Old Car

I like new cars. Old vehicles cost money in nasty little piles.

Our primary car is a delightful Toyota Prius. It is 9 years old, which for me is one year short of retirement time.

Today, it just happens to be service day for oil and filters and such, and getting the summer tires put back on. It also has two lug studs on one of the wheels that need actual repair work. There goes a fistful of cash.

It turns out that the brakes need work, and our summer tires are worn out, and on and on. The total reached $1900.

The good news is that when we drive away it will be on a repaired and serviced car with great brakes and tires on an otherwise old car. What will go next?

It isn't even really about the cost of the work, although I'm not nuts about it. My concern is the reliability. We do big-drive holidays, and having a breakdown in the middle of can't-get-parts-land can be a nightmare.

For me, next year should be new Prius time.

My wife has a different mindset.

It is a fact that even while paying increasing repair costs on an old car, it is a less expensive option than buying a new one. She would prefer to keep our present car until it has to go to the bone yard.

How to reconcile these two opposing views? It's actually quite simple.

We have a second car of a type unsuitable for long-range travel. When our Prius hits 10 years of age next year, this car will only be half as old. It will still be an attractive trade-in that can be applied on a new Prius.

That would give us two of them; one new and reliable, and the other to keep until it goes to the wrecker.

Two Sides as One

There are two roads to freedom. The obvious one is the power of the vote.

The problem with relying on this is that sometimes mistakes happen, and need to be corrected. The only fear that politicians have is the next election. That, normally, is years in the future. They can do a lot of damage in that kind of time.

Let's take the current, new US administration. They are greatly feared, and the potential is certainly there for a lot of grief. Not only is the President suspect, the same party controls the Senate, and the House, and soon will dominate the Supreme Court as well.

Let's say that they do what everybody is scared they will do; eliminate all wealth and corporate taxes, and all government regulation, as well as bringing in new draconian laws, and destroying all public services; health, education, veterans affairs...and everything else.

Clearly the people would be appalled, and in two years the scoundrels would lose control of both the House and Senate, and two years after that, the Presidency.

So what? In those years the people would have had to suffer immensely, all because the people in power wanted to pillage all they could before their clock ran out.

And what if we are not talking about a democratic country at all. How do they remove the problem?

There is always the possibility of an actual civil war, but that can take a very long time and be a bloodbath. In the case of a berserk US administration, it would take longer than would the democratic process, and so is unlikely to be deemed worthwhile by the citizenry.

Interestingly, the solution is two-fold, and together these two components make up another road to freedom.

There needs to be a citizenry willing to protest in numbers sufficient to be terrifying to the government in power, and a military that is unwilling to intervene in favour of that government.

Let's look at a few examples of how the will of the people can shine right through a military intervention.

At the start of the French Revolution, everyone was scared to death of the mighty French army crushing the desperate people of Paris. The King was unwilling to bend to the masses, and brought more and more troops into the simmering city, confident in their power. Then that whole Bastille thing erupted, with people facing off against the guns of the prison garrison. In the middle of it all, the Army showed up......

...and joined the people, forcing the prison authorities to surrender.

In Eastern Europe, several of the Communist regimes, desperate to retain power, ordered their troops to open fire on the assembled mass of their protesting citizenry. The soldiers refused.

In both of these examples, the soldiers knew that they were part of the people. The protesters were the families, friends, and neighbours of the soldiers lined up before them. In effect, they were the soldiers, and the soldiers were them.

More recently, well over three million Americans joined the Women's protest march against their new, suspect government. There was no violence, and the police lined up to control them were in good humour and friendly. They joked with the women, and swapped hats. Likely, many of them had spouses, friends, and neighbours out marching. The police were the protestors, and the protestors were them. No riot gear, or water cannons, or tear gas.

This is remarkable occurrence for the USA, as normally the military and police are willing to see protestors as some kind of “other.” Currently in North Dakota, this is precisely what is happening. The protestors are being regularly gasses, and hosed in sub-zero temperatures, being labelled as a bunch of native troublemakers and hippy environmentalists.

