Black Belt

Recently, I hit a milestone in my Gracie Jiu-Jitsu journey.

My instructor told me over a year ago that he was putting my name forward for a big promotion. The evaluation involved is quite comprehensive and gruelling, so my preparation started then.

This was harder than it should have been. Covid kept regular training irregular, and extra practice was even harder to arrange.

About a half year later, candidates received their official invitations to attend the annual Black Belt evaluation.

This only happens in the first half of December, and involves candidates from around the world.

We also received more detailed information regarding requirements. By chance, our remarkably small school had five approved candidates. I believe this was the largest number from any one gym other than perhaps the Gracie University headquarters school in Los Angeles.

My training ramped up even more. It ran at about 8 sessions per week. A normal amount of training is about 3 classes per week. For me, normal is more like 4.

I drove south in time to get in two weeks of training with the Gracies before the big event.

When the actual exam started, there were about 35 candidates in total, with some from as far away as South Africa, Britain, and Australia. It made us Canadians feel almost like locals.

The eight hours of testing was spread over two days.

All five from my school passed, as did all three from neighbouring Vancouver.

It was an incredible relief to successfully complete the evaluation process, and to head home.

A lot of people have congratulated me, and there have been a lot of hugs. Some have asked if I would set up my own school. In reality, nothing much will change.

One thing that will be different is that I can explore in other directions than that demanded by the narrow focus of test preparation.

Having a little more freedom will be very nice.

Praise

 

Try and imagine something that is really, really fun. Maybe for you it’s dancing, or playing golf, or surfing, or fiddle playing. Maybe going to a movie is your favourite activity, or catching some live theatre, or just possibly hanging out in bars.

Whatever it is, you’d probably like to do it a lot. Would once a week be enough? Would doing it every day be too much?

I don’t feel that if somebody adores skiing, that they should be praised for the many hours they put into their activity. They are doing it for their own enjoyment, and would likely stop if the fun ever went away.

Of course, they shouldn’t be condemned for following their passion. That would be nuts. If somebody likes riding horses, and they want to do so every day, more power to them if they can pull it off.

For me, the best activity is Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.

It is fun learning something I’m interested in. It is fun training all of the moves and trying to improve. It is fun rolling around on the floor trying to defeat one another like a room full of puppies playing.

Somehow, I keep running into praise about how dedicated and disciplined I am. It seems I’m an inspiration.

I do train a lot. If I were to pick the perfect schedule, there would be an average of at least one Jiu-Jitsu session on it each day. Maybe some days more than one class; perhaps some days off of training.

This is more classes than are possible at the school in my little town. I attend both of the classes they put on, and also meet three times a week to work in a small group.

Getting more training involves traveling to train in Vancouver. It pretty much kills the day getting back and forth, and people there often praise me for being so hardworking and committed and other dandy stuff. Would they compliment somebody who travelled into the city because they liked to go shopping? I don’t think so.

I’m simply doing it for fun.

I guess for most people Jiu-Jitsu doesn’t have that effect. Many have stories to recount about times when they had to drag themselves to class, or they had to push through a plateau. I’ve never had anything like that. It is always fun.

I am not dedicated to my art, or struggling through any sorts of hardships. I am simply enjoying myself.

This is not to say that I mind being complimented on my discipline, or my work ethic, or dedication, or whatever. Maybe if they think there are such people out there it will help them through one of their slumps.

It might surprise them to know that if Jiu-Jitsu ever stopped being fun for me I would stop doing it.

Recent praise from my brother-in-law hit me with another similar, but different compliment.

He said that when somebody says they did their best he compares them with me, and thinks that they really didn’t do as much as they could have.

Maybe they just didn’t find an activity that they found so incredibly enjoyable that they would ignore any temptations to stay home, or to go do something else.

Anyhow, those are my thoughts on why I hang out on Jiu-Jitsu mats. I train a lot, but not due to any noble motivation.

I just like to smile.

Jiu-Jitsu Beginner First Class

 

If you are reading this, you most likely have some interest in joining a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu class, and are wondering what you can expect.

Likely, you will be somewhat nervous. Hopefully, this blog entry will give you a clear idea of what to expect, and to set any fears to rest.

Our beginner program is called “Gracie Combatives”, and runs Monday and Wednesday at 6:30pm. Each session goes for one hour.

When you arrive you will see people dressed in white uniforms, and several in various types of workout clothing. Someone will approach you wearing a friendly expression. We like having new people come to give us a try.

They will answer any questions you might have, and explain the basics as to how the class works. This person will most likely be the evening’s instructor, but it could be any of us.

At the start time, the class lines up along the wall and the instructor will give an introduction about the topic for the night. Students will be reminded they are to review previously learned material as a warm up that will last about ten minutes. New students, such as yourself, will be invited to one side for a short introduction to what we do in general, and to the beginner program that we run.

The class is gathered up after the warm-up/introduction period.

Each evening one standing move is taught, along with another related to fighting on the ground.

The instructor demonstrates the first move, with an advanced helper. They then show all of the steps and go over it all several times. Students pair up and give it a try.

This is a cooperative exercise; not a competitive one. This is always strongly emphasized, and reinforced. The beginner program is totally focused at some outside attacker. We help each other to survive that attack, and it is not a game where we try to defeat each other. We save that for the advanced class.

The partners take turns with the move. There will likely be several advanced helper teachers walking about giving assistance. Feel free to ask one for a hand if you need it. After working on this for a while, the class gets lined up again to learn the next variation of the move. There will be between one and three of these variations.

