Busted Flow

Back in the early fall, I was flowing. I had three stripes on my Blue Belt, and was thinking ahead to my Purple Belt exam. All I knew about it was that they would be looking to see not only my skill, but also my comfort when rolling.

So I rolled a lot, with everybody. I didn't want to commit the crime of getting stuck in any position, and so was flowing. This means trying things, and if they are countered to let them go and rapidly transition to something else. During a flow, a lot happens, and it happens quickly. It is very much like two wrestlers, who are also performing a cooperative dance. It is also wicked fun.

We are a small school, and all of my partners were magnificent at flowing with me. They pushed me with speed, fluidity, and technique.

We rolled through the fall, and I received my fourth stripe, and we rolled on into winter. I think I was improving in exactly what I wanted to present at my upcoming exam.

In February, I was with the Gracies down in Los Angeles. On the day that was the most devoted to my examination, they had me roll with Rener Gracie himself, and then an assortment of chosen partners. I rolled as I had been doing at home.

I passed, and received my Purple Belt.

A weird thing happened when back on my home mat again. My regular training partners, that I'd spent all the preceding months flowing with, seemed to treat me differently. They pushed, as if it mattered if they got a submission on me, or I on them. I think subconsciously they were testing to see if I were magically different; somehow better.

I pushed back, as if every submission they got on me mattered, or that I got on them. I pushed back, hard. We didn't flow. It didn't return to what it had been before during subsequent classes either, at least not like it had been. I got stuck in the new mode. It was my fault.

There were exceptions, of course. Tawha continues to roll with me like some kind of angry, laughing eel. With Tobias, the rolls are often mostly flow and experimentation. Scott usually doesn't seem to care much what happens, as long as it's interesting. In general, however, I was pushing harder, and giving less back. I'm sure I was often an ass.

I used to love getting caught in crappy positions, and to merrily try and slip out, and happy to tap out when I couldn't.

Now, our main instructor is home. I have always rolled tight when with him. It's as if I have to perform well when with him, and so perform worse. With my flow all screwed up, it's worse than ever before.

In general, my flow is gone, or at least it has become hard to find.

I think I need to give my peers a code word, that when spoken means I have to let go of whatever I'm doing, and to immediately transition to something else.

Maybe I can regain it by myself by not allowing myself to get any submissions at all. They can't matter to me if they aren't there. Perhaps the key is tap anytime a partner gets anywhere near to having a submission on me. I can't get locked into defending something if I have to immediately tap.

Or maybe the flow will return all on its own.

Cities for Life

I just love where I live.

Keep in mind, there is nothing which holds us here by force. We are retired, and therefore not tied down by jobs. Our pensions are wonderful things, and follow us everywhere we choose to go.

We have no parents, nor children. Our closest relations are a very dear sister, and her husband, and a brother, and his wife and kids. They all live in Victoria, and we visit them often. It's about a five-hour trip to get there (car, ferry, car, ferry, car). There are plenty of closer places, but we feel no burning desire to be nearer.

We have some good friends that decided, as they approached retirement, what British Columbia town they wanted to live in. They selected the community, based on weather, proximity to larger centres, shopping options, and activities, and then moved there. I think that was a wonderful way to do things.

But why limit oneself to only a single Canadian province. Granted, it's a very good one, but still. Why stick to Canada at all?

I suppose it would be sensible to limit oneself to places within the world that are known. We shouldn't up and move to Katmandu, for example.

That limits things quite a bit, actually. We know parts of North America, and a very little bit of Europe, and nothing else.

Let's go exotic first. The Cayman Islands, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and a few places in Mexico. None call to me from across the miles, although all were interesting.

How about Europe? We've been a few places in Germany, Salzburg and Vienna in Austria, Venice, Genoa, and Monterosso in Italy, and seen Dubrovnik in Croatia, two places in Greece, and a town in Turkey.

The German cities were nice, but I didn't connect. The same is true of all the other places, except for two; Vienna and Venice. Let's see if there are any more places in North America that I can add to the list.

In Canada, I quite like the Vancouver area, and Victoria. All the other places we've seen come with real, nasty, Canadian winters. I never want to live with harsh weather ever again.

In the USA, there are lots of places I like to visit, but not necessarily to live. I could do San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and Orlando, or Miami Beach, or just possibly Las Vegas.

My list of possibles isn't really all that long. To recap, Venice and Vienna, Victoria and Vancouver, San Francisco, LA, Las Vegas, Orlando, and Miami Beach. Those, or somewhere close by.

Let's work from roughly east to west. Venice is incredibly expensive for residents, and is a mouldy, humid, water-locked world. I could see doing 6 months there, or a year, but not living as a permanent resident.

Vienna is really great, and a better fit personally. As with Venice, I could easily live there for a happy stint, but not forever. Both of my European choices would come with me needing to learn a language to get along.

So, on to North America. Miami Beach comes at a high financial cost, and is really just a waterfront suburb surrounded by a high-stress city. Best to strike it off the list.

The Orlando area is intriguing, but is really just an area spread out over freeway distances, held together by theme parks. I could do a year there happily, but forever?

