The Secret

Just what is it that makes Rener Gracie such an outstanding instructor.

Strangely, it isn't really his "teaching". He certainly is first class when explaning things to a class, or online. He gives just enough perfectly explained detail, but a lot of other teachers can also do this.

He shines beyond them all when the "teaching" is done, and the students begin to practice.

He does not go over notes, or look at his phone, or chat with spectators, or conference with other instructors.

For every second, he is rapidly circulating to every pair on the mat. If it is really crowded, he won't reach all, and if it isn't, he'll visit all several times.

When helping someone, he isn't joking or visiting. He has a focused expression, and his entire being seems only concerned with that particular student performing that particular movement correctly. If they already are, he watches with laser intensity, gives highly-specific quick feedback, and moves on.

For 100% of classtime, he is 100% focused on his students.

This is far more rare than you'd think.

It is also clearly someting he is choosing to do.

The benefits are obvious. During drill time, nobody gets to slip into the mindset of their practice not mattering. You can't let yourself "not get" the move, as any second Rener could whirlwind in and insist you do it right. Your progress will seem the most important thing in the world to him for that moment.

You can't go through one of his classes and think for a moment that he doesn't care.

It also keeps students on their toes. They all try hard, if for no other reason than Rener will be along soon to check on them.

I think they should make this a big part of their instructor training program.

Games

There is a nasty trend in video games.

Almost everything is multi-player. This is not a bad thing in itself, but some of us like just playing games all on our lonesome. I have tried multi-player, and find it a far inferior type of gaming..

So just what is coming up in the next few months that is both awesome, and is good for somebody who wants to go play alone?

There are two that are intriguing.

The first comes out on February 23^rd. It will have no multi-player modes at all, at least with at its initial release. It is called Far Cry Primal.

In a way, it is very similar to a great many first-person shooter type games. However, it is absolutely unique in that there are no guns, or grenades at all. It is set back when people were hunter/gatherers, and the weapons are therefore clubs and stone-tipped spears.

It has enemy tribes, and fauna such as mammoths and sabre-tooth cats.

Quite a novel idea.

The second title comes out in March. It is called UFC 2, and is a new version of an earlier game.

I enjoyed the first game, but it had some very deep flaws. It seems that this do-over will be addressing all of my concerns, and it will therefore be a far superior version.

It seems that the graphics are also up a notch or two.

I look forward to playing both.

Good Stuff

In my last blog entry, I nattered on about things that I wish Jiu-Jitsu people would stop doing.

There are also plenty of things that they they should start doing, or do more often.

When rolling, they should let bad things happen. I've rolled with people who tried to be in control of every single second, as if it were for a World Championship. If you let your partner catch you in submissions more often, you get a chance to work your defences. Mixed in any roll, if my partner cannot get anything on me, I make sure that they can. What do I do when my guard gets passed, or my arm caught, or a choke locked in on me? My partner gets to practice what to do if they get something, and I get to practice what to do when things to wrong.

Let bad stuff happen when rolling, even if you don't have to.

Positive feedback is also important. If a partner does something good, especially if they are less experienced, tell them. It can be especially valuable if you can be specific. If you can, say something like, “When you defended that arm bar by stacking me, you had your weight centred directly on me. I couldn't move at all.”

Not only will you be helping them refine their technique, they will enjoy rolling with you. Do it enough, and you'll soon be everybody's favourite mentor.

Tell sparring partners when they have done well.

There are also a lot of chores around your gym. Some schools have it all organized, but that is the exception rather than the rule. Twice a week, I am the first one in the door, and promptly sweep the mat. It is bloody huge, and takes about ten minutes. Nobody expects me to, but it makes things just a little nicer.

Our school disinfects the mat weekly. I used to wash them pretty much every Saturday, and text the instructor that it was done. That way I would save him from having to do it.

We now have more help with some of the chores, as the school has come up with a system for people having difficulty with the cost of lessons. They do chores to help out instead.

You may not feel inclined to help. Perhaps you are paying high fees, and have decided that they entitle you to not help out. Probably it does, but tiny bits of effort are always appreciated.

At the Gracie Academy in Los Angeles, they have a full staff of cleaners, and desk people. Everything in those areas are totally cared for. At class time, there are still a few ways people manage to help out. For example; the instructor usually collects the attendance cards. On rare occasion they get a bit delayed. When that happens, one of the students always does the collecting without being asked. A small thing, but it's a big help.

Help out without being asked.

Most students feel very highly of their instructors. Do you? Have they done a lot for you? If so, what have you done for them?

Have you ever passed a belt test? If you did, you got some stuff; like a new belt, and perhaps a celebratory dinner out. What did your instructor get? He also worked hard for your promotion. Yes, people thank their teachers verbally all the time, but it's easy enough to do a little bit more. If they like wine, buy them a bottle. No? Maybe a Starbucks card. You can tie it to a belt test (pun intended), or just do it for no reason at all.

Do something nice for your instructor once in a while.

Oh, yeah, and train hard... all the time...

Stupid Jiu-Jitsu

There are tons of stupid things that Jiu-Jitsu people do. They should just stop it.

Long hair? Not a good idea. It gets caught under people's arms bodies or heads, that then have an entire body weight ground down on top. Try doing some fancy escape when your head is pinned painfully down to the floor. Thankfully, I've never had to partner up with any gentleman sporting a long ponytail, but most women roll with either a ponytail, or braids, or some other nonsense that always seems to fail at the exactly wrong time.

