Let it Go

Let’s look at some big future dates for me in Jiu-Jitsu.

The earliest I might get a Brown Belt is less than 8 months away, and a Black Belt is possible in 5 years.

What can I be doing right now to get ready for these two events?

For the further away evaluation, there isn’t much, but for a much closer Brown Belt there is a lot.

A Black Belt friend in North Vancouver would most likely be carrying out my Brown Belt evaluation. He has told me that he would expect a candidate to demonstrate any of the available curriculum that pertains to street self-defence. He has also said that students who have passed any of the relevant technical exams would not have to be tested on those aspects.

To me that means I either work like a lunatic on self-defence material, or make sure I have already passed all of the technical exams. Neither is an attractive prospect.

I think am perfectly competent in the area of self-defence, especially if my lifestyle is considered.

I have a Karate Black Belt, and a Jiu-Jitsu Purple Belt, earned during 36 years of martial arts training. I am involved in no high risk behaviours, and live in a very low-crime area.

However, to pass a one-shot, in-person exam covering the specific Gracie self-defence curriculum material, I’d have to train those techniques ad nauseam. I’d have to become almost perfect at the least entertaining part of Jiu-Jitsu.

If I work on the technical exams, there would actually me a lot more work involved. I’d have to be able to perform about 5 or 6 times as much material, including the all of the self-defence stuff. The difference is that the exams involved are neither one-shot, nor done in-person.

After training the levels and being able to correctly perform every technique, the candidate video records the precise exam material in chunks that take about 20 minutes to perform. If anything gets screwed up, a new attempt is started over with a fresh recording. This is quite unlike trying to demonstrate material at a live exam.

So what do I want to do? Shall I learn my least favourite part of the curriculum to the point of mastery, and then demonstrate all of that skill on test day, or learn the much broader curriculum to a point of competence and then record videos covering everything.

A point in favour of the video exam is that of the 4 test levels, I have already completed and passed the first, and that I have a partner lined up already to work with on the second.

How would either of these routes fit into the time-line for a Brown Belt about 8 months away?

The live-test self-defence route certainly could be done in that time. I’d need to get going on perfecting all of the material, and could use any other students who are willing to help.

The bigger video route is more difficult. In the coming 8 months, I will likely be unavailable for as much as 2.5 months, leaving only about 22 weeks to get all the work done. I would say that the second level would be the quickest to complete by far; perhaps 6 weeks. That would leave about 8 weeks per level for each of the other two.

However, for those two levels, I don’t even have a potential partner currently lined up. That’s a problem. It might well be that the hurdle will be insurmountable. No partner for a technical test renders it impossible.

It is a puzzle.

Or it was until I shifted my thinking.

Which of the two routes would actually make me better at Jiu-Jitsu?

Should I choose the video route, I would have to do tons more work than I do now. It would require that both I, and several partners, put in long hours on top of regular training. We would be honing a wide range of skills, across several levels, and in all chapters.

I would predict that at a minimum, doing the video route would add at least a hundred hours to my practise. That represents an approximate doubling of my training for the next 8 months.

Doing the self-defence test-day option would also see me doing many hours of work, but it would be a different sort of thing. Most would be grabbing other students before and after class to be my partner for whatever self-defence move I would be working on. This isn’t extra training, as it is currently time that gets used for other Jiu-Jitsu work. It is more of a redirecting. There may be some added time, but nothing like the video route.

This means that while my self-defence skill will certainly improve, in a very real way it will be at the expense of other Jiu-Jitsu skill. Doing the heavy-homework video route will improve my overall skill level, as there will be a huge amount of work done that would not be taken from existing mat time.

So, it boils down to getting better within a narrow spectrum, largely at the expense of my skill level in general, or a general, wide-spectrum improvement done outside of current mat time. This makes my decision clear.

Video seems like the answer.

There is a major flaw with doing the video route. It needs dedicated partners to be found. I already have level 1 completed, and a partner lined up for level 2. Getting 3 and 4 done look to be needing a lot more time that I have before possible Brown Belt evaluation.