Imagine the reaction if over 3 million African Americans came out to peacefully protest Trump's election. Do you think they would be met by happy, joking policemen? There would be lines of men in riot gear, and armoured vehicles, and swat teams. Even if there were not a single incident, the day-long event would be tense from the first moment until the last.

It isn't that there are no Black or Native police and soldiers, as of course there are. It is what the mass of the police and soldiers can be made to feel. If the protestors can be made into an “other,” then the people in uniform will willingly stand against them.

Consider the anti-war situation during the Vietnam War. At Kent State University in Ohio, members of the National Guard were called out in reaction to violent protest by students. These solders were literally the same people as the students. They were the same age, and clearly anti-war. In the 1960s if a young person joined the National Guard they were most likely doing it to avoid being sent to Viet Nam.

On May 5th, 1970 the soldiers spontaneously opened fire on the crowd for 13 seconds, killing 4 and wounding 9 others. Officers immediately ordered a cease fire. If the troops had been actually ordered to open fire, it would seem that these young soldiers would have been happy to comply. This is by far the more usual reaction of American soldiers and police when facing protestors.

This is not unique to them.

In 1989, after prolonged pro-democracy protest, the Chinese government had had enough. Troops were ordered to move violently against the protestors. Thousands were killed, and thousands more arrested. The soldiers were made to believe that the students were out to destroy the Chinese state.

In countries such as modern France, citizens and government understand this relationship. Cut pensions to old people, and the grey-haired citizens will march with fire in their eyes. The government knows that they are at the mercy of their citizenry. They also know that they cannot count on anybody in uniform acting as armed muscle for protection.

Should the French government do something that the people would refuse to accept then the masses will march. The army will not intervene to stop them. The soldiers are the protestors and the protestors are them. Anger the people enough, and it won't be chanting, signs, and songs. Make the people mad enough and they will remove you. They will not wait for some future election.

Let's say that the current US government were to do something unacceptable to the American people. Let's say a few hundred thousand citizens of more show up in Washington, marching towards the White House. Lines of armed men await them with orders to use deadly force. The uniformed men instead choose to step aside, and the crown surges across the White House lawn, and into the building. Of course, Trump would have fled earlier, but the image of angry citizens swarming through the White House would make quite an impression.

That's what the women marching did. Trump won't hear them, and nor will his cronies. Some of that party will be concerned about future elections, but not enough. What the millions of women did was to draw a line in the sand, and show that they had millions who would move together. They planned and did this before the new administration even had time to do anything that the women feared. They did it preemptively.

It also looked as if the authorities would be unwilling to turn water cannons on them, or to use tear gas, or machine guns.

Not a Sprint

New people in Jiu-Jitsu are funny, and all the same.

They get their early lessons to gain some basic skills, and then eventually join the advanced group. This is where free-rolling happens.

There is a Billy Joel song called Goodnight Saigon, where a soldier describes rookies entering their first combat with the words, “We came in spastic, like tameless horses.” All new rollers in Jiu-Jitsu do the same thing. They are hyper, and terrified, and unpredictable. None of these characteristics do them any good at all. They gallop around in a panic, incredibly tense, and grabbing everything in sight.

Let's look at two guys from last night.

The first is a kickboxing guy with some experience of grappling as it is done by mma guys. He was trying a few tricks he knew, and with a lot of power. At one point he was on top of me, but I had him in half-guard. He was pushing hard to get an arm triangle going, which can't work from inside of the half-guard. For fun, I let him out, and he cranked his muscle tension up to about 100% to complete the submission. I countered, and let him yank away to no effect at all. There we were, all tangled up, with him exerting every ounce of force he could produce, and with me quietly holding out effectively using no exertion whatsoever; leverage totally on my side of the encounter.

Then there's Tawha. She's half my size, and gives me fits when we roll. She is always totally relaxed, and never tries to power through anything. Although I am more experienced, she knows enough principals and technique to be dangerous.

This is one of the beauties of non-sport Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu over other grappling arts. In a real fight there are no time limits or weight categories or points.

Let's say you are the strongest guy at your mma school, and are able to beat your buddies using force, and then you end up facing somebody bigger, and a heck of a lot stronger than you are. What have you got? You'll be like the biggest, baddest kindergarten kid facing the biggest, baddest kid in grade seven.

