once it gets locked in.

In the first group, people practice positions and moves they are weak at, and that they wish to improve.

In the second group, people only do what they are really good at already, so that they can “win.” They become the equivalent of a good boxer who only has great left hook, but whose jab sucks, and has no right hand shots to speak of.

Also, and just as importantly, the first group is having tons more fun. This is especially true for smaller, and lesser-skilled people.

If you are the only hundred-pound man or woman in a group full of large, athletic men that only rolls competitively, you will never, ever submit anybody. You will always be on the bottom, being crushed and submitted repeatedly. You will hate it.

If you are the only hundred-pound man or woman in a group that rolls to learn, you will have partners who roll with you as an equal. You will get lots of chances to get on top, and to try for submissions. You won't get them all, but you will get some.

If you are a 250-pound muscle man in a competitively rolling group, you will be likely be at the top of the food chain, and used to controlling and submitting partners.

If you are a 250-pound muscle man in a group that rolls to learn, you will be used to partners getting you into difficult situations that you have practised defending without using much power. You are likely quite comfortable being on the bottom.

Suppose the competitive 250-pound guy ends up rolling with somebody who weighs in at 325, and is 6 inches taller, and even stronger. Everything he's learned to be good at will no longer work. He will find himself trapped on the bottom, unable to get out, and forced to defend against one submission after another.

The roll-to-learn 250-pound guy facing the 325 pound giant will also find himself on the bottom and defending, but will have spent his career training for just that situation.

Our school rolls-to-learn style MOST of the time. I love it, even though I'm one of the bigger guys. It is fun. I love trying things, and defending things that my friends attempt.

Every so often, our instructor mandates what is called, “keep it real,” and we go competitive-style, and quickly get locked down, which is dull as dirt. For smaller and less-experienced people, I don't think it's any fun at all. I'm just glad we don't do it all the time.

Karate to Jiu-Jitsu

There seems to be two opinions regarding how much previous martial arts training helps a student of Jiu-Jitsu.

I can only speak to this from my own experience.

I trained in Shotokan Karate for 29 years prior to starting at Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, and continued for a couple of years after that. I hung up my old Black Belt once my knees made it obvious that to do so would be wise.

At first glance, there is pretty much nothing that Karate and Jiu-Jitsu have in common. Karate is hitting, and Jiu-Jitsu is grappling.

I did carry over attention to detail, and precision, but so would being an artist, or hairdresser.

Anything less general?

Actually yes, but I bet that for a less experienced Karateka it would have worked backwards.

At my low level, we have only been taught a single Jiu-Jitsu kick. Karate people

kick many different ways, and work on them constantly. However, the Jiu-Jitsu kick is absolutily nothing at all like any Karate kick.

In fact, prior kick training works against being able to do this different kick properly. Raw newbies have an easier time. Imagine a typist who is good with a traditional keyboard (asdfghjkl; home row) trying to switch to a Dvorak one (aoeuidhtns). It would be better to learn Dvorak from day one. A traditional typist would have to unlearn and retrain.

The new kick works that way for most kickers. As an old-timer in the Karate world, I utilized a strategy that I learned slowly over many, many years. I didn't try and relate this kick, which everybody compares to a Front Kick, to a Front Kick at all. I treated it as a totally new movement unrelated to anything I'd ever done before.

Doing this for years has worked greatly for me. If some boxer wants to teach me a Right Cross, I do not compare it to a Reverse Punch. I ask if there should be tension in my fist when starting the execution, or on impact, rather than assuming that the hand should be tight as in Karate. It is a totally new thing. What I bring to the lesson is understanding of principles. If the coach says that you launch the punch in a straight line, my fist will go in the precisely straight line that decades of Karate Punch practice has given me.

Granted, the kick was still a bugger to learn, but easier for me than for most kickers, and even easier than for non-kickers.

Karate gave me the knack of taking new things as totally novel, while making many of the components easier to perform.

Of course, this only applies to a very limited number of very specific Jiu-Jitsu techniques.

One area that has come very easy to me is understanding of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu standing distance. This certainly isn't true of most people.

The idea is to always stand outside of punching and kicking range of a potential opponent. This keeps you perfectly safe, and you try and maintain it if possible. If it stops being possible for whatever reason, or if you just get bored, you zip in licketty-split and grab the opponent prior to throwing or taking him down some other way. One does not linger between safe range and clinching contact. That's where you can get whacked.

You also don't necessarily want to be a little too far away, as it means you have to cover extra ground when launching your own attacks.

