Test Season

So Tawha did her fancy level-one curriculum exam a couple of months ago, and she says it revolutionized how she learns Jiu-Jitsu.

This is a really good thing. In fact, she was so pumped about it, she wanted to jump right in and get to work on level two.

Normally, people need something more like a year before they even consider it, but it is allowed with special permission.

So then, of course, she needed a training partner. I had filled that role for her in the level-one preparation and testing. I know that test really well, having been through the process a grand total of a half dozen times with people who needed partners.

So after we completed her level-one, Tawha wanted me for level-two. The trick is, I have not done the level-two test myself, nor helped anybody else get through it. My plan was to do the test sometime in the distant future, but if I'm helping Tawha it's a great opportunity to do my own exam now instead of later.

Tawha and I have been through the required material in class several times over the years., but his isn't the same as test preparation. However, we are both familiar with what we need to do.

An interesting twist is that Cosme also wants to get this same test done, too. He's been working towards it on his own for months now. He isn't available to work with us at the intensity that are going at it, but doesn't really need to.

Tawha will be ready to video the first of the killer technical videos in about a week. We'll have to find a few hours to work with Cosme to get in sync for his test. He can pick which of us he wants to be his filming partner.

Then it will be on to the other two sections.

Do we do the longer one next, or the much harder one? I think I'd rather do the long one. There's a lot on it, and the difficulty level is high, but not unreasonable. The other one is almost as long, and exponentially more difficult.

I would save the hardest one for last. Having the other two done before would put pressure on us to not just give up. It's really that horribly difficult. Every little bit of motivation will help. If Tawha is of the opposite opinion, I would be OK with that, too.

So assuming it all goes well, Tawha, Cosme, and I will all have our level-two tests under our belts by summer.

And any day now, HQ will be releasing the level-three exam.

I will not be ready to jump right in to that one.

Cars buses and boats

Going to Vancouver for some extra Jiu-Jitsu has been very good for me.

Did a couple of visits early in December with my car. I know that sounds pretty normal, but it isn't. It is impossible to drive to Vancouver from my home. The roads end, and it is necessary to ride a ferry for 45 minutes to reach the roads that lead on into the city.

Anyhow, I took the car along on the boat with me. This makes the rest of the trip very simple, but increases the price exponentially.

Anyhow, I drove and sailed over to the City, and received excellent instruction, and worked with grand partners.

Since then, I have continued with weekly visits, but went transit style. I would drive to the ferry terminal and park. Then I'd go aboard as a foot passenger. Once over on the other side, there would be a bus waiting. A second bus put me just a few blocks from the training location. This is a lot more hassle than taking a car, and vastly slower, but much cheaper.

All of the instruction has been very worth-while. Normally, I get to partner with a good friend, Elizabeth. She moved to the city a while back, and trains fanatically. I like working with Elizabeth.

The whole place has an excellent vibe, following the mellow lead of Black Belt Marc Marins. He is wonderful at answering any questions I have, and does things just ever so slightly differently than what I'm used to. This helps me grow.

Today, was a throwback. Helen wanted to go along and visit Costco. This just can't work on the buses, so we took the car.

Helen dropped me at the school, and went off on her shopping expedition. She was back and parked outside again when the class ended.

Normally, Elizabeth goes home after class on Mondays, and then returns for a second, evening session. This entails a convoluted path of badly scheduled transit links with a notable walk on either end. She also had a cracked up, nail-less big toe that would make the trip significantly less pleasant than normal. She never asks me for anything, but today inquired if she could get a ride home.

Helen and I were happy to oblige. Sometimes cars just make things easier. Even though Elizabeth lives in the exact opposite direction as the ferry, we still easily made our planned-for boat. I messaged Elizabeth once were were in the ferry terminal, and she estimated that would have still been riding transit without our little bit of help. 

Her day would have contained four trips, each involving a major walk, a train ride, another major walk, a seabus ride, and yet another major walk. Our car eliminated one of the four. Still a very walkie and transit-ie day for her, especially with her hooped-up foot.

I'll be continuing the Monday visits until my next promotion. After that, Helen and I will be travelling a great deal. Promotion periods are 8 months long, if you attend sufficient, appropriate classes. They can be much longer if you cannot. I like to keep them as short as possible.

