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.