Most would consider me insane to even consider Las Vegas, which is probably wise. Beyond the tourist strip, it suffers from all sorts of aches and pains from the over-rapid growth of earlier years, mixed in with its current economic downturn. Another less-than-perfect choice.

San Francisco is great, but has a very strange micro-climate. Through most of the summer, when the rest of California is bathed in sun, San Francisco is normally hidden under clouds and its famous fog. Not the best of situations for me. I like sunshine.

My last American city to think about is Los Angeles. It is a huge conglomeration of dozens of communities and cities. There is certainly a lot to do, but he amount of freeway time that getting around necessitates would probably burn off the lustre pretty fast.

So Canada. My only weather-suitable choices are Victoria and Vancouver. Victoria has the added attraction of our family all being there. Vancouver is the much larger and more vibrant place. Both have incredibly expensive housing markets, which hinders their appeal.

Interestingly, we can get to Vancouver easily whenever we want from our current home. To do so, there is a short drive, followed by a 45 minute ferry ride. If we are headed to the city, the boat time is not a negative at all. We eat onboard, or drink coffee, or just use the ferry's wifi.

What the ferry does do is to act as a force field keeping the city people away from our town. It also keeps our property values at a quite-reasonable fraction of what folks pay in the city. To most, the ferry is an unacceptable inconvenience.

So, we currently live in a delightful little coastal community, conveniently located right next to one of the prime cities on my desirability list. Housing here is artificially low, as are population densities. We have the calmness of a small town.

In addition, all of our activities and friends are here. Helen is a member in three music groups (it could also be more, or less; I can never keep up), as well as crafting. I am kept very busy training at Jiu-Jitsu five days a week.

Can't see us moving anytime soon.

Which version

It seems that almost everybody is compelled to compare their effectiveness against others in the Jiu-Jitsu world.

In my own opinion, it is important to consider just what you consider effectiveness.

Do you mean, is your version of Jiu-Jitsu effective in a self-defence context, or rolling merrily with other Jiu-Jitsu players, or perhaps in mma?

Of course, there is a lot of cross-over, but not as much as you might think.

The version of the art that captured the attention of the world back in 1993 with the original launch of the UFC was old-school Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.

Royce Gracie dominated the octagon, back when there was a frightening scarcity of safety rules, using exactly the version taught by his father Helio Gracie. It was self-defence all the way.

The difference between that and a more sport-oriented type version of the art is its obsession with standing distance, closing that distance, takedowns, control with punch protection, and finally submission. In sport Jiu-Jitsu, there is no concern with standing distance to avoid damage, or any need to close in quickly or safely, little concern with takedowns, or with punch protection.

Sport Jiu-Jitsu is mostly concerned with out-grappling another person, either for points, or for submission, when there is a set of rules and expectations which severely limits the number of dangers involved. There is no hitting of any kind.

In such a match, usually both competitors willingly go to the ground. They then do whatever has been invented to work within a grappling-only context.

Let's look at a common Jiu-Jitsu position used in rolling, self-defence, and mma; the Closed Guard.

That's when you end up on your back, but you have managed to wrap your legs tightly around your opponent's torso. In Jiu-Jitsu sport rolling, it isn't particularly important if your opponent's head and body are being held down close to yours, or if they are kneeling with their upper body held fully erect. In mma, if your opponent manages to hold their upper body high, or postured up, you can expect to experience a rain of punches and elbow strikes. It is critically important to hold him low to prevent this.

In a self-defence context it is even more critical. In mma, strikes are allowed to the head, and the upper torso. In a street fight they can be landed anywhere. If your opponent is postured up, your groin will be easily accessible. He will most likely start crushing this sensitive body part with extremely devastating elbow strikes.

In self-defence, he cannot be allowed to posture up. If he does so, he must be brought back down immediately, or the position must be promptly abandoned. In mma, the situation is similar, but not quite as immediate. In sport Jiu-Jitsu, it isn't a concern.

Or how about this one. You have your opponent in your guard, and you manage to lock up a triangle choke on him. He is very powerful and stands up, with your legs still wrapped around his neck.

In sport Jiu-Jitsu, no big deal. You most likely will try and finish the choke while hanging off his neck. In mma, you are in extreme danger, as his next move will most likely be to slam you down on the canvas as hard as he can. The sport Jiu-Jitsu guy doesn't have to think about this, as body slams are illegal in his world. In self-defence, as in mma, you can expect a body slam, but most likely you'll be landing on something like concrete. You are insane if you let him stand up with your legs still attached, and you should have dropped off the moment he got you off the ground.

These three versions of Jiu-Jitsu technique are quite distinct.

Getting back to comparing your Jiu-Jitsu effectiveness.

I am a student of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, as taught by Ryron and Rener Gracie, the two eldest sons of Rorion Gracie, the eldest son of the founder, Helio Gracie. It is about as close to pure Helio Gracie Jiu-Jitsu as is taught anywhere.

They do teach sport stuff, but only after students receive a strong base of the original curriculum, and always through a self-defence filter.