With all our upcoming travel, I will be 22 classes short, even assuming perfect attendance (like that could ever happen) when home. The Vancouver weekly visits could theoretically improve this to only 7 classes short. I think I'll add in Saturday visits in Summer and Fall when home, and that could not only reduce the shortfall to nothing, but actually give me a few classes over as a buffer.

If I do it, I'll also be getting twice as much of Marc's instruction, and twice as much work with Elizabeth and the other city dwellers.

And I'll get to ride twice as many ferries and buses.

Alex's Test

Today was going to be a good, but perfectly normal, Open-Mat session.

The official start time is 4pm, but I normally show up an hour early, as does Cosme. He said he wants to work to together on the BBS2 exam. Cool.

Then his private-session student showed up, and they took over the far side of the mat. Tawha arrived as well, and we got down to work on the Side-Mount section of the big test. We worked on that for about an hour-and-a-half.

Alex showed up, looking uncharacteristicly nervous for her own exam. Cosme and his student finished off, left, and we formed a new configuration.

Alex was there to perform part of her exam, with Cosme as her partner. I ran the camera, and Tawha was to read out the technique sequence.

There are five sections to the entire test. We were going to video her Mount section. It is one of the harder ones, but not horribly so. Ready, set, go....

It was good, really good; outstandingly good. I bet it felt good to get one of the tough test sections done so smoothly.

Before she could really relax, Cosme announced she would do another test section. Alex seemed unsure, but as a weak attempt can be repeated if things don't go well, she was willing to try.

They lined up, and dove into the Side-Mount section. A move or two in, she got confused with the sequence, and I called a stop. She knew exactly what had gone wrong and why, and they restarted. This time it all went perfectly.

Then they lined up yet again, and banged out the Standing section of the exam.

At that point, we were totally out of time. The next class was arriving and needed the mat.

Alex got three of her test sections completed in one, intense burst. She is 60% finished.

I fully expect her to bang out the last two sections at the very next opportunity.

After that, the five videos all get uploaded to Gracie HQ for evaluation. The results come back in a week or two. She will pass, and will have an outstanding score.

That will make her the very first student we've ever had to earn what is called a Combatives Belt. The same exam used to get students all the way to earning a Blue Belt. About half a year ago this was changed.

The old way had the system producing well-trained beginners, who didn't have any experience at free-rolling. It was decided to put in an interim level between White Belt and Blue Belt to indicate this trained-but-inexperienced status. They would receive a Combatives Belt instead which is white in colour, and has a single blue stripe running along its entire length.

They join the advanced class, and roll with everybody there. After 6 months the students are promoted without a further exam at the discretion of their own, local instructor to the status of Blue Belt.

Anyhow, Alex will soon be our very first Combatives Belt student.

Sticky Mount

Jiu-Jitsu can be very tricky. It can be hard to know which moves you can make work, and which you can't.

Usually, you are introduced to something in a lesson, and then you practice it with a partner. Maybe you keep things low and slow just to learn the movements, or maybe you bump it us a little to see how it might function under pressure. Maybe during free-roll time, you and a partner make an agreement to try and end up in the newly drilled movement, and you work on it that way.

All of these are good learning methods, and can be quite enough to make you confident in a technique, but not always.

This year, down in Los Angeles I trained several times a day at the Gracie Academy for two weeks. During all of that time, we were working on Mount techniques, mostly Escapes and Controls. I picked up a lot of good stuff, and worked on a lot of old favourites, but one thing really stuck out.

Rener Gracie was leading us through a bunch of Mount Control stuff, but his basic, default position was different. Of course, he explained the important points, and we did all the usual types of training with it. It seemed wonderful.

I wanted it to work as it seemed to once used, “in the wild;” so to speak. Put it aside as we went on to other things.

That was a couple of months ago.

Back at home last night there was a lot of rolling fun. Partner swapping happened a couple of time, and then I looked at Than.

I like Than, but rolling with him isn't something I am attracted to. He's about twenty-to-forty pounds heavier than me, is easily twice as strong, and a couple of decades younger. He used to roll in a painful fashion with everybody, but as his technique improved, he became as safe as anybody else for the smaller people; he would flow, and use skill. However, when with me he still goes really hard.

Back when he was a beginner, I was near the top of our sparring food chain, and I think that is still in his head. He likes to use all those kind of things a big, strong person might use if they were about to be awarded a big, shiny trophy for earning the next submission. I don't tap when things are uncomfortable, or half functioning. When he submits me, he knows he got it right. He likes that, too.

