Work

 

So I have to expect an exam for a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt sometime around mid-December of next year. This came as a shock as had been expecting a full year more than that to get ready.

It is my honest judgement that my skills need to progress significantly before that examination happens.

Even the logistics of the exam are not trivial. The test is held in Los Angeles over a three-day period. This would require flying down and staying for a minimum of 5 days.

Looking at the most likely start day for that three-day examination, I seem to have 380 calendar days left in which to improve.

I am currently involved with three types of regular training.

Twice per week there are regular advanced classes. These have to meet the needs of everybody above the rank of White Belt. For me, these are review sessions.

There are also two weekly sessions taught by our Chief Instructor. Currently, these are focused on principles of Jiu-Jitsu, but also cover the demands of the coming Black Belt exam. These are gold to me.

I also work about twice a week one-on-one with my buddy Sam. These are aimed at covering all of the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu curriculum.

Putting all of this on a big spreadsheet, and deducting all the days when the gym will be closed, and times when Helen and I will be away, I’ve come up with totals for each type of training between today and the start of Black Belt testing.

I should have trained about 89 times at the regular evening classes (review), 78 times with our Chief Instructor, and 53 times with Sam (he is moving away in the Summer).

The grand total comes to 220 sessions. I would like it to be a lot larger.

How can this be done?

There is one evening each week put aside for something we call “Open Mat.” Any of the students is welcome to use the facility to work on whatever they want.

I’ve been going, but it usually works out that I end up tutoring one of the beginners. This is enjoyable but doesn’t really help me at all in getting ready for a Black Belt exam.

I could try and recruit another partner to work during Open Mat on something appropriate for both of us. This could potentially turn into another 40 sessions.

Covid has kept me from training at a neighbouring school in Vancouver. I used to make regular weekly trips there. Perhaps I should reinstate this as part of my routine. Doing so would also add something like another 40 classes.

These two options combined would provide me with an 18% increase in training

So would this much training make me happy? It seems as if it would be enough to get me reasonably ready.

I am happy.

Goals, training, and changes

 

I felt very good when things started opening up, but I lost sight of reality.

However, Covid and the clock are always there, ready to throw a monkey wrench into any situation.

The reduction of government restrictions saw me training again at the local Jiu-Jitsu school, and even returning to weekly trips to train in the City.

Then, they opened up just a bit too far, and everybody was in one big, sweaty basket. There was no distinction by vaccination status. This did not work for me.

I haven’t been to train in the City since September, and recently also stopped attending any local sessions.

If I were more sensible, my view of Jiu-Jitsu would be more like most other activities. Miss a bit, and you just miss a bit; it doesn’t change the entire thing for the participants.

Jiu-Jitsu has exams, and attendance requirements, and ranks, and promotions.

When my journey first started, it seemed that the highest a person like me in a town like mine could reach would be to a Blue Belt.

I hit that point, and even earned a wee stripe, and the rules changed. There was no theoretical limit, although it seemed that in practicality that I might just reach as high as Purple Belt.

Why a limit for me but not for other students? My training started when I was already incredibly old; 55 years of age. Some say age is just a state of mind, but they clearly are not doing something as physical as Jiu-Jitsu. Most in this sport consider themselves ancient when they hit their 40s.

I turned Blue at 56, and Purple at 60, and even managed to get a Brown Belt at age 63. Currently I am 65.

If I were smart, my focus on rank advancement would stop right now. Sadly, I have found one more goal I’d like to manage.

I have two stripe ranks left to go with my Brown Belt. Beyond that there is the coveted status of becoming a Black Belt.

In the normal course of things, it looked as though my chance would come in just over two years, in Los Angeles, at the only-once-per-year Gracie Black Belt evaluation.

With anything like my normal training intensity, it looked just about possible to be through all the preparations a Black Belt exam would call for.

With a self-imposed Covid shutdown, it would be impossible. Every training day missed would make a successful Black Belt exam less likely.

Then, the rules changed once more at the local school, and again I was back working on the mat. It felt that if nothing else went wrong, I could work hard for those two years, go to Los Angeles, and have a decent shot at success.

My instructor is a great guy, as well as being a good teacher. Just to be sure of my path, I asked if my estimation of date for a Black Belt evaluation matched his own. It is, after all, his decision as to when students get tested for the various belts.