I would say my Jiu-Jitsu is the most effective self-defence version that there is.

I would also say that if a Jiu-Jitsu person had to enter an mma bout with no other training, it is also the best version for that at well.

It is not the best version if one wants to prepare for a sportive Jiu-Jitsu world. Every hour that we spend on standing technique, or distance management, or striking defence means an hour that a sport person can devote to learning how to beat other sport Jiu-Jitsu people.

I can roll with them, and not be embarrassed. I am a Purple Belt, but perhaps should consider myself a Blue Belt in that world.

Good enough.

Heavyweight Nonsense

The UFC can be a very weird organization.

Keep in mind as I explain what I mean that the people there desperately want to be taken seriously as a sport. Somehow, I don't think they know what that means.

Back in 2008, the UFC Heavyweight Championship was won by Brock Lesnar. Going into that fight, his record was an unimpressive 2-1. However, the UFC was in love with him, and the champ at that time was an ancient dinosaur who fought in exactly the manner made to be beaten by Lesnar. Why did they want him to win the belt so badly, even though he's only ever fought 3 times, and they were all hand picked for his success, and he still managed to lose to one of those guys.

He looks like a killer fighter, for one thing. He's massive, and muscular, and athletic. The other reason is that he is a big deal in professional wrestling, and they desperately wanted to draw in all that cross-viewership.

So he won, and they fed him a string of challengers made for precisely his style of fighting. His record grew to 5-1. Then I don't know if the UFC started believing their own nonsense, or if they finally bowed to pressure, and had Lesnar defend against one of the division elite, Cain Velasquez in 2010, who knocked him out cold in the first round.

Lesnar tried to make a comeback, was defeated again in the first round by, this time by Alistair Overeem, and then went back to professional wrestling. His entire mma career was 5-3

While this was all going on, there was another fighter that the UFC desperately wanted to recruit into their heavyweight division. His name was Fedor Emelianenko. He is Russian, and back in 2008 his record stood at 29-1-1, and was considered by many to be the best fighter in the world. He, however, had a vastly inflated opinion of his own financial value to the UFC, and the negotiations dragged on and on.

To the UFC, matching Emilianenko and Lesnar was some kind of Holy Grail matchup.

They kept talking throughout Brock Lesnar's title reign, no agreement being reached. Then, in the middle of 2010, the Russian lost. Disaster. He lost his next fight as well, and then the one after that.

Emilianenko tried to rebuild, with a trio of fights against questionable opposition through 2010 and 2011. Although winning all three, he retired. After all, he was 36 years old and clearly past his prime. Also, the UFC Heavyweight Crown had passed from the beatable Lesnar into much more dangerous hands.

Last year, Emilianenko returned, and finished off a third-rate fighter in Japan.

Talks with the UFC have resumed, and this time seem much more on-track and focused. Also, magically, Brock Lesnar has been coaxed away from good, old, fake wrestling again, and will be fighting in less than a month. His opponent will be a decent guy named Mark Hunt. Although not bad, he is, like most of Lesnar's other opponents, perfectly hand-picked to lose.

It's pretty obvious what the big-shots in the UFC have been thinking. However, I can't understand why.

Let's see.

Lesnar was a good amateur wrestler, but hasn't been involved in that for 16 years. Other than his short 5-3 career in the UFC, he's been a professional playfighter. Fedor, on the other hand was a great fighter in his time, but at the ripe old age of 39, that boat has clearly sailed.

Nothing could have made this clearer than the fight June 17th between Emilianenko, and a nobody named Fabio Maldonado. Maldonado's record going into the fight was 22-9, and he was on a two-fight losing streak. He was also significantly smaller than Fedor.

Anyhow, Fabio proceeded to beat the living daylights out of Fedor in the first round. The fight should have been stopped several times, but the referee just didn't seem to notice anything amiss. Somehow, Emilianenko survived the round, but just barely. The second round was close, as Fabio clearly was exhausted by all the pounding he'd done earlier. Likely Fedor won that round, as he clearly did in the third. However, Fedor Emilianenko is the President of the Russian MMA Union that provided the judges. Even so, one of them got it right, giving Fabio the first round by two points, and Fedor the other two, and called it a draw. The other two judges magically saw the first round as a one-point round, and the other two rounds as one-point rounds for Fedor. He was awarded the victory.

A most embarrassing win.

This is the guy the UFC is trying to bring into their organization.

Or at least they did. I can't see how they can do so now.

However, stranger things have happened in the UFC.

In any case, the Brock Lesnar return bout will still be happening. I only hope that the 5'10" Mark Hunt (12-10-1) kicks the snot clear out of the 6'3" Lesnar (5-3) and puts and end to it all.

Home Town

A great day in Victoria, with nothing really we had to do.

As I wake up stupidly early, I tip-toed out as best I could, and ran through the early morning suburban streets up to the University and back, with a wee coffee stop at Starbucks.

The run itself was grand, and through weather that was nothing liked the overcast bucket of rain that was predicted.

The coffee stop was a winner. When I started up my Starbucks app to pay for the drink, it informed me that today's beverage would be free due to my upcoming birthday. Thank you, Starbucks.