So anyhow, a typical match between us goes with him pushing hard for top position, and getting it. If I ever manage to get on top, staying there for even ten seconds is a major victory. He just chucks or rolls me off at will.

So last night, as we started, I decided to use Than to test my new Rener Gracie-style Mount. Getting it to work on Than would prove the effectiveness of the trick better than anything else I could think of.

I exploded immediately, which I don't usually do, determined to get the Mount. Once there, I clamped in my knees hard, and my feet slipped ever so slightly under his hips, one arm tight around his neck.

He seemed confused at first, perhaps waiting for an attack, but I just waited, clamped on top. He moved to chuck me off.

I remained attached. He tried to roll me; nothing. Elbow escape; nothing. He now was working very hard to get me off. Push, roll, elbow, roll, push....again and again.

I remained perched on the hardest guy to stay on that we've got for about three full minutes before he finally managed to get me off. Keep in mind that anything longer than ten seconds would have been an improvement.

After that, we had a pretty standard roll for the remaining couple of minutes. Afterwards, he expressed his astonishment that I managed to stay on top of him that long. I did, too.

This was so cool. Being on top of the Mount has always been a bad place for me. I've been getting regularly chucked off ever since I started rolling back in the middle of 2012. That's 5 years of being unable to hold the position for more than a few seconds against any determined opponent, let alone doing so for three minutes.

This won't last. It can't. Nothing in Jiu-Jitsu every does. For a while back in 2014 I had by far the best Guard of any student at my academy. It didn't take long for people to catch up. Conversely, my Leg Locks have always sucked horribly, but have been improving a little lately.

A year from now it will all be topsy-turvy from what it is now.

Learning Styles

Sometimes, we all just get it wrong. We try and teach something, and what we are doing actually stands in the way of understanding.

Current psychological theory states that there are different types of learners, and that to reach each a different method is often necessary. The labels given to these learning variations are Visual, Auditory, and Tactile/Kinesthetic.

Let's say that you are teaching a class of 15 martial arts students who are divided equally between the different learning types. Although most people are actually an internal mix of the different styles, let's assume that this class is made up of extreme examples.

You silently demonstrate a technique. The five Visual-learning students pretty much understand right away, but the other, non-Visual ten do not. If instead, you'd talked your way through the demonstration you would have addressed the needs of the five who are Auditory learners as well as those who are Visual. The final five Tactile/Kinesthetic might require that you physically move their arms and legs into the desired positions. There, you've reached all 15 of them. Good job.

This is just to illustrate the point. The three types of learning are not actually equally disbursed amongst a body of students, and most people are a mix of all of them.

I myself am a very auditory Learner, with Visual overtones, and a bit of Kinesthetic thrown in. The different styles seem to manifest themselves differently for different types of learning. This seems to be the case for many people. For people with multiple learning styles, it is still a good idea to stimulate as many as possible within any given lesson, assuming that such a thing is appropriate. It's like opening more pathways for the knowledge to flow in through.

Sometimes, a person's teaching style is quite invisible to a learner, or to one aspect of a student. Let's say you have a student who is trying hard to learn the next move you are trying to teach. That student is very smart, and a fast learner, but does not learn in an Auditory manner at all. You are demonstrating carefully, with lots of detailed explanation while the students stand and watch. Nothing Kinesthetic is being communicated at all, so this student is trying to absorb everything possible from what is visible in the demonstration. The problem is, you keep talking, a lot. What the student hears is very similar to the sound adults make in a Charlie Brown cartoon. Wah wah wah..wah wah....wah wah wah....

This is not only unhelpful for this particular student, it is distracting them horribly. He probably is used to this, and he tries to block the noise out as he burrows into the demonstration with his laser-focused eyes. Let's say he manages to understand, after watching you do the movements several times. You finish the final demo, and he is ready to drill, which will address his Kinesthetic aspects. He should start immediately, while it's fresh, but you keep talking. He hears bla bla bla, bla bla. As this continues, the image in his brain is fading. While this is happening, his brain may be screaming, “SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!”

An extreme example, but I think you see what I mean.

Why did I make my example regarding over-use of verbal communication? That's because almost everybody that teaches gets caught in the trap of thinking that the more that they talk, the better they're doing their job. They also believe that if they're not talking, it means they are not teaching, and that therefore students are not learning.

Nobody seems to get stuck using only Visual or Kinesthetic teaching.