Competition rules also screw people up. You'd think that Collegiate wrestlers would be the top of the grappling food chain, what with their intensive training programs. The truth is, they are not. They train for years with the expectation of time limits, and size categories. One of the truths that is the most deeply engrained in their DNA is to never, ever be on their back, or to even let their back touch the mat for a second. Flip a wrestler on their back, and they will explode to get off. Fake an attempt to flip them on their back, and they will do anything to stop you.

In non-sport grappling, you need to know how to fight on your back. Do it for a while, and you won't care much if you are on top of your opponent, or underneath. It doesn't matter even a tiny bit if it seems like your opponent is dominating and defeating you. What matters is the technique that ends everything in your favour.

Burning energy is a big part of this, or rather not burning it. Most people fight like they are running a sprint. It shouldn't be that way, but that seems to be human nature. I've beaten people without really doing anything at all. They attack with maximum effort, and defend the same way. Their muscles are tense, and they go, go, go. This burns a lot of energy, and the muscle tension actually restricts their breathing, making things a great deal worse for them. It isn't unusual for this type of effort to cut oxygen intake by half.

So they are sprinting, while their Jiu-Jitsu opponent is not. The Jiu-Jitsu guy is mostly defending, and doing just enough to keep the other person's level of exertion up. The occasional choke threat is great for this, or even a random grab.

How long can you sprint? Not very long, I'll bet. Let's say it's a minute before you notice that you're about to exhaust yourself and you'd better stop before you poop out altogether. The problem is that you can't just stop like you can with running. The other guy isn't about to stop just because you want to. Let's say you are blown, and try and gear down to 50% to try and rest while still fighting. A great idea, except you are already tired. Your body is unable to behave the same at 50% as it would if you were still fresh. You will be quite inefficient, and clumsy, and slow, and weak, and more prone to increased fatigue.

That's when the fresh guy will make his move. You will be to slow, and weak and clumsy to stop him.

This is what I mean when I've beaten people without submitting them. They've gone like it's a sprint until totally exhausted, and have actually quit rather than try and continue. Their faces are normally either bright red at this point, or sometimes very pale. It varies.

It sounds easy to do, but like most unnatural learned skills, it isn't.

Consider swimming lessons. Tell a non-swimmer that they need to relax in order to swim well, then throw them into deep water. They will find relaxation to be totally impossible.

It takes practice to master.

Commute

Monday I decided to do things the hard way, and go to the city using transit.

Helen has her own car, which meant I didn't have to use the coast bus system getting to the ferry. I used my car and parked it at the terminal for a bargain rate of $2.25 for the day.

That all means that I got to the ferry in 30 minutes, instead of over an hour-and-a-quarter of busing.

The ferry ride has no charge when headed to the city; they get you on the ride back. Foot passengers load on before the cars, so I was easily able to be the very first in line at the cafeteria. Grabbed a meal of bacon and eggs and toast and potatoes. No need to do a transit adventure on an empty stomach.

The boat ride is about 45 minutes either way. When they opened the floodgate for the foot passengers, I scooted out quickly. It wasn't really a fair race, as I needed a stop next to the bus stop at the machine that sells fares. I was ahead at the machine, but it put me well back in the line for actual bus loading. In future I will simply use the fare card I purchased this time out and will be one of the first to the bus.

The bus is extremely long, and is in three sections. Being one of the last bodies aboard, I had to stand. My spot was right on the hinge between two bus sections. Whenever there was a turn, my spot became very similar to surfing. No place to put my bag either, so had to carry it strapped on the entire way, and it was heavy.

Got off at Park Royal mall. Found where my next bus would pick me up, expecting a 15 minute wait. My handy dandy transit app said one of my buses had left one minute earlier. However, a bus promptly turned up with my number on it. The bus I'd “missed” was slightly late, and so I got an early pickup.

My bus riding ended at Lonsdale Quay, which is a transit hub, as well as a shopping and eating venue in North Vancouver. The total bus fare is $2.75 going in either direction. I scouted out where to catch my return ride, and then headed off to a Starbucks which was on my walking route.

After my coffee break, it was about a ten minute walk to the North Vancouver Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy. I received a lovely welcome from the Black Belt instructor, Marc Marins.

