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?