An example of somebody over-addressing the Visual avenue would be a teacher who, instead of doing 3 repetitions of a technique with explanation, does 20 demos, but without saying a thing. This just doesn't happen.

Kinesthetic would have no demo per se, but with the instructor moving the student's body around to simulate the move. The teacher doesn't demonstrate at all, or say anything. This can't really be done in a class setting.

Let's design something for teaching of a specific technique that addresses the different types of learning.

Let's have the instructor plan on doing one full-speed example of the technique, and then three slow-speed detailed demos.

As the full-speed example is only there to show what things look like when the technique is really applied, talking should be kept to a minimum. Why not lots of talking? This time through, you are trying to stimulate everybody's Visual learning, even for those people for whom it isn't a strength. You are also hoping for this to slop over into an empathic stimulation of their Kinesthetic aspects. A lot of talk would delay things, as well as distract people, and making it just another exercise in Verbal learning. Probably enough words will be used in any case for Verbal learners.

Next, the teacher goes through two more slow, deliberate demonstrations, explaining all the necessary details. Please note, I said necessary detail. What is unnecessary should be left unspoken. Even strongly Verbal students learn better without extraneous information.

If somebody can teach you how to do something with 250 words, isn't that better than if they'd used 500, or 1000.

Anyhow, if the teacher wants to ask the class if there are questions, this happens next, and they are addressed. This is time when all of the speaking is wrapped up.

It is now time for the final demonstration. This one is designed for the Visual folks, and to stimulate that aspect in all of the rest. The demo is again done slowly, but with no actual stops. The instructor calls attention to the critical movements by snapping fingers, waving hands, wiggling feet, and over-emphasizing movements. THIS DEMO IS KEPT TOTALLY SILENT.

If the teacher remembers some important detail he's missed, tough beans. He should not share it.

After the silent demo, the instructor remains silent, and gives a signal that sets the students to work practising. He does not explain how to practice, or how to get a partner, or anything more. At most he would say, “Grab a partner,” but, “Go,” would be better, and a hand clap better still.

He then circulates to as many students as he can, handing out encouragement, and correcting people having trouble. This can be a critical period for highly Kinesthetic students. They will be trying to perform with what they were able to garner from the demos and explanations, but they won't be really absorbing it until they can do it.

With an unknown student, the teacher can explain, and demonstrate. That will usually work. If it doesn't, limbs need to be physically moved about; into place, and through the required movements. With a student known to learn this way, this can be the go-to strategy. With a student known to require this kind of thing to get things right, they can always be observed and helped first during practice time.

Not only does something like this address people with what we should call strongly focused learning styles, but also for somebody who is generally strong in every area.

I am such a person.

I like lots of Verbal, and Visual, and Tactile/Kinesthetic info when I'm learning martial arts. In most of my life, I am more strictly Verbal and Visual. With movement activities, I don't learn them until I do them (Kinesthetic), many times over. Interestingly, I require the Visual and Verbal in order to be able to perform them in the first place.

For me, about three demonstrations are about the ideal number. Less, and I will have missed too much, and with more, I to not gain anything additional. I like the explanations, but if overly-wordy they over-power the Visual effect of the demonstration, ad I start hearing, wah wah bla bla.

I absolutely love a silent demo. I shut off my word-brain, and try and absorb the demonstration into my brain through my eyes.

I should then start drilling IMMEDIATELY. The technique is burned into my retina like the effect of a bright, camera flash, and it fades just as quickly. Any delay at this point, even if it's important information, will allow my image to evaporate, never to return.

If that happens, it's like only having a complicated set of driving directions (Verbal information), when I was also expecting to have a map (Visual). Delay means I don't get the map. I'd rather have both, and by then driving the route I learn it (Kinesthetic).

Tricky? You bet.

And I've simplified it greatly.

Not About the Stage

Yesterday I posted a bit of advice for people trying to teach somebody something.

This time it is about the very nature of teaching.

Let's say you wander into a university lecture hall just as the professor arrives. She spreads her notes out on the podium, and begins. For an hour, she explains, and gives examples, and writes a few things on the board, or shows a few slides. When class-time ends, she summarizes, fields a few questions, and then packs up, and leaves.

I think we would all recognize that she was teaching. The unfortunate thing is that many people only associate that one type of behaviour with teaching.

A better definition of teaching is that if a person is attempting to impart knowledge to another person, and is successful, then they are teaching. It doesn't have to involve a lesson, although it certainly should.