The noon classes are always small, and this time there were about 7 or 8 of us. My partner was a friend who moved to the city a year-and-a-half ago. When sparring time started, she was my first partner.

After Elizabeth, I rolled with two big, young guys. They were both pretty good, and will kick my butt when they pick up a little more technique. My final partner was Marc, the instructor. He dumbed his skill level down to around my own, and found a few pointers for me in the middle of the roll. I liked that.

After class, Elizabeth and I walked together back to Lonsdale Quay. She is likewise a transit rider, but her ride was heading the opposite direction from mine. We chatted. She wants me to “make” other members of my school come train in the city, too. I agreed to mention it to them.

Ate a nice plate of pad thai at the Quay, then caught my bus homeward. For some reason traffic was insane. Arrival at Park Place mall was late, but the big issue was that the bus to the ferry terminal was extremely late.

Most of the passengers looked nervous, and did a lot of watch glancing. We ran from the bus to the ferry ticket booth, but it didn't help. Loading was already finished, and the ferry pulling out.

Now, with plenty of time before the next boat home, I strolled off to pick up my second Starbucks coffee of the day. Got my boarding pass, which was $13, and waddled to the appropriate waiting room. Only a couple of people were there ahead of me, and the room was all nice and warm. My wait was 2 hours. An annoyance, but I really had nothing to rush about. Sat all comfy with my drink, and my phone, and did a bit of people watching.

Boarded on time, and sat in another warm spot. Sometimes seats can be shockingly cold on the boat as there are places exposed to the outside air. Did the 45 minute ride comfortably, and then picked up my waiting car.

Being right in the middle of ferry traffic, the drive was slow, but nothing shocking.

To get my hour of Jiu-Jitsu instruction, along with a half-hour of rolling, I had first hit the road at just after 7am, and got home at about 7:15pm.

Next time, I won't go to eat after class. My pad thai added two hours to my adventure that I could quite happily have done without.

The total travel bill worked out to $20.75. Coffee and food was more at $33. If I'd taken the car, the food and coffee would likely have been the same, but the transportation costs higher at $54.50.

I wouldn't have missed the ferry if I'd been driving, but in the future having a car could have an opposite effect. Foot passengers normally get on if they arrive on time. Cars sometimes get left behind if there are too many of them trying to fit on.

Comparing perfect transit versus automobile trips would see me on the exact same ferries regardless of transport method. No time savings either way.

There is even a third option. I could ride the same ferries, and ride my bike. This is more of a fine-weather option, but quite viable. Google Maps says that the ride each way on the city side will take 90 minutes. That would be fine. As my bike will soon be electrified, it will take even less time. On this side, the bike would easily ride in the car to the ferry terminal, as it is a folding one.

Is this all worth it? If I were still a working Joe, the idea of giving up what is effectively an entire day-off to gain 1.5 hour of Jiu-Jitsu would look like madness, even if the financial cost were irrelevant. Most people only have two such days in a week. Being a retired gentleman of leisure, this isn't really a consideration. I have seven free days each week.

Marc Marins teaches 3 noon classes per week. The Saturday one is good, but very crowded. The two weekday classes are much smaller, and students receive more attention.

I think I'll try and attend the two weekday classes unless something else pops up. This week, for example, I cannot make it to both, and so will be content with only one.

Before the commuting starts to feel like too much, which it likely will eventually, I'll shift down to once per week. If even that starts to drag, I can cut it back even further. Once in two weeks, or perhaps once per month.

This is my take on the ins-and-outs of training in the city from here.

Three Friend Saturday

One of my pet peeves struck again.

I was in the city on Saturday to train at the North Vancouver Bazilian Jiu-Jitsu school. The class was excellent, and there was a generous amount of sparring at the end. One of the people I got to roll with was an old friend who moved to the city about a year-and-a half ago.

She didn't train at all for the first year after her move, and then started up at the North Vancouver school. During the roll, she apologized for not having improved.

At the time, she was giving me all sorts of trouble.

If she had not progressed at all, I could have run rough-shod over her.

