Petty Delay

It was going to be close getting all my requirements for Jiu-Jitsu promotion completed on time, but it was just possible. I'd moved some holiday dates around so they would less interfere with my attendance, and arranged for a number of private lessons.

Just possible, with not even a single class absence to spare.

Then I had a minor surgery, and then my bicycle decided to try and kill me, and then I came down with the flu.

Thinks didn't look so rosy anymore.

So why does it matter? That all has to do with being old. I am currently 60.

All is fine right now. I don't get hurt all that much, and for an old fart I heal pretty fast. Been managing to keep up with the young folks. The trick is that on my road through the Jiu-Jitsu ranks I will be facing two more major evaluations. They will judge me to pretty much the same standard as the youngsters, and it all has to do with rolling ability. To be ready to go on those test days, years from now, I will have to have accumulated all the requisite skills, and honed them over hundreds of hours of rolling.

I'm doing it at 60, but how much longer can I keep it up. No sweat for a few more years, but how about more than just a few, and there are so very many intermediate levels left to get through along the way.

Realistically, I will have to slow down at some point due to the ravages of time, but that then exposes me to more of that same ageing to reach the same levels. It's kind of like trying to improve at gymnastics when old, with people trying to rip your arms and legs off.

That's why I want to go progress as quickly as I can now, and get as far as possible before any slowdown occurs. It is my intention to push as close to the theoretical limits to promotion rate as I can, and hope to maintain at least the pace I've been able to achieve so far.

That's why the classes missed due to my tiny surgery, my bike crash, and my flu are so annoying. I was on track for theoretical-speed stripe promotion a couple of weeks from now, but now it looks like a one-month, or even a two-month delay.

I don't want any delays at any level.