Let's also assume there is a class involved in a complex sort of physical skill, and that it will require instruction given to the group, with a portion of the class time given over for practice of the movements involved. Some examples are dance, fencing, or Jiu-Jitsu.

Let us also assume that there is one hour of time dedicated to this activity.

The instructor calls everybody together, and proceeds to explain and demonstrate the first bit of material they are trying to teach. Let's assume that they do a wonderful job. They then have the class pair up and proceed to perform what was just covered.

After a while, the students are called back for the next bit of instruction, and then again practice. This is done several more times in the hour.

This sounds simple enough, and if the instructor is good at explaining and demonstrating I bet that they think they were being a wonderful teacher.

Let's examine that.

Let's say that half of the hour was involved in the instructor teaching and demonstrating, and the other half in practice.

What was the instructor doing while the class was practising? What should they be doing in order to best facilitate learning?

Recently, I observed a class being taught to a group of beginners. Every single time that they paired up to practice, the teacher walked over to the side and chatted with friends. He never once did anything in regards to observing his students, or offering encouragement for their successes, or help when they needed it. In his hour class, out of 60 minutes, he taught for 30 of them, and spent the other 30 on vacation. Even if he and been explaining and demonstrating perfectly, the best he could score as a teacher would be 50%.

Students deserve better than this. They deserve 100% of their instructor.

One time I observed an instructor finish a lesson segment, and then walk away to chat with friends during the entire practice time that followed. He never once glanced at his students. After a few minutes, he returned and called them back, praising them for how well they were doing generally, and then demonstrated a couple of things he said he'd seen them doing wrong. He was as close to "phoning the lesson in" as it is possible to get. If any of his students noticed this, what would they think? They'd know that he cared nothing about them or their progress, and that he's also a liar.

I've also seen instructors spend all the practice time helping only favourite students, and totally ignoring others.

I've seen teachers misjudge time so badly during practice so poorly that students didn't all get a chance to try the movements, or so that students are left doing the same thing for so long that they got bored and stopped.

The cure is very simple.

After the material is explained and demonstrated, and the students set to work, the teacher MUST NOT think he's on any sort of break. He must think of practice time as teaching version 2.0 instead. He needs to be circulating to everybody he possibly can, observing, and offering correction, and feedback. He should also pick a pair of easily visible students to be his timer. He doesn't need to stare at them, but should use them to gauge when sufficient practice has occurred by their rate, and approximately how many repetitions they are able to complete.

This will all do three things for the students. First, they will have somebody to show them where they are going wrong and to get them back on track. Secondly, it will show them how important that the students progress is to the instructor, and how passionate he is about the material. This is a very great motivator for students.

The third and perhaps greatest benefit is the teacher will actually be able to gauge just how well the lesson was absorbed by the group as a whole. If the group as a whole doesn't seem to understand some aspect of the material, the teacher can use this information to call the group back for a little impromptu, correction.

Suppose a dance teacher spent an entire evening NOT observing his students practising. Also suppose, they were absolute beginners, but that the teacher had been told this was their second or third lesson. Due to this miscommunication, he didn't bother to address the vital detail of execution of a proper frame. This is vital for new beginners. By the end of the hour 100% of them would be dancing incorrectly. If the teacher had noticed, he could have fixed this oversight immediately, and then everybody could have progressed satisfactorily.

Of course, there will be exceptions to this. Suppose there is an injury. The teacher will need to address this immediately. Perhaps the teacher needs to get something that they forgot, and that is necessary to proceed. Maybe the roof has sprung a leak. However, 90% of the time the teacher should be totally working for his students, for every second of the class.

Even little things detract.

Suppose a long-absent old friend shows up on the sidelines. I've seen teachers run from their class for a handshake, hug, and several minutes of conversation, even during explanation and demonstration time. What they should do is perhaps make brief eye contact, smile, and maybe a head nod. Doing more, such as calling out a greeting is likely going to be reciprocated verbally, perhaps with an exchange, all at the expense of the class.

Keep in mind, they have 30 minutes to actually get better at the skill you are trying to impart to them, and every moment you have stolen from them is precious.

The teaching does not stop when the classical instruction does. It doesn't end after the explanation and demonstration the front of the group is finished. That is only part of the job.

The students need and deserve a teacher who is present and working for them every moment.

Critical Teaching Concepts

Think of something you know how to do.

How do you teach it to somebody else? It doesn't matter if you are a, “real teacher,” or just somebody trying to help a friend learn something.