I was better than her back then, and I've improved a lot in the meantime. I have trained for hundreds and hundreds of hours since her move. I know a lot of stuff now that I had no clue about a year-and-a-half ago.

The version of Elizabeth that I rolled with on Saturday would have been able to easily dominate and submit the version of her from the middle of 2015. She has gotten better, even if she can't see it. Sure she could have progressed more with more consistent training, but she has still improved over what she had back then.

Another friend of mine, Tobias, was also there, dropping in. He often feels himself getting stuck in a plateau situation, and not progressing. We rolled, and it was vastly fun. He has it all over me in athleticism, and our skill sets are pretty close. He hasn't brought the topic up lately, which is good, as I've never seen his progress stagnate.

It would have been wonderful enough to be able to train with two friends, but it was a very good Saturday indeed. There were actually three of them there. I got to train with Koko, as well. She never complains about lack of progress. She has been living in the city for a few years while attending university. During breaks back home, she practices like a crazy person (almost like me), and when at school she trains with the SFU Judo club. Some things get rusty and away from her. It has to happen in her situation. She just accepts that, and keeps her basics solid as stone, and then works some of the fun stuff when she's home.

By chance, all three of my friends wear three stripes on their Blue Belts. Their very next promotion is the last that they will receive before making the transition to Purple Belt.

They do not award Purple Belts to people who are not up to standard.

When the time comes, all three will be seriously able to kick that test's butt.

Lemonade

I am going to be pessimistic, just for fun, and pretend that the worst thing possible has struck our Jiu-Jitsu school. I shall also assume that it's all about my next promotion.

Things this time of year are a little tricky promotion-wise at the best of times. I got a first stripe for my Purple Belt on the last day of November. That would make my earliest next one come 8 months later, at the end of July, but only if I will have racked up a minimum of 90 advanced classes by that date.

Perfect attendance for 8 months means 104 classes, give or take one or two. However, we have just had our usual two-week Christmas break which lowers the theoretical max to 98. That's enough with perfect attendance, and even has leeway for a cold or some such event. However, it has trouble handling all the travel that I do.

In those 8 months, there will be 11 weeks of travel. That would drop me to around 65. There is countervailing good news in that I will be training in Los Angeles for 2 weeks of that time, and in Phoenix for a full month. The net situation was going to miraculously work itself out at 99 classes, an overall improvement in my situation.

Then the disaster struck. We were supposed to move into a new facility as of January 1^st, but it fell apart. The best we can hope for if the start of February. Scrambling was done, and a small, interim solution was found. We lost the first week of January, and will be getting few classes less than normal for the remainder of the month, but is certainly could be much worse.

It always seems that by the time promotion time rolls around, everything ends up far too tight for comfort. This time it happened early.

Therefore, I re-did all the calculations with the assumption that we don't get back to our usual 3 classes per week, and continue at 2, just in case it never gets sorted out.

At that rate, there is no way I'd be anywhere near completing on time. How could I fix things?

Step one would be to take weekly private lessons with our head instructor, Shawn, whenever he is available. I think he will be around in April, June, and July. Those got entered into the spreadsheet.

Step two would be to head to Vancouver to train at a sister school. It would be possible to go three times a week, that seems excessive, so I pencilled in two such training trips weekly.

So to reiterate; a loss of 1/3 of our home-school classes, addition of a number of private lessons, and addition of training in the city. The net total has me at promotion time with 138 classes, rather than the required 90. That is a massive buffer.

What this means to me is that if I stick to the full program, I will have it all totally wrapped up easily. This is not what I'd do, as it is clearly overkill, but nice to think about.

I think I'll start strong, and then taper off. Going to Vancouver eats up a day from before dawn until a return home around suppertime. It also costs a bunch for the ferry, transit, and parking (and restaurant eating, of course). I really enjoy it, but twice a week for months on end is too much. I think doing that much would be fine for January, and then should drop to single times per week.

What all such plans ignore is the unforeseeable. Getting hurt or sick screws it up horribly. There has to be appropriate slack built-in, and my killer program will handle that. Tapering down will still give me tons of leeway.

This is all excellent practise for the following 3^rd and 4^th stripe promotion periods. They are also vacation-filled, but will include no intensive Los Angeles or Phoenix training, and will take months of extra time to complete without going full-speed-ahead on private lessons and city training. With it, they all finish on time.