Following that, and a shower, Helen and I hit a bunch of favourite downtown stores. We were there just as the first of them was opening, and doddered along through one after the other. Admittedly, I didn't really love either Gala Fabric or the Bee Hive Wool store, but at least both has places for me to sit, and Helen likes them.

We popped into the shopping area in the old Hudson Bay store building. Inside, there are now condos and a mini-mall, although they have managed to save the swanky facade. We explored a fancy vinegar and oil store, picking up some peach and grapefruit flavoured white balsamic that is incredibly yummy. I use it on salad.

It was just the right time to collect the car and zip over to Bridge Street for lunch at Prima Strada Pizza. Their food is unbelievable. When in Italy last fall we could find nowhere to eat anywhere near as good.

After we ordered, the manager approached and asked about the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu shirt I was wearing. Seems he's an old Karate guy (which sounds like someone else I know), and is very interested in finding a place to train. I told him I am from out of town, and he asked if I could recommend anybody near Victoria. Had to tell him, "no," as I only have experience with one place in the city, and that I really can't recommend it. Gave him a few pointers as to what problems he might encounter in his quest.

Checked in at Tempo Trend Music to see if the rainbow-coloured accordion that Helen has on order has arrived. Never hurts to check, but no luck.

Then walked Mayfair Mall, and then headed back to Oliver and Jen's place. We gathered up Charlie the dog, and drove over to the nearest beach. Charlie had a great time fetching sticks, and when we pooped out, entertained herself by splashing, and then biting the jumping water.

Picked up Thai-style supper for all seven of us, and then I conked out hard on the couch.

So, run, free coffee, downtown, pizza, Jiu-Jitsu chat, accordion shop, mall, beach, and a noodle-supper with family.

Victoria is a good place.

The Fav

There can be no such thing as a favourite move in Jiu-Jitsu.

Oh, of course there are in the short term, but to get married to anything just never works out.

I have a few go-to moves. Sadly, I sometimes get quite attached to them, but eventually they all start to fail.

Let's say you get on top of me, holding me down in side control. You'll probably end up with my elbow driving into your neck. It will feel crappy, and any of a number of responses from you end up with me on top. Around here, everybody has had to pretty much put up with this situation, but that recently started to change.

In a recent slice-variant buried deep within a BBS3 technique was a counter-move to my beloved side-control-bottom-annoying-elbow. Nobody else seemed to notice, but alarm bells went off in my head.

How long will it be before somebody else sees it, too? It doesn't mean my move will no longer work, but it will entail a significant risk. I won't be using it as much, or with such free abandon. It will still be effective against most people, but will have to be much tighter. The risk isn't just that it won't work, or work as well, but rather that my arm can be put into red-zone danger of a submission.

All it took to wreck my move, or at least to make it potentially suicidal, was a little more progress in our standard curriculum.

Every move holds the potential for its own demise. Some can be defeated with ridiculous ease. At least my old favourite move is somewhat tricky to reverse.

There is this guy who visits our class sometimes. He is from some sport variant of Jiu-Jitsu, and is absolutely in love with a thing called a sit-up-sweep. As a result, he likes to end up on the bottom of the guard. Once there, he WILL attempt a sit-up-sweep. He has specialized so much in this that his sweep is just about perfect, but he has done so at the sacrifice of all other bottom-of-the-guard techniques.

The problem for him is that sit-up-sweep is relatively easy to counter if you know it is likely coming. He used the move successfully a bunch of times on Scott, and then it stopped working on him altogether. Scott mentioned what had happened, and the move doesn't work on anybody else around here either.

The guy keeps on trying, and it doesn't work. He loves it too much. I guess it works for him back at his home school. Even if he were to drop it when with us, he has worked it so hard that he has neglected everything else as a result.

Almost every one of our Blue Belts has had to break off their love affair with the Mount position. They arrive from the beginner class all excited. For a year or so they have worked a self-defence curriculum where attaining the Mount is the ultimate road to victory.

They end up facing more experienced students, and work hard to get the mount, and to then launch their well-trained Americanas, or twisting-arm-control, or straight-armlocks. None of these work, as their partner knows a slew of defences to each. They also know well how to reverse the situation at will, and to put the new Blue Belt easily on the bottom, and helpless.

Staying in love with the Mount only shows a suborn refusal to recognize reality. Suddenly, a lot of other things are much better in comparison.

After learning a bit more, Mount gains back a bunch more effectiveness and stability, and can be welcomed back into one's heart, but that takes a while.

Jiu-Jitsu is like that.

I used to want to get the top of the Mount, then Guard bottom was the place to be, and most recently preferred the bottom of Side-Mount. If I lose any more bits of my Side-Mount-bottom game, I'll need to find a new go-to position.

So there can be no favourite moves in Jiu-Jitsu, or at least none that stay favourite forever. Things change and evolve too quickly for that.

Even if someone were to reach Black Belt, and kept going past that, and magically managed to learn everything that exists in Jiu-Jitsu, they still wouldn't be able to decide on a favourite-position-for-all-time. Somebody would just end up devising something brand new that would make the entire art evolve, and mess up the favourite again.