It seems my estimation was significantly incorrect. My instructor is planning on a December test for me a full year sooner than I was expecting.

The good side of this is that I would be doing the test at the age of 66, rather than 67.

The downside is that it gives me 12 less months to prepare. This will greatly influence my chance of success.

In a way, it doesn’t really matter. A test in either year can only have one of two outcomes; promotion or failure.

Earning a flashy new Black Belt would allow me to work at what I want, at a pace that I can maintain.

Failure would mean at least another year of high-paced curriculum-focused work before a possible second attempt at promotion. I do not want to do this, and have decided I shall not.

For this coming year I shall work with full intensity, and full determination, and do everything possible to insure success. Pass or fail, I shall then step off of that demanding treadmill.

I shall not make a second attempt, but will permanently retire my ambition for rank. Just putting this in print makes me feel more comfortable.

Long ago when I first started working towards Jiu-Jitsu rank I would tell people that my true goal was to work my way as far up the rank tree as the system and father time would allow.

It is getting close to the time when should switch to a new goal. It will be to continue training for as many years as possible.

More Counting

There have been a lot of ups and downs in this time of Covid. My little path through Jiu-Jitsu has certainly been an uncertain one.

My last promotion was back in June, which means that my next earliest change of rank could come in February of 2022.

The biggest difficulty in achieving this is the minimum-attendance rule. A student needs to attend at least 100 appropriate training sessions before being considered for a promotion.

For most of the time throughout Summer and early Autumn there were few training opportunities available. My friend Sam and I would get together to train, but that was about it.

Then, things started opening up as the government rolled back some of the Covid restrictions. Currently, I am able to attend four group classes per week in addition to working with Sam.

It is now nearly the end of October. By entering all likely classes into my prognostication spreadsheet I have been able to make an educated guess as to the status of my next promotion.

It looks like I should be easily able to tally up something like 125 appropriate sessions by my earliest February promotion date. That makes me happy.

It makes me even happier to know that I might just complete the 100-class minimum before the local Jiu-Jitsu school shuts down for Christmas.

Finishing the attendance requirement early never inspires me to slacken off, but it does always feel very nice indeed.

You might think it’s a silly thing to worry about. Surely, you think, some consideration for the uncertain training conditions should be made for promotion. Maybe they would be. Such a thing would be up to the local Black Belt instructor.

The thing is, I never want to put our instructor in a position to make that kind of allowance for me. I figure if I can’t get 100 classes, I shouldn’t be promoted until I can.

I also leave out of my tally classes that, “officially,” should count, but that I don’t consider equivalent to what the spirit of the original rule required.

For example; Zoom classes from certain instructors are supposed to count. I currently have participated in 27 of these. If I counted them in, my requirement would be complete any day now. For some people the Zooms might be equal to a live session, but for me they are not. I find them incredibly valuable, but without the physical component of actually applying the movements they are just not the same.

Therefore, I train, and count, and participate in Zooms, and don’t count them, and aim for my attendance goal with one eye on the future.

If my date comes, I will report my tally to my instructor if it is complete.

If it is not, I will likewise keep him informed as a courtesy and continue to train and count classes until the requirement has been met.

Then, assuming a promotion, the whole thing repeats over another 8 months and another hundred classes.

The good thing about that is that it will be the last time ever that I shall need to collect classes.

After reaching that rank, the only promotion left is that to Black Belt. That involves about a year of preparation, but there is no counting of classes.

I figure my old self will be able to make one solid attempt at gaining such a rank.

Passing or failing will see me stepping off of the promotion treadmill.

Lumpy Random

 

Our Jiu-Jitsu school is perched on the rocky Pacific coast of Canada. The town is very tiny, and our number of students reflects this. There are only 9 members in our advanced class.

Within the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu system, each individual has their own pattern of promotion timing. There are several requirements in changing rank, but the most rigid is the 8-month minimum time between promotions.

This timing is unique for every student, and evolves over time based on their overall readiness, and attendance, as well as outside factors like family and careers.

Out of our advanced group, I know the approximate next dates for 7 of the 9 people.

Let’s start with Sam. I think he received the first stripe on his Blue Belt back in February. His attendance is fine, and he’s always working on something. If my memory is correct, he should be getting a second stripe in October, which is this month.

Also in February, Ryan was awarded a Purple Belt in a surprise presentation. This means he might also be in line for a stripe very soon.

