Things have been going pretty well. Since word about testing for Brown Belt landed, I’ve managed to get in 3 sessions of preparation, and will have another tomorrow. In 6 days there will have been 4 times dedicated solely to getting ready, and that’s on top of 5 regular classes my level (one of which I taught, so it doesn’t really count).
At that rate, there should be a total of 40 hours dedicated to test preparation by test day. That might be enough.
Actually, I politely suggested to my instructor that the middle of January might be better than the middle of December. He said he’d think about it. That would give me an extra month.
I want to feel ready.
It is already altering most of my training.
They have sessions for exactly this stuff early on Saturdays in Vancouver sometimes. That is the day I go in to train anyhow, so it’s perfect; sort of.
The transit that gets me there is a little shaky on the weekends. I can’t guarantee getting to the gym, and don’t know which Saturdays are scheduled anyhow. My plan is to get my butt there on time.
If it turns out that nobody is there, or if the buses let me down, I’ll just revert to a usual Saturday. That will mean sitting around in Starbucks for a couple of hours, and then going to help out at the White Belt class, and then attending a class for my level.
If the early training is on, that would be great. It gets followed by a women-only class, so coffee time for me. I did this on the only day I’ve been to that session, and then returned for the Whites and advanced. Three classes was a tad too much, and my tired brain wandered a bit towards the end. Didn’t like that so from now on I’ll be dropping the White Belt sessions so my attention will stay frisky and clear to the end of the material aimed towards me. Selfish, but there is a test coming.
At home, my partner for technical exam work has graciously suggested that we put that on the back burner, and focus instead on Brown Belt preparation. That is helping a lot.
There is also a small Sunday bunch that meets at my house to work on whatever they want, or technique in general. They’ve also volunteered to change the focus to stuff I need to drill.
It seems I have a lot of friends willing to help me along this road.
My instructor is also working towards a huge test of his own, and the stuff covered is the same as mine. Get togethers will happen, and help us both.
The actual stuff that needs to be prepared is quite specific, and interesting.
The Black Belt exam includes a lot of the Combative self-defence program, as well as most of the self-defence aspects of the 4 levels above that. There are restricted-access videos and printouts related to exactly what will be on the test. This is the exam that my instructor is working on.
The Brown Belt exam I’m up for on is based on that same material. I’ve seen a partial listing of the material once, but don’t have access to it, and have never seen the video. That means that whenever I’m working alone or with my helpers I have to work up everything that could possibly be on the test.
My instructor is also going to ask my examiner if I will need to work up Combatives and all four levels above also. Most students have never even seen the top level stuff at all. I’ve never done it in class, and my only contact with it was within the last couple of months when I was the caller for my instructor and another guy drilling that material.
We have another guy expected to test for Brown Belt when I am, and he’s never seen that material at all. How is he supposed to prepare for that?
It would be a huge relief if the gentleman who will be doing the evaluations decides that the Brown test will not include those techniques, and even helpful if he says that it definitely will.
Need an example? In the highest level of material that I’ve never done, and that my friend has never seen, there are a bunch of techniques that relate specifically to police work and handcuffing suspects.
Going in blind, it will be necessary to study all of the related hours of video lessons, and to understand them. Time will need to be invested to try the motions and understand the techniques on an intellectual level. Of course, that in no way means they would be test-level ready, so there would have to be a great deal of drill, at a number of separate sessions to really get them ready in even a rough fashion.
Cool techniques, to be sure, but they don’t really relate to the exam’s proclaimed “street self-defence” focus, or to Jiu-Jitsu in general. If that level isn’t included, all of that time can be invested in actual test material.
There is also a good chance that the handcuff stuff is not included in the Black Belt test list, even if that level is. That would mean it won’t be part of a Brown Belt test either. That would also free up time to focus on test material, but I can’t know that at this point.
You could say that I should just bite the bullet and learn the handcuff stuff. If it were a single technique I would, but it’s actually a whole series of moves, each with a number of variants. Just watching the related videos would likely take 3 or 4 hours, and easily as much doing early run throughs, and as much again drilling. Let’s round down and say that handcuffing in or out makes a different of ten hours work.
And that’s just the handcuff stuff. What about all of the other 4th level material?
It makes me glad that I’ve at least gotten to see them.
It’s a major reason that I asked for an extra month before the test.
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