And people should learn to tie their belts. The stupid things seem to be forever coming undone. There is a two-part solution to this. They need to be using the superior, double-trap knot, rather than the usual Karate-type one. It isn't hard, but is much, much less likely to untie. Don't even get me started on people who can't even manage to tie a Karate knot. There is also a second issue with knots. I have lots of friends who use the double-trap knot who still have their belts fall off regularly. The belt needs to be longer. If long enough, the belt is far less likely to come undone. I wear a long-ish belt, use a double-trap knot, and literally NEVER have it come undone.

You can see these two issues and their negative impact during any given sparring session. Let's say it's a big seminar, and there are 100 people rolling. At any given moment, several will have had to stop to re-tie their hair, several more re-tying their belts, and a great many rolling around in a snake-pit of untied belts.

Just stop it.

White is by far the most popular colour for Jiu-Jitsu uniforms. Many organizations and schools insist upon it, but lots do not. I have visited one school that did not, and have encountered lots of people at seminars wearing all sorts of colours. I have yet to run into anybody wearing a white Gi whose uniform was dirty. Literally, 100% of my coloured Gi partners has been filthy. I don't know if they wear coloured uniforms to try and hide the grime, of if people who like grime also like coloured uniforms.

Human sweat tends to contain all sorts of unpleasant organisms, some of which are really dangerous. They also tend to multiply pretty well on un-sterilized mats, and within unwashed, sweaty clothing. Having a dirty uniform is not just gross, it is dangerous both for the wearer, and for everybody they share a mat with.

Just stop, right now, please.

I recently saw a web page that had a bunch of the big-deal Jiu-Jitsu competitors on it. What's with all the crests and patches? They look ridiculous, and I'm a guy who likes wearing cool t-shirts and sweatshirts with cool or funny pictures and phrases on them. A typical crested-up gi has a HUGE patch, that is nothing more than an ad for the manufacturer; a big ad; a very big ad. They all have some kind of fancy stitching here and there, and maybe the person's name about the size of a large cat, and an even larger association patch, and usually some other stuff that has no meaning at all. The effect is extremely garish. Perhaps they don't understand the concept behind wearing a uniform.

Just stop it.

And there's a lot more.

Lazy Corporations

I hate lazy technology. It has always been around, but the world of today it is more galling than ever.

For example; every car I've owned for the last few years has had a dandy little lever inside that opens a little door giving access to the gas cap. Nice. When you reach the little door, you have to reach inside and unscrew the dirty little gas cap. After pumping, you screw the gas cap in again manually, and then close the little door over it.

Is the car industry saying that they can't figure out a way for the lever inside the car to open the little door can't also open up the gas tank for pumping, and that closing the little door can't seal it off. It would seem so. Lazy.

Or how about my wonderful cable TV access. We have a lots of channels, but do not subscribe to all of the ones that our provider has. They sometimes give us free previews to channels, and for some reason occasionally move the channels that we do have around in the listing. There is no way to remember all of the ones we get or do not get.

Let us say I am scrolling through the guide, and notice a program. Do I get that channel, or do I not? There are some that I view often enough and am therefore sure about, but many I do not. The only way to find out is to go to that channel to see. Often I don't bother.

I would prefer that the channels that I do not receive not show up in the guide at all, but perhaps the cable company does it as a subtle form of advertising. I can understand that, but would colour coding the channels be such a big deal? Lazy.

There is stuff like this out there everywhere.

I bet you already have a few “favourites” of your own. Perhaps not, but how long would it take for you to notice one.

Make a game of it. Look for things that I've mentioned, but ignore them if they are being done by somebody who is small fry. The other day I went to a sports facility's web site to try and see their weekly schedule. They didn't have one anywhere on their site. They, however, are small fry. If it is somebody like Facebook, which refuses to permanently remember your display settings they are not.

It's more fun than you'd think, and easy.

Great Week

What a great training week.

Tuesday and Wednesday each had a beginners and advanced class. They are always good, but that isn't what made the week outstanding. The Tuesday and Wednesday before that were just as good.

Thursday also holds a class for our White Belts, and one for our advanced folks and that's when it started getting good. Our Chief Instructor, Shawn, has been gone for more than the last three months living in Mexico. He is back for a two-month visit before returning to the south.

He is an exceptional instructor, so those classes were great.

That ended our normal training schedule on a positive note, but the week wasn't even close to being over.

Today it's Friday, and Shawn and I met at 7:30am to train. We went for well over an hour. We worked stuff as advanced as we've got. What a great week?

Later in the day, open-mat time rolled around. Nathan showed up, and he's always game for whatever I want to work on. Today he asked me what I wanted, and I just said, “submit me.” We rolled for a good half-hour with him on the attack, and me mostly defending. It was a really good practice. Then, a White Belt needed some help with something, so Nathan joined him, and I ended up free-rolling with Tobias.

We roll really well together. We are evenly matched for skill, and slide from one position or attack into the next. It was wonderful sparring practice.

Tomorrow, there is another open-mat time, and the last training of my week.

My friend Koko spends most of her time in the city attending University, but has been coming back for weekends lately. She'll be there. We have very similar learning styles, and will work hard for about two hours. We do high-level drills for part of the time. For the rest, I typically I work defence, while she attacks me relentlessly. We both gain from this. She's the only person around here who can consistently trap my free arm from side mount top.

Altogether, a good Tuesday, and Wednesday, along with a great Thursday, finished off with an absolutely outstanding Friday and Saturday.