I like getting Back Mount. It's hard as can be to submit a skilled person from there, but it's fun to control them. I like it when they get me the same way, as it's really rewarding to stifle their attacks, and to escape altogether.

Side Mount is good. From the bottom I play my anti-control stuff, and try to escape, and from the top I like the submissions.

Leg Locks are challenging, as are defending them. That whole category of technique is pretty scary, as nasty accidents can occur.

I have a hard time keeping top-Mount when I get it, but love the armbar opportunities. Being underneath makes me defend big-time, and work escapes and reversals.

Guard used to be my favourite, and I still like it. When it's my Guard, I work hard to submit. When it's somebody else's, I have to defend hard and to work on passes.

I am perfectly comfortable when held in Half-Guard, and try and get out, and when it's my Half-Guard, try and trap partners hard until they make a mistake trying to pass, and to reverse them.

Standing? I try and get people to stay up and contest for the takedown, but usually they just plop on their butts and we fight from there.

That's all of the seven positions. All have their pluses and minuses, which evolve with the knowledge of the participants. For me, the favourites come and go; morphing as required.

It's more important to be mentally adaptable than it is to be flexible physically.

Four Directions

All of a sudden I have far too much to work on at Jiu-Jitsu.

Usually, the situation is exactly the opposite. I can do extra drill on the stuff we've been covering in class, or come up with some kind of project of my own.

Right now, there is a flood.

Our head instructor, Shawn Phillips, will be around for almost two months. In that time, he wants to work on the highest material of the Guard curriculum. This is great, but it's also something that I am very shaky on. I could just take the lessons as they come, but would not get maximum benefit from them if I did that. What I should do is go over each of the lessons before we do them in class. That way I wouldn't be trying to pick up a basic understanding, and can focus on particular details.

So, I could and should be looking ahead to the level three Guard material.

I've also decided to start working towards completion of the BBS2 exam. This requires a great deal of review and drill, as well as figuring out how to best present the material during the test itself. I started on this a week or two ago, and chose the Mount/Side-Mount test as being the best place for me to start.

I could also continue working on second level Mount and Side-Mount.

Yesterday, Scott and Cosme showed up at open mat time, and it turns out they also want to work on the BBS2 exam. They were working the Guard/Half-Guard test segment, and invited me to join in. I gladly would have, but they do it in a way that doesn't work for me. They are both able to go much faster through the material than I can. For me, it is critically important to do every move a millions times or more. No way I can keep up, but if I did extra training getting ready to work with them, maybe I could.

Perhaps I should prepare second level Guard and Half-Guard a bit, and then train more with Scott and Cosme.

That's kind of what I did today. I was alone on the mat starting to work on Mount and Side-Mount, when Cosme showed up to work on Guard/Half-Guard. I helped him on his stuff.

So although thinking about the level three curriculum, or about level two, I am still involved with level one.

Both Tobias and Tawha are working to get their BBS1 exams done, and I've been helping them. Each is at a different spot in the testing procedure, he at Guard/Half-Guard, and she at Mount/Half-Mount. I know that stuff well enough that I don't have to practice it when on my own, but rather to work with Tobias or Tawha whenever they are training.

I count it all as being a total of four different directions I am taking during out-of class mat time. As much as I like having something to work on, this is too much.

For my friends, it would be best if I give priority to Tobias and Tawha whenever they are present and ready to work. I can also be of aid to Scott and Cosme as well.

It would be too difficult to try and seriously focus on my own BBS2 test preparation in amongst all of that. Therefore, beyond helping my peers, I shall work on the level three material that Shawn is covering in the next few weeks.

Best if my exam drops far, far down the priority list for now.

No rush. After all, it's optional.

Shawn's Changes

Last night our head instructor, Shawn Phillips, was just about exploding with training ideas.

He's been off living in Mexico for a while, and has a lot of time to think. All of it seems to be aimed at our advanced class.

So far, it has to do with warm-ups, drills, teaching method, class organization, and quantity of sparring. In other words, just about everything.

The first is my least favourite; warm-up exercise. This is where the group does a bunch of running, stretching, and strength exercise stuff in order to prepare their bodies to train, and to promote fitness.

Usually, half of our group will have just been training at the prior White Belt Combatives class. Do we need to really prepare our bodies to train? Ten seconds before the advanced group starts, we were just rolling around on the ground training.

Jiu-Jitsu also doesn't have muscle-tearing types of activities. There are no head-high kicks or things of that ilk. A little light loosening up might not be a problem, if anything is needed at all.

The last argument for pre-class exercising it that it would make us more fit. I find this kind of funny. The best fitness promoting activity have ever done is Jiu-Jitsu free-rolling. Instead of 5 minutes of jogging around before class, it would work much better to have 5 more minutes of rolling at the end.

Anyhow, warm-ups are not a big deal.

The next thing he wants to introduce is a warm-up drill time on most nights. This is not the same as warm-up exercise, and I'm all in favour of this.

