Training Without Classes

COVID-19 is a nightmare for so many, and for society in general.

In my own little world it isn’t really very bad at all. It has caused an early end to our Snowbird season, and being in self-quarantine for a couple of weeks. Neither of those is any kind of hardship.

There has also been an impact on my Jiu-Jitsu world. Classes everywhere are on hold, and likely will be for a considerable amount of time.

It is, after all, about the closest kind of contact, and is shared with a significant body of participants.

Anyhow, in Jiu-Jitsu terms, things are nowhere near as wonderful as they were just a few short weeks ago.

An ideal situation would be if you were locked away in your home, with an expert to train with. A person could get private instruction every single day of their isolation. When the schools eventually open, you could step out onto the mat a heck of a lot more awesome than you were before COVID-19 reared its ugly head.

Almost as good would be if in your household there happened to be more than a single Jiu-Jitsu student. You could share what you already know, and study the video lessons together. If you worked every day your progress would easily surpass what you were achieving by attending group lessons.

Unfortunately, like most Jiu-Jitsu people, my situation is nothing like the two scenarios I’ve already described. I am the only Jiu-Jitsu person in my little pod of self-quarantine.

There is good news in that the last day of my mandated 2-week period of lockdown (because of re-entering Canada from a vacation) is today. I’m “free” tomorrow.

However, the Jiu-Jitsu schools are still boarded up, and will be for a good long while.

I could invite fellow students over to train in my private gym, but that won’t happen. The problem is that the need to avoid contact is still present. Every person has their own circle of contacts, each of whom brings in a circle of their own, and so on.

Let’s say I invite Rob over to get back to work on our technical exams. He’s a careful guy about spreading infection, and scrupulously clean. He lives with his wife, and I am confident that they don’t expose themselves willy-nilly to danger. So what’s the big deal?

Well, you see, Rob is a nurse and works every day at the hospital. I am confident that he follows all the pertinent protocols, but even so he works at the epicentre of our community’s danger zone.

How about my other most-frequent training partners? All have families, and a lot are still working. Each of us carries risk to anybody we should choose to train with. I would endanger them, just as they would endanger me.

Am I that scared? Not for myself, but should I get infected from a partner that means that anybody in my circle of contacts is also unacceptably put in danger. There is no way I am going to risk that.

That all means that I’ve regressed to how I did much of my training back in 2013 when I was a new Blue Belt. At that time the only way students at a Certified Training Centre could progress in rank was by passing comprehensive technical exams.

I wanted to do that as quickly as possible. In addition to my schools excellent group classes, I did a few private lessons, and also put in many, many hours on my own trying to teach myself parts of the curriculum, and in drilling everything I was learning.

Now, there are no classes, private or group. All that’s left is teaching myself and drilling. Using excellent online resources, that’s exactly what I’m doing.