February was a busy month around here. On the 20th of that month, 3 students went through a gruelling evaluation process, and earned themselves Brown Belts.

That means that altogether 5 of our 9 advanced students are likely being considered for promotion as I am writing this blog entry. I don’t know if any or all of them have completed their attendance requirements, and even if they have done so promotion is ultimately at the discretion of our Black Belt instructor.

There is also another, smaller group within the 9. Another Brown Belt and I always come up for consideration at the same time.

That only leaves 2 students unaccounted for in my little tale. Perhaps their dates also correspond with the big group-of-five, or the little group-of-2. Perhaps if they do not, they could by chance form another group-of-2, or maybe they are off on their lonesomes someplace else in the calendar.

There is no reason that things have lined up so neatly, but it’s always interesting to note patterns that pop up in life. With all of us working away individually one would expect us to be spread out all over the calendar in a random fashion.

We are not.

Covid Travel

 

Covid has changed just about everything, including the travel that Helen and I like to do.

We were actually on a trip when Covid hit, and returned from it about a week or so early. That was back in March of 2020.

We already had a very cool trip in the planning stage already for the following fall. We were to go off to Europe for at least a month, including two cruises. The only part that was actually booked was the ship travel. That all got cancelled.

We would also have spent at least a month visiting friends and family in our own province in the summer, and probably an Alaska cruise, and a couple of weeks off visiting at Christmas. None of that happened.

For early in 2021, we had a month booked in Palm Springs at a mobile home resort, and would have spent a couple of weeks in Los Angeles for me to train Jiu-Jitsu. All was cancelled.

There is a good chance we would have also gone overseas for another month. I suspect it could have been to Singapore, and just possibly Japan.

Summer would have been similar to the year before, and also didn’t happen. There likely would have been something big for the fall.

Even if you only count the big stuff Covid has cost us a month in Palm Springs, two weeks in LA, a month in Europe with two cruises, two summer cruises to Alaska, and some other big month-long trip. That adds up to about 4 months of jolly fun missed out in the last year-and-a-half.

We’ve been surprisingly content with this, but would certainly like to be able to resume travel. I pay attention to what is available, and then eliminate destinations due to their Covid situation.

An example would be Singapore. For a long time they had about the safest Covid statistics on the planet, but travel there for Canadians was almost impossible. Now they are starting to open up to certain countries, and setting up direct flights for those fortunate few. Canada is on that list. The problem is that Singapore’s Covid numbers have gone crazy.

Canada’s current rate of new infection is at 78 cases daily per million. A month ago, that’s about where Singapore’s rate was, but it has steadily climbed to 516. For comparison, the rate in the USA is an unacceptable 255 and the UK sits at an insane 590.

We won’t be booking any Singapore travel at this time, but I will be watching the numbers closely but am not very hopeful.

Lack of Discipline

 

A week or so back I was complimented on my dedication to Jiu-Jitsu by the instructor in North Vancouver. He was referring to my habit of travelling into the city to attend classes at his school.

These trips take an entire day. I am out the door by 5:30am to drive to the ferry terminal, ride across as a foot passenger, and ride transit in order to train, and then the whole string runs backwards to bring me home. Usually, I am back in my house 12 hours after leaving.

I also train at every opportunity at my local gym, and attend every seminar.

So why do I always insist that I am neither dedicated nor disciplined in my training?

Is there something that you find incredibly fun? Do you love to play golf, or perhaps you follow some sports team? Is it a great joy to attend theatre, or go to movies?

That is how I am with Jiu-Jitsu. What would I rather be doing if I weren’t training? Why do I never have to drag myself to class? Jiu-Jitsu is fun for me.

I never want to skip a class, ever. If I do so, that’s when I am displaying dedication and discipline. It means something more important or even more fun has come up.

Such compliments are totally undeserved. What I do requires no dedication or discipline at all. I’m just doing what is the most fun.

Two Years

 

So here’s my Jiu-Jitsu mission for the next couple of years.

Why two years? Well, my rank is getting up there, and I will likely be facing evaluation for Black Belt in December of 2023, or possibly as early as 2022.

That means planning needs to be underway. In normal times it wouldn’t be as important, but Covid changes everything.

Goal One is very easy to understand. I do not want to get Covid. While it’s possible that an infection would only have minor symptoms, that cannot be counted on. Death would mess up Jiu-Jitsu considerably.