In these drills, a real Jiu-Jitsu move is rapidly repeated over and over. Besides getting the heart pumping, the idea is to improve on the exact movements contained in the drill. I am a huge fan of this type of thing.

When training in class, I like to get every possible repetition into practice time. At least twice a week I am at open-mat doing precisely this type of activity all on my own.

The benefits are huge. Down in Los Angeles, Ryron Gracie sometimes has students do drills of this nature. One I recall is shooting triangle chokes from guard. Partners take turns doing sets of 20 shots; punch in the opponent's hand and fire the triangle from hip-level guard to neck level in one movement. Each partner would usually end up doing maybe three sets of this, or 60 full-speed triangle-from-guard shots. When I tried to explain the drill back home, nobody even knew what I meant by shooting the guard, whereas I was pretty good at it.

Don't confuse these warm-up drills as being the same as a bunch of exercise. They are direct Jiu-Jitsu skill development.

As to teaching method, I've been whining a lot lately in this blog about how we are getting flooded with too much information during class. Shawn wants to simplify what we are covering.

Our curriculum is divided into 7 chapters, which are in turn split into up to a half-dozen topics, which each contain several techniques, which are further divided into slices, and which often have a number of variations.

We would still do all 7 chapters, and all the topics, and techniques. We would perhaps lose some slices, and certainly drop most variations. I am secretly hoping that a few entire techniques would go as well, to be picked up the next time we return to that chapter.

He also wants to do faster demo/explanations to give us more practice time. Our demo-to-practice ratio is currently quite out of kilter due to how much is trying to be taught.

I am fully in favour of the cutting away of information and more practice.

He also wants to change the class's structure for at least part of our training. Currently, we are all lumped together in the Master Cycle class, with everybody working on the exact same material. Shawn wants us to sometimes split apart to work on levels of material.

This could work sometimes, but not always. We are a very small group, and sometimes smaller still. On a good night, there will be maybe 3 Purple Belts, 3 or 4 Blue Belts, and perhaps a White Belt who has permission to attend. On a night like that, we could certainly be split for some activities, with the White Belt being merged in with the Blues.

At other times, there might be 2 Purple, and 3 Blues. As one of the Purples would be teaching, they really can't make a group with the other guy their level, so there could only be one group.

I don't have an issue with occasional class slitting, but am saying there are practical issues.

Another change he wants is to have our classes start precisely on time. This is an obvious way to "create" more minutes of every activity, and has been slipping lately.

Shawn also feels we don't spar enough, and he is absolutely right. Our push to plow through all of the curriculum has shoved sparring onto the back burner.

Let's give an example. Our class is supposed to start at 7:00pm, but it never gets going until 7:10. We jump right into the night's instruction, and this will go until about 8pm. In that time we we be watching for perhaps 40 minutes, and practicing for 10. We might roll after that for 5 minutes, or on a good night for 10.

Let's call it 60 minutes in total, of which 40 is watching, 10 is practicing, and 10 rolling.

Shawn's ideas would see us start right at 7 o'clock. There would be warm-up exercises or drills for 10 minutes, and then instruction and practice. As he wants more practice, let's say it is 25 minutes of instruction and 25 minutes of practice. After that we roll until 8:30.

In this example there are 90 minutes in total, of which 10 is warm-up exercise or drill, 25 is instruction, and 25 practice, and 30 minutes of rolling.

This is a huge improvement, especially if the majority of the warm-up activity is actually JJ drilling. If so, the evening would really be 25 minutes of being instructed, and 35 minutes of actually working on skills, followed by 30 minutes of applying them.

Shawn wants us rolling more, which his changes will certainly make possible. He doesn't mean the type of sparring which can lead to injury. He means sparring of every type, from intense, to light, to flowing, to instructional.

Put this all together, and I don't see how we could fail to improve significantly.

None of the steps to achieve this are insignificantly difficult. They are; starting on time, doing warm-up activity, shortening instruction, increasing practice time, rolling more, not ending class until 8:30pm every night.

I have tried hard to come up with further improvements on the overall concepts that Shawn wants to introduce. The only area I've found is in the curriculum

My suggestion is to not teach to a fixed schedule. The full cycle of material should not have a predetermined length, nor should any chapter, topic, or technique.

Instruction should be given in waves each evening, followed by generous practice time, followed by the next bit of instruction, and more practice. It should be done at a natural learning pace. When the clock approaches whatever time is designated for the rolling to begin, the instructor should either just stop teaching where ever they are, or do one more slice/variant, and then end. If we are in mid-technique, that's just fine. Pick it up again at the next class.

The feeling should never be to cram anything in, especially at the expense of students actually practicing skills or rolling.

In any case, it's all very interesting and exciting

Self-Defence Belt

Ryron and Rener Gracie are always thinking, and willing to bend.

They have done two huge things regarding Jiu-Jitsu instruction. First, they have created a program for beginners that focuses totally on self-defence. There is nothing in it at all on how to roll with another Jiu-Jitsu person. They insist that their students all go through this program before moving on to the larger Jiu-Jitsu world. They call this beginner system Combatives.