A few years ago, I assumed that getting beyond a Purple Belt was highly unlikely. It is wonderful that I’ve made it this far. If I do the video route, and it takes me a few extra years, so what? I am actually a firm believer in the method that Gracie Jiu-Jitsu has used up until just this Christmas down at the headquarters school. A student’s next belt was awarded if and when they were ready. Ryron and Rener Gracie knew their local students so well that any sort of exam was superfluous.

I sort of got in on that for my Purple Belt evaluation. I went to LA for two weeks. On the first day, Rener Gracie rolled with me, and selected a couple of other people for me to spar with. After that, they may or may not have kept an eye on me for the time I was there training, and on the very last class of my visit gave me my new rank.

Now it is all about tests. Either I do the one-day test, and not actually improve overall, or I improve generally, do three massive video tests, and experience general improvement, but take several years doing it.

Best to just do what is right for my Jiu-Jitsu. So what if I do the superior-for-Jiu-Jitsu video route? Are there potential issues?

There sure are. If I could do it within 8 months, a Brown Belt on time could still happen, but completion that swiftly is extremely unlikely. If it takes longer, new instalments of curriculum will get released, and have to be worked up and video-tested as well, making the finish point recede farther into the distance.

I think the only plan is to work away at things, and forget about Brown Belt altogether. I’ve made it to Purple as I had hoped. It might be fun to refuse to do an exam for a new belt.

Maybe after a few years or decades they’ll give me one anyhow.

Maybe not.

Renaissance Jiu-Jitsu

It is Christmas Break time again, which is always good for reflection. It would seem that I’m in a bit of a Golden Age of Jiu-Jitsu.

Normal full-time training for somebody of my level around here would be 3 advanced classes per week. I attend all of that, plus all the beginner sessions. I also go into the Big City, and pick up another of each type of class.

We haven’t had any open sessions at all, or anything else “off the timetable” for a long time. I was happy enough with the way it was going, but did dream a bit about more.

And then the Jiu-Jitsu Renaissance started to roll into action.

Shawn Phillips, our instructor, wanted to get his third level completed on his technical exams. We really only had one section left to work through (only isn’t really the right word, as it is a bloody great heap of work) and I was the logical partner.

We got busy, meeting maybe a dozen times, and cranked that puppy out.

Then, we kept going and plowed right into level four. This time, Shawn decided to copy a formula that other instructors have adopted, and recruited another partner into the mix. Rob Henley became our third guy. He is a long-time serous student, and a Purple Belt.

Somehow in all that training, Rob and I started working on his first-level technical exam; meeting on top of everything else to progress down that track. Than, our manager and business head was great with all of this extra training and allowed us all the access we needed.

It seems that meet-ups for any kind of serious training goals are now on-the-table anytime. Still nothing exists for less formal work, but that will be changing greatly soon, too.

My wife and I decided to move into some form of strata living situation, and attacked the downsizing required with gusto. When we finally found the perfect new home, it turned out to be a massively-large town-house. Suddenly, we were living with tons more unused space than we’d ever had. Helen claimed a chunk for her sewing and quilting hobbies, and I grabbed another for my very own Jiu-Jitsu training space.

The mat will be arriving in about a week, and there will be a place for anybody who wants to work on anything at all, and it comes with an enthusiastic Purple Belt ready to help, and maybe a coffee pot, and facilities for tea.

There is also a lot happening to which I am only an observer.

Two of our guys are working towards instructor certification, which we desperately need. The programs that we follow are carefully constructed, and qualified people are needed to handle the many details.

Our White Belt class, which a year ago seemed about to vanish into the mist, has started growing and growing, and now totally fills our mat space. I think that the last class saw about 18 students working away with enthusiasm. This is no flash-in-the-pan, as the growth has been steady, and fed by solid word-of-mouth.

Students who were part of the early growth of our White Belt class have reached the point of evaluation, and will soon be members of our advanced group. This will continue, and accelerate as the later, larger numbers reach a level of readiness.

In summery, more technical training, my own mat space, more certified instructors, and a lot more students are the highlights of this Golden Age of Jiu-Jitsu in our little town of Gibsons.