Our school location blip made me think my entire situation through thoroughly.

Before that, I was looking at my coming stripe being on time, but barely, and the next two each being several months late. Now, the plan has the coming strip happening with tons to spare, and the following two each finishing easily as well.

That's a lot of lemonade from one little lemon.

Move

People typically get started in mma after having considerable experience in some other similar activity.

Wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, and Karate all spring to mind.

The trick is to take what you're good at, and then to strengthen up all of the weak areas. For example, if a great Karate champion enters the Octagon and tries to make a career out of it, he'd better get to work on grappling or he'll be finished pretty fast.

All of the component arts have both strengths and weaknesses. The big problem comes when somebody coaches their speciality to an mma fighter without really being able to address the weaknesses.

In the mixed fighting style environment, movement is critical. Some sports don't need it at all, and produce wonderful competitors with no idea how to do it, or even about the need.

Out of my little list of arts, Judo is one of the worst in this regard. In competition, Judoka walk towards one another, and proceed to grab each other or to beat the other person's grip. Somebody tries a throw, and perhaps they end up on the ground scrambling. They are then re-started, and do it all again.

Jiu-Jitsu can be equally stunted, usually in the case of a sport-style competitor. They walk up, grab, and both go to ground and grapple for the rest of the match. Non-sport Jiu-Jitsu is a bit better, being obsessed with being either out of striking range, or in absolutely locked-down clinches. In between these two ranges, they blitz in and out.

Greco-Roman wrestling has restricted movement as well, but Freestyle does not. Freestyle wrestlers are forever shooting in blindingly fast to secure double-leg take downs, or single-legs, or trips. Greco-Roman specialists don't do this.

Karate has the best movement of any of the striking styles, being predicated on getting in and out without taking any reciprocal damage. Mauy Thai and kickboxing both have to handle various ranges to accommodate kicking and punching and elbows and knees, and move well.

Boxing alone stands as a stunted-movement striking art. They don't have to deal with anybody shooting in to grab them in a boxing ring, or trying to stay just a bit farther away to kick. The entire game is predicated on a relatively short-range exchange, but not at elbow range or closer. Similarly, much of the punching defences are predicated on an opponent wearing big, padded gloves that are easy to block or absorb with one's own big, padded hands.

Everybody getting into mma knows they need grappling, and striking, but a lot don't think for a second about movement at all. A lot of coaches don't either.

The biggest example of failure in this area lately involves the last two fights of Ronda Rousey, although the evidence has been present much longer.

She came from Judo, and knew she needed to learn how to handle striking. To do this, she found herself a boxing coach. Not an mma striking guy at all; strictly a boxing guy. She made him her head coach.

Ever since, he's been teaching her boxing hands, and ignoring anything like movement.

For example, he holds pads that Ronda will strike in rapid patterns. This is fine in itself, but only as one activity of many. They should also do it while moving forward, and back, and sideways, both at a slow boxing-like pace, but also with rapid movements, and changes. They never do. They both stand, and she hits the pads. She also hits bags, which don't move either.

She had 3 amateur mma fights, followed by a string of 12 straight professional wins. The early ones were all won with her Judo, but this became more difficult as she climbed the ladder. The kept facing better opponents, who also had better coaches getting her ready against Ronda's style.

Nick Diaz and BJ Penn are notable examples of other fighters who moved into mma from impressive grappling-only credentials. They worked hard on their striking to prepare for the move, just as Ronda tried to do. In BJ's first 12 professional wins, he had 3 decision victories, 5 submissions, and 4 knockouts. Nick had 2 decision victories, 4 submissions, and 6 knockouts.

Ronda had no decisions, 9 submissions, and 3 knockouts, but even those few striking finishes were not really due to the boxing she'd been specializing in. One was from a knee to the chest, and another by striking an opponent while holding her down on the ground, and pounding with her free hand. Only one was from straight up striking, and that against a limited opponent who did likewise. Her striking training was not preparing her the same as Diaz's or Penn's had.