This is a hugely successful program. The injury rate is almost non-existent, especially in comparison to other schools where students are thrown into the lions cage (free-rolling) right from day one. Class numbers have exploded at their Gracie Academy.

They have been greatly commended by Jiu-Jitsu people around the world for creating their Combatives program.

It was so successful, that they decided to make it available online to students everywhere, and also installed it in all of their satellite schools around the world.

The second thing they did was to make this course mandatory at The Gracie Academy and all the satellite schools for promotion to Blue Belt. Still no problem.

They also made the program, with a video testing system, available online. It became possible to pay for the online lessons, train with a partner for a number of months, and then record and submit a number of videos detailing one's ability. Do well enough, and you would receive a Blue Belt from The Gracie Academy. Thousands signed up.

This freaked out the Jiu-Jitsu world. Even members of their own family treated this as some kind of betrayal.

To most Jiu-Jitsu people, a Blue Belt is supposed to be a person who is pretty good at rolling. To Rener and Ryron it did not. For their students it represented a student who had completed the Combatives course. Nobody much cared when it was just The Gracie Academy and it's affiliated schools, but when many, many more people started doing it online it was just too much.

Now, they have silenced a great many of their detractors by making one small modification. Everything else remains exactly the same.

At the end of the Combatives program, there is no longer an examination for Blue Belt. It doesn't matter if the student is online, or at a certified school, or at The Gracie Academy itself, successful completion of the Combatives test will gain a Combatives Belt. It will be white in colour, and have a thick navy-blue band running from end-to-end down the middle. They seem to be calling it a, "Self-Defence Belt."

Earning such a belt, gains one access to advanced training. This is where students are introduced to the concepts of free-rolling, and learn to do so on a daily basis.

The Gracies say that after, "six months to a year," in the advanced class, students will be evaluated by their instructors, and if their rolling ability has progressed sufficiently, they will be awarded a Blue Belt.

An elegant solution.

Do students of the Combatives program still get to test for and receive an official belt? Yes, a Self-Defence Belt.

Are students of all Ryron and Rener's programs who earn Blue Belts going to be proficient in free-rolling? Yes, as Blue Belts will be awarded after a short period of training in the advanced program.

It doesn't wreck anything, and will do much to silence their critics.

Self-Defence Sparring

Rener and Ryron Gracie teach strictly self-defence in all of their beginner programs. It seems to be what people are looking for. There is no free-rolling at all, until the student completes this program and moves on to the advanced class.

Once they are part of the advanced class, students learn both self-defence and sportive technique. To help maintain a sense of reality in training, one sparring session per week is dedicated to self-defence, or street, simulation.

One partner typically puts on padded gloves, and attacks the other person without using any Jiu-Jitsu technique. They swing punches, and the person playing the “good guy” has to deal with this.

The “good guy” can use whatever they like from their Jiu-Jitsu arsenal, but interestingly, very few things really work well. Any student who had been through the self-defence beginner program is quite comfortable. The 35 techniques they learned there are all directly applicable.

What is harder, is figuring out what can be used from the advanced curriculum. I have a few such things worked out, but not many. I could just stick to the basics, but doing so week-after-week is very repetitive, and dull. An example of something I normally use is a more advanced rear take-down. The one taught in the beginner class is fine, and easy, but has a flaw or two. What I use instead is a hooking behind the opponent's knee as I pull them to the ground. Better but harder. I do it often.

What a typical encounter looks like, is the person wearing gloves comes forward punching. Sometimes they play wild-man, and sometimes a more skilled striker. The “good guy” tries to stay out of range until they can blitz in past the strikes to gain a clinch, or a double-leg take-down.

They rapidly put their opponent on the ground, and from there control him, and then get a submission. The attacker doesn't try and grapple. If they end up on top, they use ground-and-pound, and if they are on the bottom they try and get away and stand up.

Once the opponent taps, both stand up, and start again. Every time the drill is run, the attacker tries to change what he is doing somewhat. After five minutes or so, they switch roles.

Sometimes the attacker goes further outside of the box, and attempts a tackle, or throws a few kicks.

It doesn't really matter. Things almost always go the same way.

One strangeness is that people don't give the attacker the same kind of leeway they allow a partner in free-rolling. They will often let a friend get something, say a triangle, just to see if they can escape it. In the self-defence sparring, they rarely allow the puncher any advantages if they can help it.

Sometimes I do, unlike with a real attacker. The punches are annoying, but not full strength. It can be good idea sometimes to find yourself on the bottom of such an assault just to see if you can get out.

That is part of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu philosophy. Make yourself comfortable in uncomfortable situations.

Gi Nogi

There are two major types of rolling in Jiu-Jitsu.

One is done when wearing the traditional uniform, and the other is when much lighter clothing is worn. The two types are called “gi,” which refers to the uniform, and “nogi,” meaning no uniform.

Normally, during nogi sparring, the participants wear very tight fitting shirts, called rashguards, and shorts.

The biggest differences are that the gi provides a lot of friction between the grappling bodies as opposed to the slippery action of rashguards, and a gi provides lots of grabbing opportunities, which nogi does not. There are also a lot of chokes available to gi grapplers that people going nogi do not face.