The long, safe range is exactly where Karate people spend 90% of their time when sparring. You maintain it going forward, or back, or sideways. Then, when you decide to attack, you blast forward as fast as possible to launch your strikes.

The only difference in all this for me is that instead of blitzing forward to strike, I now blitz in to grapple. Easy peesy.

There are other things as well, such as how to fake.

There is a Jiu-Jitsu double-leg take-down move where you start your blitz in, launch a fake strike to the face to get the opponent to think “high,” and then you drop, grab his legs, and dump him with you on top.

Almost everybody starts their blitz in, launches a ridiculous faked strike that looks more like a hand wave, while already looking down at their opponents legs. This in effect, tells him exactly what you're going to do next, which is drop, grab, and dump.

My long-trained Karate version is a little different. I lock eye contact while blitzing in and apply a lead-hand strike Karate style. A fake in Karate is a punch that you launch with full power and intent to connect, but that you don't expect to finish the fight with. Eye contact is maintained until after the fist connects, and then I drop, grab, and dump without ever having looked down at my real intended area of attack.

I'm also pretty good at relaxing while sparring, especially during a drill called Fight Sim that makes most of us tense up significantly. One partner puts on boxing gloves and plays the part of a non-grappling opponent who wants to punch their buddy's lights out. The punches aren't hard, but they land with a bit of psychological impact. I don't much care. I've faced talented, highly-trained people who have been trying very hard to smack me with unpadded fists.

Anyhow, these are the types of things that 30 plus years in Karate have given me to assist in my Jiu-Jitsu journey.

End of Week

There were two normal Jiu-Jitsu nights to open up the week of training.

Then, last night, more good training followed by a wonderful set of rolling no-gi by the entire advanced class.

Today there is no formal instruction. It's called “open mat” time. Typically, I get there first, and maybe one or two others show up. Today was NOT typical. Shawn, our instructor texted me to come a little early to act as his grappling dummy while he worked on the next level of material that will be introduced to the class next year.

This is good training for me, too. After a bit, Tawha and Tobias showed up, and joined us for a while. Before too long, the White Belts Nathan and Sarah arrived looking for some help.

Tobias went with Nathan. They have been working together to get Nathan ready for his Blue Belt test, so that was logical.

Tawha went to work with Sarah on Straight-Armlock-from-the-Guard and Trap-and-Roll. A couple of times they called me over when Shawn got distracted by phone calls and such. Sarah is doing very well, but is very slight and lacks confidence that this stuff will really work for somebody as tiny as her. Tawha is also pretty small, so they wanted me to play the part of a big lump. Sarah rolled me around just like I knew she would, and seemed pleased as punch that her moves were working for real against somebody my size.

Eventually, Shawn finished off the stuff he wanted to inflict on me, and the rest of us just ran out of steam. The timing was good, as the Hapkido class were starting to arrive.

In walked Koko. She returned to university in Vancouver last weekend, but is back for a short visit. She has been working most of the summer on the extremely demanding BBS1 Gracie exam. She got the three big, 15-minute technique drill videos successfully recorded, as well as two of the three 5-minute sparring videos. She left with one lousy 5-minute video still to complete.

She was there to touch base with me about meeting up tomorrow to get it videoed. She has arranged for Cosme to play her partner, and wanted me there to act as outside eyeballs and to run the camera. We are set for around 10am in the morning.

What a wonderful end to the training week.

Slippery

It was an outstanding night at Jiu-Jitsu.

The White Belt class was well-attended, and there was a new student, but that wasn't it.

The advanced class went well and we covered a lot, but that wasn't it.

At the end of the night, it was sparring time. No-gi, which I don't prefer, but what can you do. A couple of injured folks headed off, leaving 8 of us on the mat.

The buzzer was set for three-minute rounds, with a 15 second break in between. After each roll, we switched to new partners. This all went so smoothly, that we all ended up rolling with everybody else there.

So we began.

I've rolled with tons of people over the years, especially down in Los Angeles where there are unlimited numbers of potential partners. Out of all the many partners I've had, about a half roll with their egos switched on.

They really want to get a submission, and to avoid them at all cost. This isn't a bad thing, but it seriously messes up a nice roll. Pairs seem to get stuck, clenched in place, unwilling or unable to move on.

There was none of that last night, not with anyone. Move morphed into move, and submission attempt into counter, and back again. By the end of the second match-up, we were all dripping with sweat. The wetter we got, the slicker we were, and the faster we could move.

It was a total of 21 minutes of non-stop, high-speed movement before it was over.

I loved it.

I want to do it again, but wearing gi.

It would be quite different, due to the ease of gripping and even the fabric friction, but it would still be outstanding.