Then, a little over a year ago, she faced a real striker, Holly Holm. Holy came from a boxing and kickboxing background, and had put herself into the hands of one of the finest mma gyms in the world. They took the movement she already had, and took it to another level. They also knew that she had to be able to grapple, and worked heavily on that as well, specifically with Ronda Rousey in mind. She trained to avoid the upper-body throws of Judo.

They came out, and both wanted to hit. The difference was that when Ronda threw, Holly was gone. When Holly wanted to throw, she'd blitz in, hit-hit-hit, and be gone again. As the swifter fighter, Holly got to choose the distance. When Ronda would chase her down, she'd then stop to exchange. Holly would hit and be gone again. By the middle of the round, Holly knew she could hit Ronda at will as was demonstrated by a right cross, and then a few seconds later, buy another identical one, and a few seconds later, another, a pause, and then again. Ronda had no movement to get away, or to get in, or even to move to the side.

In the corner after the round, an exhausted and battered Ronda Rousey was told by the boxing guy who was her head coach to just keep doing what she was doing. She followed his direction and ended up unconscious about a minute into the second round.

She took over a year off and trained hard, but kept her head coach, and kept training the exact same way.

At the very end of 2016 she went in to challenge the current champion Amanda Nunes (who beat the women who beat the woman who beat Holly Holm).

They came out to punching range, both ready to exchange. Ronda started getting hit, and had no Plan B. She didn't back off for time, and move, or blitz in closer to grapple. She stood there, at punching range, and got hit with a string of increasingly devastating blasts. The fight was over in 48 seconds.

Likely she'll retire.

If she decides to keep at it, she'll have to get her head around it all, and will have to get a totally new training setup. If not, she's doomed, as the formula for her defeat has clearly been revealed.

In effect, she'll have to remove 7 years of defective, non-movement based, stand-up slugging that she's been invested in, and find somebody to get her moving properly, and dodging, and learning how to shoot in fast.

Not a simple task at all.

City School

We have a bit of a blip happening at the local Jiu-Jitsu school.

Our lease ran out, and the landlord wanted the property to expand his own business, so we were out. A new place was found, and the move planned.

Then the arrangement for the new place fell apart, and the school is scrambling. A new school facility was found for a bit into the future, and a temporary space generously shared by the Boxing Club until then.

The short news version is that we pretty much lost the first week of training after New Years, and will only be having two weekly classes until we get into the real, new replacement space. I understand that it, “might be a few weeks.” This translates in my brain to meaning February 1^st; the next rental period.

Our normal training quota is 3 advanced classes a week, and we will only be having 2 for the immediate future.

This just isn't enough for me, so I will be heading over for weekly training with our sister school in Vancouver. The instructor there is excellent, and two of my old friends train with him. They have 7 classes a week, but only the 3 daytime ones work for me.

Somehow, I am drawn to visit the Saturday classes. As a retired gentleman of leisure, there is no reason for this, but equally no reason to focus on the others either. Therefore, Saturday it is.

Doing this is a bit pricey. If I take a car over on the ferry, the fare comes to $70.15, although I use a discount deal, which drops the total to $54.15. This Saturday I'll be car-ing it.

If I leave the car at the terminal and ride as a foot passenger, the ferry bill will be only $12.65 after the discount. There would also be transit costs of $5.50, and a parking fee to leave my car behind of $2.25

So the car trip is $54.15, and the bus ride $20.40. There will also be some kind of charge for the training itself, but it will be fair.

I suppose I'll normally take the bus, unless I think of something fun to do in Vancouver that justifies the extra cost, or if I'm perhaps just feeling lazy.

In any case, this little weekly jaunt will get my training back up to an intensity I like. We have good classes at home, but working with the Black Belt in the city will make a valuable addition. He has different ideas and areas of focus.

If we do get into a new school location in a couple of weeks, or a month, I suppose I could drop the city trips, but likely won't.

Back in 1990 when we first moved here, I was a Black Belt Karate instructor. For several years I made monthly treks to the city to train at one of the top dojos. It was done sometimes by car and sometimes by transit, and was a longer trip. I am no stranger to doing this sort of thing.

I suspect that after a return to normal training at home, I'll still go city-side either weekly, or monthly, or something in between.