There are definitely two things that should not be done in passing along what you know, as both are likely to make the learner give up and walk away. They are related, and taken together are a formula for failure.

Let's take an example. I have 30 years of experience in Karate, and suppose you want me to show you how to punch. How much do I know about punching gained in all of those years?

Problem number one can perhaps be called barfing your knowledge all over the student. Suppose I started talking and demonstrating about punching, and didn't shut up until I'd told you every single thing that I know. How much will you retain? When the talking is finished will you be able to punch at all? I don't think so. Why not?

There is just too much for you to retain in too little time. Learning doesn't work that way. It might be cool to be able to download everything about physics in a few minutes, but humans aren't built that way. We have no USB ports. If you want to know physics, you'll have to start at the beginning, and take it a little bit at a time. You'll need to study Science in school, and then tack on four years getting a university bachelor’s degree, and that would only get you part way to your goal. You'd still have to tack on a Masters degree, and a few PhD degrees, and even then you wouldn't know it all.

Don't puke knowledge on your students.

The second way to overwhelm a person is by over-correction.

Back to the punching example. Let's say I show you a basic straight punch, and give you five points to focus on while you perform the movement. You've watched intently, and are reasonably ready to start.

You start to move your arm, and I stop you, telling you that you were doing something incorrectly. You start again, and get a little further, but I stop you again, and point out something else you are doing wrong. You start again, and I catch you making the first mistake again. This continues for an hour.

In effect, I took a small, manageable amount of information about the subject, and then proved to you how horrible you are at it. Even if I repeatedly put in encouraging phrases, (“Good,” “Much better,” “Your arm was much straighter that time,”) it won't help. Actions speak louder than words. Your student will leave knowing that they suck at what they were trying to learn. They will be discouraged.

Don't nitpick your students.

Now, put these two failings together; what have you got? There will be a student, overloaded with directions, trying to perform the actions, being constantly corrected. and having more details piled on top.

They will leave totally bewildered, overwhelmed, and knowing that the activity isn't for them. Should they return, it is a testament to that particular student's determination to succeed that they continue in spite of your teaching methodology. Most likely, they'll stay home and watch TV, and you'll never see them again.

Now let's see how well you've learned this lesson. Can you see what I have done to get my point across?

Did I explain everything that I know about teaching, picked up though 5 years of university training, 30 years as a Karate instructor, and a career as a high school teacher?

No. I gave you two simple, clear points.

Am I going to put an electric shock collar on you, and give you a zap every time that you barf on your students, or nitpick them?

No, I'm going to let you go out into the world to think about these ideas, and to apply them on your own without correction.

Pretty good methodology, I'd say.

Full House

Yesterday, Open-Mat time wasn't very well attended. I got there early, and started working on my knowledge using videos, lists of techniques, and rolling on the ground like I was having a string of seizures.

Cosme was there, but he had a private student to teach, and so I was solo for most of the time.

Eventually, his student left, and we went over a very tiny bit of stuff together. Not the best Open-Mat ever, but certainly not the worst. Jiu-Jitsu is really hard to work on solo.

This morning there is another free-learning time, but yesterday's attendance made me pretty leery of how things were going to go. As I sat about sipping my dawn coffee, my expectations were low. Then a text popped up from Cosme.

He was going to be there again, which made it all very much more promising, even though he said he had another White Belt to work with a bit.

He was there as promised, and soon along came the White Belt, Mike. The parade continued as Neil and Tobias came along, too.

That meant there were five, real live bodies on the mat. There was some technique work done, and a whole pile of rolling around.

It was the best Open-Mat in a very, very long time.

Homework Time

So how do you learn?

Suppose you wanted to learn how to play golf. You have never done it before in any form, but have seen it on TV, and a few friends say it's a lot of fun. You contact the local golf course, and it just so happens that a new class is about to start.

You arrive, and there are about 20 people in your group. One or two others are brand new like you, but the rest have all been around for some of the lessons already.

The instructor comes out, and teaches the lesson for the day. You get a bit of time to practise the skill being shown, but in no time the lesson is over. Let's say today's lesson is about how to get out of a sand-trap.

You come back a couple of days later for the next class. This time it's about putting. You find it interesting, and you enjoy the class, and the practice time.

Other than the 2, one-hour lessons, you are given no opportunity to practice your new skills in any form; no driving range, nor putting area, nothing.

How long would it take you to get awesome at golf?