Suffering from long-term or serious complications could impact both training and exam performance.

Therefore, I’ve decided to train only with vaccinated partners who are also limiting themselves to working with only the vaccinated. Fortunately, there is a core of like-minded individuals at the local gym.

This doesn’t mean that I’m concerned if some non-vaccinated people are present on the mat as long as they are sensibly distanced. Actual training partners are a different matter, as the contact is about as close as it can be.

A downside to this is that my self-imposed rule makes training at my second-favourite gym has to be paused for now. That’s a lot of good training that I won’t be involved with.

Goal Two is to complete as many of the technical exams before heading off to a Black Belt evaluation.

The Gracies have stated many times that completing these exams counts towards belt evaluation. Call me crazy if you like, but I’d like earn them all.

A realistic amount of time to complete the 6 exams I still have to do would be something like 16 months. This assumes not losing time to injury, or illness, or not having a dedicated partner, or even dandy holidays.

A December 2023 timeline would be possible, as that is currently 26 months from now.

Completing all of the tech exams by the end of 2022 seems pretty unlikely. That is only 14 months in the future. If that is how it works out, my goal would be to polish off as many as possible.

Goal Three is to prepare for the evaluation. On top of all the regular stuff they expect of a Black Belt, the Gracies also exist on a test curriculum being worked up to a high level.

I worked with my friend Shawn when he prepared for his Black Belt evaluation back in 2018. We worked on it every chance we could, and it took about six months to polish up. That easily fits either timeline, assuming a suitable partner or partners are available to help.

Goal Four is to improve my overall Jiu-Jitsu skill. To do this, more training is better than less. In normal times this would just happen.

But now, being careful about Covid means fewer training partners, and less chances to train, at least to do it safely.

A lot of the time remaining will go towards technical exam work and Black Belt preparation. This means less time to work on general improvement.

It’s all just one big juggling act.

Last Test Ever

 

I have been a student of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu for just over ten years. It has been an enjoyable journey.

As the years went by, my rank progressed through a great many levels denoted by coloured belts, and stripes upon those belts.

Of course, my age has also progressed. I am now 65 years old.

Gaining ranks requires a certain intensity and focus in training. This doesn’t really allow much room for wider explorations of the art. It is also very hard on the body.

Things have just about reached the point in my training where I can take a deep breath, lower my intensity, and forget about rank progress.

I have two minor ranks left to earn, and should be done with that a year from now; October of 2022. There is only one possible step beyond that.

That final achievement is marked by receipt of a Black Belt.

That is an adventure in itself. A candidate’s instructor decides if the individual is ready. Normally this requires that the person is already a Gracie Brown Belt, and that all four of their Brown Belt stripe ranks have already been awarded. There seems to be some flexibility regarding the stripe ranks, but I don’t really know how that works.

Once an instructor has informed the Gracies that he wants his student tested, the candidate receives an invitation from HQ to be evaluated.

These invitations go out “early in the year,” but there may be exceptions to that. The meaning of the phrase isn’t very clear, but is usually taken to mean the invitations happen from January to perhaps April.

A candidate is invited to test for Black Belt at the next evaluation opportunity. These only happen once per year, and always just before Christmas.

As I will have the last of my Brown Belt stripes by October of 2022, my invitation to be tested for Black Belt should arrive early in 2023, for the exam that happens in December.

It was my privilege to help a friend of mine prepare for his Black Belt test throughout all of 2019. He expected to be tested around Christmas of that year, and so we got rolling in January, before his invitation came.

There used to be 4 optional technical exams. The Gracies made it known that completion of any or all of these would count greatly towards any belt exam. Shawn had previously done the first two, and our immediate goal was the get through the months of work required to polish off the rest.

He got his invitation in April, and on we worked. When the technical exams were done we slid seamlessly into working on the actual Black Belt exam syllabus. That also took many months of work, but we got Shawn heavily drilled in all of it.

My role for both the technical tests and the Black Belt test preparation was as the opponent for the material being covered. There were actually two of us in that role, simply to make it less demanding on any one person.

He went to LA in December as ready as possible, and was awarded his Black Belt.

My own plan is to do something similar between now and a Christmas ’23 test date.

Since Shawn’s test, the number for technical exams has doubled to 8. I want to get them all done. I completed the first one years ago, and have the second ready to submit. That leaves me 6 to go.

