The Toughest Student

Who do you think is the most bad-ass student at your Jiu-Jitsu academy?

My opinion might be very different than yours, but even if you disagree with me, I think that you’ll have to agree with my findings somewhat based on the actual evidence.

At the two school where I regularly train, there are all sorts. There’s a huge cop, and an even bigger gentle giant. We have slender dudes, and muscular ones, young ones, and even a few geezers like me.

There are also a fair number of female students. Of these, most are somewhere in the 120 to 140 pound range, but there are a few even smaller.

I would contend that the toughest student in the school has to be amongst the smallest females.

Why? Isn’t it obvious?

Let’s forget about my schools, and even yours, and make up a new one.

Let’s say you are male, and a raw beginner, are 6’1” tall, and weigh in at 200 pounds.

At this particular school all of the other students are quite different from you physically.

Their average height is 6’5”, and their average weight is 312 pounds. They all have a significantly lower percentage of body fat than you, meaning that each pound of those guys is more muscular than every pound of you.

If you need help visualizing this, the stats I’ve chosen for the other students are what is average for NFL linesmen.

You start out, and maybe half are pleasant to work with, but the rest are dicks.

They do everything possible to make your training miserable. They crush you hard enough that you sometimes tap from the pressure alone. They use their superior strength and mass to shut down every move you attempt, no matter how well, and to force through their own, no matter how crappy.

You end up getting hurt much, much more than any other student at the school. You also are regularly insulted for your size and lesser strength. Some of your partners openly express the opinion that there is no place for you at the school.

You continue regardless, taking your lumps, and doing all that you can to progress in such a negative environment. Some people are happy to work with you, and somehow magically manage to make their size and mass go away, but they are few and far between.

There's nobody that you can ever hope to out muscle. You try and learn every movement perfectly, and become somewhat of an expert in surviving discomfort, and pain, and being unable to breathe. You do not develop any sort of swollen ego, as you tap more often than anybody else.

Eventually, it becomes promotion time, and you are awarded your new belt at the same time as a couple of your peers, some of whom openly scoff, and consider it an insult to their own, superior performance.

Who is the toughest student at that school? Who has taken the most abuse? Who has suffered the most physical pain? As a result, who is the actually has the most perfect technique.

Clearly, you are the toughest, and are your schools pound-for-pound champion, and you care the least about suffering pain or injury.

You would be a big time bad-ass. But not as much as a 110 pound female who regularly trains with 200 pound men. To match the size disadvantage that she would be facing, your school would have to be full of students 50 pounds larger than the average for NFL players.

While your large partners average 56% bigger than you, the ones she regularly faces out mass her by 81%.

We used to have a dedicated young woman training with us who was well under 110 pounds, and she often rolled with our biggest guy, who at that time weighed about 235. For him to face a similar challenge, he would need to stand up to an adult male mountain gorilla.

Buck up, Buttercup, she’s tougher than you.

Third Version

People usually say that there are two types of Jiu-Jitsu training that they classify as being either Sport, or Self-Defence.

I contend that there are actually three versions.

A Self-Defence focused curriculum would be such as Ryron and Rener Gracie have developed for their beginner program, that they call Combatives.

The students in this program NEVER free-roll. Every technique and every bit of practice goes into developing the skills necessary to survive the most common forms of street attack. Students are not there to learn how to defeat trained Jiu-Jitsu people, but rather people with the fight characteristics most likely to arise in a real life confrontation.

Conversely, a true Sport school wouldn’t work on this sort of thing at all. They would be working on the types of things that they are most likely to experience in a tournament setting. They would have a complete understanding of the rule set, and develop strategies to get the maximum advantage out of it. They would not be concerned with striking defences at all, as these are forbidden within a sportive context.

Most schools are somewhere in between, at least a little bit.

Even at Gracie University, once the totally self-defence beginner course is completed, the students join the main advanced class. There they start to free-roll, and many of the techniques taught are geared not for a street fight, but rather for a roll with another trained Jiu-Jitsu person.

So what is this third type of which I spoke.

The third is the type of rolling that goes on between two Jiu-Jitsu people after a normal Jiu-Jitsu instructional session. Almost every class ends with free-rolling.

Nobody is worried about getting punched, or body-slammed, or scoring either points or advantages. They are just rolling.

Perhaps they end up in a position where the person on the bottom traps the person on the top’s arm, whilst the person on the top’s other arm is quite free, and able to strike.

If they are concerned with self-defence, the person on the bottom would need to respect the danger more than get excited about the possibilities of the trapped arm, and could well decide to release the trap and move on.