Strangely, both claim to be the more realistic garb.

Nogi people rightly say that if someone has to face a self-defence situtation, neither they nor their attacker would be wearing a gi. This is quite true. Gi people have the counter claim that neither would you likely be attacked by somebody wearing as little as nogi people use.

I suppose it's all a matter of preference.

I like all the chokes available when fighting in gi. One grabs the collar, and cranks away. This is hard to pull off against a trained opponent, but they have to be constantly on the defence, and so do I. This is exactly what I would do against somebody wearing street clothing should they attack me. The neck of a guy in a hoodie or jacket is just as vulnerable to a clothing choke, and so is a person wearing only a tshirt.

A bare-chested attacker is quite a different kettle of fish. Somebody fighting nogi need not be concerned about clothing chokes, and nor would a shirtless attacker. All a Jiu-Jitsu has left in the way of submissions they can use are triangle chokes, arm triangles, Darce chokes, rear chokes, guillotine chokes, leg locks, toe holds, heel hooks, knee bars, straight arm bars, Kimuras, Americanas, and all the other stuff that doesn't pop to mind at the moment. The body contact rashguard-on-rashguard also allow a lot of movements to be done far faster.

As it is best to understand both types of sparring, we do both. Two nights a week all our rolling is done in gi, while on the third, we dress all rashguarded up and spar nogi-style. A lot of folks here prefer nogi night, while others like the gi.

All good fun.

Self Inflicted

In Jiu-Jitsu I am getting swamped with material. I used to be just fine.

The problem comes from the class trying to plow through too much material in too little time, or at least too little time for me.

We run through the material in cycles. We go all the way through, and then start again.

Originally, we only had the Level One part of the curriculum to absorb, and we took more months in cycling through it than we do now.

We have optional exams where we have to demonstrate a reasonable level of mastery of the various Levels. After going through the Level One curriculum cycle once, I took and passed the exam with a very high score.

Currently, I am on my 4th run through the Level One curriculum.

Later on, almost 1/3 of the time we used to spend on the cycle was shaved off. On top of this, Level Two was released and added on top. We learn both at the same time.

After completing our first cycle of the two Levels of material, I was nowhere near ready to take the Level Two exam.

We are currently on our 2nd run through the Level Two curriculum.

Recently, Level Three was added on to Levels One and Two.

I am no longer keeping up at all.

The only good part is that the Level One stuff is all comfortable review for me. I know it very well.

What I need is for the Level Two curriculum to be moved from the category of "passing acquaintance" into the one I call "solidly absorbed." Should I be able to make this happen, during class I can concentrate all of my limited brain power into learning the Level Three material.

I have decided to prepare for, and take, the Level Two exam. This is a huge endeavour. At our school, the only person to have done this exam is our chief instructor, Shawn. None of the students has done so. In fact, the tests are so difficult that only two students have completed the earlier Level One exam. As I said before, the tests are optional.

In preparation, I spent a couple of hours this afternoon looking over one of the three technical parts of the exam. I wanted to see how close I was to being ready.

Needless to say, I am far from being ready. I made copious notes, and reviewed the instructional videos. By the end of the two hours, I am comfortable with how much I know, and how much I have to learn.

It will be extremely hard, and take a great deal of work outside of class, but not insurmountable.

Tomorrow, one of the best training partners I know is going to be in town. She wants to train with me for a couple of hours, and is willing to let me choose the topic.

We will work on the part of the Level Two test material I looked over today. Technically, it's called BBS2 drill one, Mount/Sidemount. On it there are 62 curriculum items, called "slices," to be performed within a 20 minute period. The sequence has to be memorized, and then performed in a way that demonstrates each slice correctly.

This is video recorded. It must be a single continuous shot (no editing). The only good part is that if an error is noticed, the whole thing can be recorded again.

After doing BBS2 drill one, Mount/Sidemount, there are two even larger technical test sections to prepare, and video within the same 20 minute limit.

When it is marked at HQ, they count up every misplaced knee, or head position, or slow movement, or wrong grip as an error. More than 20 errors means failure. That means one is permitted only about one weak grip, or wrong placement every three minutes. Yikes.

Along with this, 3 five-minute sparring segments also need to be submitted as well. At least they are only pass or fail.

This would be months of work preparing for and recording the exam. Unfortunately, it is even bleaker than that.

The person playing the partner role is just as important, and requires almost as much preparation as that of the person taking the exam. Again, there is a bright spot. It doesn't have to be the same partner for all three technical parts of the test, or even for the sparring videos.

I just need to get myself ready for each technical drill, get somebody to agree to help me, and then train them in their role.

Of course, if I can't get the needed partners, it is still possible to force myself to learn the material fully, and then not do the exam. It is the learning that really matters.

It is, however, nice to have an outside expert evaluate how you are doing on a project like this. The actual exam process provides this feedback.

And if a person passes, they get a tiny little stripe to stitch onto their belt, and a nice certificate to go with it.

In any case, I shall work on this self-inflicted study program the best that I can.