I will also have to prepare the Black Belt exam material to a high level of proficiency. Two years seems about the right amount of time to get this all done.

There is a chance that I’ll only have only half as much time to get ready.

It is possible that my instructor will submit a request to the Gracies that I test a year earlier. They might invite me after my next Brown Belt stripe promotion in February, with the expectation that I would receive my 4th in October, and then that I would test in December of 2022.

A very good thing about this is that I would be just a kid of 66 at my Black Belt test, instead of being a worn-out old man of 67.

That probably doesn’t sound like much, but it’s actually pretty huge.

The downside would be that it would likely be impossible to complete all of the technical exams.

I’ve thought about both possibilities, and as both have pros and cons, would be happy about either option.

Now as to the test itself; what are my chances of passing?

My friend did his big test at about ten years younger than I will be doing mine. It was three days long, and candidates were pushed very hard. When I asked him if he would have made it if the test were one day longer, and without hesitation he said an emphatic,”no!”

I’ll be older, and will fade much more quickly than my friend. I will also be much more likely to get injured during the testing. In general, I get damaged more than my younger peers, but with exhaustion will be even more likely to get sidelined. Not finishing means not passing.

Perhaps they take age into account, but they’ve never actually said so.

I call it an even chance.

If I pass, my training will change to something more sustainable over the long haul. It is possible to continue on the mat well past my current age, but not at my current pace. Without the pressure of promotions and exams one can be much more body-savvy about things.

The plan if I fail will be pretty much the same as if I pass. For the sake of my longevity on the mat I will let the idea of a Black Belt go. My rank will become etched in stone as a 4 stripe Brown Belt.

Just as I would do as a Black Belt, I will shift gears to a sustainable pace. The pressure of promotion and exam will be permanently retired.

Just as I will be OK with either likely test date, I will also be fine with either possible outcome.

My new goal will be to continue on the mat as close to forever as possible.

 

A Long Time

Covid hit my Jiu-Jitsu world in mid-March of 2020.

We were in California, and things got bad all over. Businesses of every type were shutting down. A lot of people were getting sick.

We headed north before the month was out. The freeways were strangely empty. Went through LA, San Francisco, and Seattle at what should have been rush hour, but wasn’t.

It was good to get home to Canada. Helen and I settled in for the long haul.

My Jiu-Jitsu shut down, along with pretty much everything else.

Gracie University is well known for the programs they put online, and they moved to take up the slack. They produced a few webinars, and were soon doing zoom lessons.

I loved the webinars, but their zooms didn’t click with me. A friend of mine in North Vancouver started doing zoom lessons of his own several times a week. These became my regular online program. Real, physical classes shut down everywhere.

We didn’t see any people in any way other than on screens, or masked and at a distance in a food store.

By July I found a partner for Jiu-Jitsu who is even more Covid careful than I am, and we worked for a few weeks until his situation changed and we had to end our meetings.

Helen found a few music groups that met masked, and only outdoors, and at several times the distance people were advised to maintain.

I had my zooms from North Vancouver, and nothing else Jiu-Jitsu related. They were great, and I was happy to get them, but something was lacking.

July became August, and then September. Nothing changed, but there was a shift by October.

A young gentleman and I started meeting to train. He was doing all of his high school classes at home, and was at least as deep into isolation as I am.

We trained three times a week. There were holes in this schedule on occasion. Although I am a retired man of leisure, my partner was still working his way through online high school, and also working online towards Royal Conservatory professional-level violin and viola exams.

On through Winter, and into Spring, and into the start of Summer. In April we received our first vaccination shots.

Then, on July 1st, our provincial government changed a lot of the official restrictions. Things started to open up, and Helen and I got our second Covid shots.

The local school won’t be in real operation for classes until September at the earliest, but small groups popped up.

I still work about 3 times a week with my musical friend. To this has been added twice a week with a small group of other folks, and an even smaller group of our most experienced people on Fridays. Soon I might even add a weekly trip to train with the fully open school in North Vancouver.

Suddenly, I’m training more than I would normally have done before Covid reared its ugly head.

Of course, this could all change in a flash if something goes sour; Covid variants spring to mind. However, I’m having a lot of fun.

My sister is coming for a visit soon, and we plan on going to see more family in Victoria in August.

Things are potentially more “normal” than they’ve been in a very long time.