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.