If they were thinking about competition, the person on the bottom would ignore the potential strikes, and try and use that arm for control, or perhaps to try and work it towards a submission, or to advance their position.

If they are doing neither, the person on the bottom could well use a bit of pressure against the wrist of the person on top to form a wrist lock, to which their partner would likely tap, before they moved on to something else.

A Self-Defence person watching might be horrified, as the danger of the strike should have taken priority, and a Sport person would decry the clear violation of the rule forbidding wrist locks.

They reach another point, and the person on the bottom, gets his a hands into a crappy collar choke, and the much bigger person in their guard, stands up. The bottom person releases their legs and drops gently to the ground and lets the now useless collar go.

A Self-Defence person would say that the combatant on top should have started throwing big punches once the bottom opponent’s hands were tangled in the choke, but that if they did stand up, the bottom person did the exact right thing by aborting before they could be body slammed.

The Sport person would say that the bottom guy did the wrong thing by aborting, and should have kept the position as they were lifted, and worked to sink the choke in better, as both punches and body slams are against tournament rules.

These disagreements would continue throughout the roll; Self-Defence decrying any use of spider guard, or de la Riva, or deep halfguard, while the Sport guy would be cheering those self same moves, while critical of any consideration being given to punch defence, or rule-illegal moves no matter how effective they are.

The two guys actually rolling are ignoring this debate. Likely they are from a school that is more balanced than either strictly Self Defence or strictly.

I think a good name for the third type of Jiu-Jitsu would be to call it Fun.

This is pretty much the situation within Ryron and Rener’s organization. In free rolling, usually the participants act much as I’ve described in the examples. Students are usually encouraged to try anything within the parameters of a safe environment.

Usually, but not always, punches are not allowed, nor body slams. Sometimes they are. Biting, eye gouging, and things of that ilk do not happen, but not due to any enforced outside set of rules. The unspoken rule is that everyone is expected follow is, “don’t be an asshole.”

I have been training for seven years within their umbrella, and have no idea about how tournament points are scored at all.

If asked what the most important aspects of free rolling are, most of the students there would say that it is a good general way to practice whatever you want to work on, and that it is fun.

Fun is important.

Up Down

August 2

This has been a challenging year so far for my weight.

Please don’t think that I consider myself to be heavy by any means. It’s just that I function best at a certain size, and try and keep myself in that zone.

If for nothing else, doing this lowers the pressure that my knees have to undergo in my favourite fun activity; Jiu-Jitsu. I also like to run, which is even harder on the knees.

My joints have already had issues with osteoarthritis. Being a few pounds over for a younger person is not as important as it is for me. If I treat myself badly, I could end my Jiu-Jitsu and my running permanently.

So I try and keep my weight within the range of 173-175 pounds. This is where things feel the best.

The trouble is, while staying in my target range is easy to do while at home, we travel very often. When away, a big part of life’s enjoyment is food (even more so than when at home), and I choose to partake. Weight always increases during travel.

This year has been absolutely fantastic for travel, and for food, but not so much for weight, or for how my body feels.

That has meant it’s been weight reduction time whenever we weren’t away.

The first trip of 2018 was over a month in South-East Asia, most of it on a cruise ship. I kept myself from going really crazy with the fabulous food, and ran on the stupid treadmills, but still came home in the neighbourhood of 188 pounds.

Less than a week after returning home, we were off for a month-and-a-half in California. Not as dangerous as cruising, but still very foodie. I took my fancy scale along, and kept an eye on things. Did plenty of desert runs, and a fair bit of Jiu-Jitsu. Still did plenty of piggy eating. Came home after that at around 184 pounds.

Managed to claw that down to within my target range, and then we promptly did a two-week cruise to Alaska. That put me back to 185.

In July, we spent three weeks on Vancouver Island with family, which slowed but didn’t stop my progress. Ran a lot while there. Came home at 179.

That was only a week ago, and in that time it’s been dropping nicely. Today’s weigh in was 175 pounds. Huzzah.

That doesn’t mean relaxation quite yet. I’ll have to hit 173 before that can happen, but it shouldn’t take long. Then I just have to keep my eye on things and experience some stability.

There is a lovely, long period of home time.

I love travel, but it does come with a lot of calories.

To enjoy it fully, the food must be eaten. I am lucky in that I do not hate the exercise that helps making a bit of overeating less critical.

On cruises, I run in the gym, and on shore. When near an appropriate Jiu-Jitsu academy, I train. Very many miles get run when holidaying on land.

I don’t begrudge myself fabulous meals when abroad, but I restrict my eating during other times.

At home, there is and even greater amount of running, and a constant flood of Jiu-Jitsu training sessions. Eating is whatever is appropriate to maintain weight.