That's kind of what it's been like for me lately in Jiu-Jitsu. My wife and I have been on an extended holiday of 8 week duration.

It has actually been quite Jiu-Jitsu friendly, as two week were withing a stone's throw of the headquarters Gracie academy in Los Angeles, and another month was within reach of two schools in Arizona. I even bumped into a seminar given by Jiu-Jitsu legend Pedro Sauer.

Altogether, I managed to attend 32 classes. The bad part is that it's as if, in the golf example, I've had my sand-trap lesson, followed by the putting class, with those followed by several dozen more unrelated lessons. After 32, how well can I perform what was covered back in lesson one?

It's actually a lot worse than that. In golf, the movements are all closely related. Teeing off and putting are a lot more similar activities than are guard defences, knee bars, sweeps, and chokes. If you are a right-handed golfer, you will always be swinging the club back to your right and then hitting the ball with it, propelling it to your left.

To get anything in Jiu-Jitsu to sink in, it takes incredible amounts of repetition, drill, and experimentation. Nowhere I've travelled has any mat-access time set aside for that sort of practice.

I've been home now for a couple of days. So far it's been structured group classes here as well. I am greatly looking forward to Friday and Saturday. That's when I'll be able to hit the mat to work on whatever I want. It will be a time to try and recall some of the really cool things I was shown down south before they fade any farther, and just maybe learn then in something beyond a superficial level.

My normal routine will have fully returned. For me a week consists of 6 structured classes, and an extra one in the city, along with two open-mat times. I will also get to work with other individuals outside of the timetable brushing up on a part of the curriculum needed for an exam, that corresponds to some of the stuff I did in Los Angeles.

Back in full, and doing my homework.

Arizona Highlight

This is our third year visiting Arizona for a month of winter. Each time I've trained at the two relatively near Gracie Jiu-Jitsu academies.

They aren't really close to where we stay, or I'd attend a lot more classes. The Scottsdale place is a half-hour freeway drive away, and the ride to the place in Phoenix is over 45 minutes long.

Both schools have very solid instructors. They and all of their students made me feel very welcome.

To synchronize as best I can with my wife, and the friends that we travel with, I only train in the daytime. Luckily, both academies have several such classes per week.

This year, the daytime sessions in Scottsdale are very lightly attended. They have all been between 3 and 4 students, including the instructor and me. As a result, there isn't any real instruction, that all being reserved for the larger evening classes. Mostly, we just roll, or work with partners on whatever. I like all of that, but it doesn't inspire me much to make the drive; leaving holiday fun behind.

Phoenix has bigger daytime sessions, but for one reason or another they haven't been having much instruction either. Part of the month was their chapter review time, and for a couple of days the instructor was away leaving things in the hands of his helpers. There was one real class of excellent instruction done by one such substitute teacher, but that has been it. Most of the other sessions have consisted of some warmup exercises, a drill or two, and then rolling. Like Scottsdale, this is all fine but doesn't motivate me to attend regularly.

For the month, I made it to about a dozen classes in total.

The exception was that at my first drop-in at the Phoenix place, I found out about an upcoming weekend filled with a training seminar by Pedro Sauer, a huge name in Jiu-Jitsu. I attended all of that as well.

A highlight happened at the very last Arizona class I went to. It was the only evening class I attended in the entire month.

I worked with a nice White Belt during the beginner class. This was followed by a smallish advanced class.

There were a couple of Blue Belts, three of us Purple Belts, the Brown Belt who runs the school, and a visiting Black Belt. The class was sort of halfway between a lesson and and open mat time. There was a really nice atmosphere.

The highlight followed all of that. The Black Belt picked me to roll with.

Now there are Black Belts, and there are Black Belts. They are not all equal. This guy is a bona fide Gracie guy. He is big, and strong, and young as Black Belts go.

The roll started like all good ones do when the two participants are as different in skill level as we were. The higher guy takes it easy, and the lower guy tries to make something work on him. It went exactly that way. I never even got close to making anything much work.

My Black Belt then started to turn it around, and started working his own attacks. I went into almost full defence, not that I had much choice. He didn't go nuts on me, but there were some moves that he tried that I stopped, and that he would try again slightly differently. This meant that I'd actually prevented the move from working, and he was trying to figure out solutions. This happened several times. We rolled for a very long time. By the end, I was pretty nearly spent.

In parting he said with a smile, "You've got SOME Jiu-Jitsu."

That made me happy.