Types of Years

Belts mean different thing in every martial art.

Take my friends Elizabeth, Tobias, and Rob. They will be going for their Hapkido Black Belts in March. I'm willing to bet they'll all pass. They work hard.

All three are also students of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. In March, when they become Hapkido Black Belts, Tobias will be a Jiu-Jitsu Blue Belt with 2 stripes, as will Rob, and Elizabeth will have 3 stripes on hers.

Each of the started their Jiu-Jitsu training on the same date that they also started in Hapkido. Interestingly, they actually train twice as many hours per week in Jiu-Jitsu.

At a minimum, in March when they get their Hapkido Black Belts, Rob and Tobias will have about two years still to go before their Jiu-Jitsu Blue Belts turn into Purple ones. Elizabeth is a bit ahead, and will have one more year for Purple.

In comparing Jiu-Jitsu to Shotokan Karate, I will be getting my 4^th Blue Belt Jiu-Jitsu stripe within a month of the length of time that I earned a Black Belt. My Purple will come something like a year later.

That's why I say a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Purple Belt is like a Black Belt in most other arts. I say it because it's true.

If age doesn't stop me, I could theoretically earn a Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt ten years after getting to Purple Belt.

In that same amount of time, it is also theoretically possible to earn up to a 4^th Degree Black Belt in Shotokan.

The ranks just mean different things.

Karate and Hapkido give their fancy rank after about 4 years, and Gracie Jiu-Jitsu at about 15.

Let's say one school district gives it's successful students a Gold Star after they have completed kindergarten, and grades 1, 2 and 3. The neighbouring district doesn't, but instead awards one after their kids have completed their second year of university. It's still Gold Star, but it would mean something different.

Not better or worse.

Stupid Brain

As I've said many times, my Jiu-Jitsu goal is to get as far in rank as I can before old age shuts my progress down. This means I'm racing the clock and calendar, and like my promotions to come along in a sprightly fashion.

My stupid brain tried to trick me off of this very-simple goal.

Today it was open-mat time at the academy. I unlocked, swept the mat, and got changed. Promptly at start time Sarah showed up looking for some help. She's a new student, with about three weeks under her belt. Being clever and ambitious, she's figured out the system that we have where Blue Belts can give official credit for out-of-class work.

She was hoping that Cosme would show up, as he is a certified instructor. Working with him earns double credit. Sadly for her, no Cosme today.

I agreed to help her out, so we started working on her stuff. Better than nothing, I suppose.

After a bit, Nathan arrived, also hoping to find Cosme. He figured out the fast track months ago, and is already in the process of recording his Blue Belt test videos. He wanted to go over the guard test material for his next filming.

No Cosme, but I was happy to help, so he wandered off to grab a bite to eat while I finished up with Sarah.

A bit later, she'd put in enough work, so I checked the appropriate box on her attendance card. She thanked me and headed out, just as Nathan was returning.

We worked on his guard test for maybe 20 minutes, and then he headed off. This wasn't enough time for me to add a check to his card, but he doesn't need them anymore. All of his boxes are marked in already.

I headed home as well.

That's when my daydreaming brain tried to screw me up.

It started to tell me that I like helping others, which I do, and that if I were to become an instructor, I would be better equipped to do so. Shawn, our instructor, and Cosme are our only people with teachers certification. Tobias is going through the procedure right now, and will be certified soon.

I started thinking about when it would be possible for me to hook into the Instructor Certification Program, and thought about the costs, and the logistics.

And then the snap back to reality occurred.

My goal is to progress as quickly and far as I can in rank. Becoming an instructor could seriously mess that up.

I have a Purple Belt exam in my not-too-distant future. Let's call it a year away. After that, assuming almost-perfect attendance, I would work through 4 stripe promotions, and then, just maybe face a Brown Belt exam. That would be a minimum of 4 or 5 years altogether. Just possibly, a Black Belt exam might happen 4 or 5 years after that. Age could easily be an issue at Brown already, and even more so at Black. Delay would be a bad thing.

What does that have to do with being certified as an instructor? The problem is that the Gracies have a higher standard for the people they authorize to spread their system.

They are tough enough on “ordinary” promotion candidates. With instructors they are brutal.

Taking an exam for a Belt is a big deal. It means a trip to Los Angeles, with all the hassles and costs that entails. Being a winter-only traveller means that a failure would put mean re-test would cost another year. Repeated failure is quite possible.

My whimsical thought of getting instructor certification could seriously derail my main goal of fast rank progress.

Never mind. Not doing it.

Stupid brain.