After working on the evening’s standing technique, the teacher goes on through the same method of demonstration and instruction for the ground fighting technique.

Again there is the lesson, then partner work, and then work on other variations.

The lessons are designed to fit nicely within the one-hour class structure.

The curriculum and teaching methodology has all been carefully constructed by Ryron and Rener Gracie. Our local instructors have had to complete a comprehensive program training them how to teach the Gracie program.

Once the class has ended, there is usually a little bit of hanging around and chatting. It is very unusual for anybody to have picked up an injury.

We will hope that you will return. Jiu-Jitsu may not be what you were looking for, and we understand that. We consider it our job to give as honest a representation of it that we possibly can, in a welcoming, non-threatening, and injury-free way.

Going South

The date is set, and I’m training like a madman. There is an incredible amount of material to absorb. Every minute of preparation is valuable.

This isn’t fun, and has been going on for the better part of a year. There are two-and-a-half months still to go.

If I pass, all is well and good. If not, or if I get wrecked during all the preparation work, I will not be doing it all again. For me, this is all supposed to be fun. I am old, and using up another year out of my finite supply is not an option.

I head south during the American Thanksgiving weekend in November. My wife is planning on staying behind here. The drive is a little over 2,100 kilometres, and will be spread over three days. All that travel will land me in Los Angeles ready to attend two intensive training weeks prior to the actual exam.

The Covid infection rate in Los Angeles county is alarming. Likely I’ll be avoiding people there as much as I can. When not on the mat I’ll be like a hermit. This is fine as there is nothing holiday-like about this California trip at all.

The actual evaluation will be my last two days in LA. I expect having everything thrown at the candidates. I really have no idea what their standards are like. There is a strong chance that I’ll be the oldest one being tested.

The drive home is the same length in distance and in terms of time as the trip south had been. I should be home smack in the middle of December.

That will feel good.

Either Way

 

So this year could be one of three Jiu-Jitsu promotions for me.

The first happened last month, and the second should happen in October. Those will be for stripes on my Brown Belt.

The third would be the big one.

It means getting down to Los Angeles to the big, yearly Black Belt mass evaluation just before Christmas.

Every training minute of my year will have been focused on preparing for that event. Actually more like a year-and-a-quarter. I started getting ready a few months ago.

All good training, of course, but quite a few Jiu-Jitsu projects would otherwise I have gotten involved with are on hold until after my Black Belt exam.

Of course, in December there will be considerable expense in getting down south. The exam is almost dawn-to-dusk for four days, so a minimum hotel stay would be 6 days long.

If all goes well, by Christmas I should have a shiny, new Black Belt.

However, such a thing isn’t guaranteed. If it were, why would there even be an evaluation event? I could be found wanting, and not pass.

I’m also crazy old to be doing Jiu-Jitsu (I’ll be 66 years old for the December exam), and could easily get injured badly enough at the test that I cannot finish the process. It is an extremely demanding event.

I could also get hurt before going south, or perhaps get sick or some such thing. This would also prevent a successful progression to Black Belt.

What would I do if any of those nasty events came to pass? The very next chance at a do-over would be a full 12 months later.

Those 12 months would again be totally focused on preparation for going to LA.

I’ve decided that I won’t want to do that. My remaining number of years in Jiu-Jitsu is limited. If I pass the test, I will move on to other Jiu-Jitsu focus areas. If I don’t pass the test, I will also move on.

I will not go for a second Black Belt examination, but will instead be content with my Brown Belt.

There is no real downside to this, and an enormous amount of training would be free for other objectives, not to mention the amount of money that another exam and trip to LA would entail.

Early on in my Jiu-Jitsu years it looked as if a Purple Belt was almost a pipe dream, and anything beyond that was quite impossible. I enjoyed my White and Blue Belt years, and then the promotion rules shifted. Purple became a real possibility, and in no time at all I received a Purple Belt.

Now I am a Brown Belt, and almost at the end of that path. It would be no hardship to stick at that level for the rest of my Jiu-Jitsu years.

Of course, I still plan on doing everything I can to earn a Black Belt by Christmastime. It would make a nice stocking stuffer.

Bugs Around

 

Covid hit Canada early in 2020. At first there were only a few infections, but that started to grow. The worst day was December 20th, when the rate hit a year high of 181.01 . (All these rates are a 7-day rolling average of new confirmed infections per 1,000,000 of population, and are taken from https://ourworldindata.org/covid-cases )

The infection rate in 2021 went up and down in waves, with two days being tied for best at 9.64 and the absolute worst day hit 227.97 .

Early in 2022 things went absolutely nuts. The rate shot up so that by January 10th it peaked at 1093.38 . That is 4.79 times worst than the absolute highest rate since Covid hit the country. At that figure, 1% of the entire country would be freshly infected in only 10 days.

I found it very strange that many people were pushing for lessening of Covid restrictions. Logic would suggest that acting in an opposite manner would make much more sense.

The good news is that the surge started to steadily decrease almost as quickly as it had shot up. As of yesterday, February 17th, the rate had dropped to 202.99 .

That is still higher than at any time in 2020, and is close to the worst day in 2021, but is less than a quarter of what it had been just a few days before.

If this continues I will soon be loosening up a bit with my own behavior.

I have decided that a rate around 100 would work for me for a partial return to activity.

Using two different mathematical calculations, and then believing the most pessimistic, the rate should go below 100 by February 24th.

Then if things continue, the rate should go under 50 by March 2nd.

These are only mathematical models based on past events and in no way predict what people and the virus will get up to. They just suggest where the line on a graph might end up if it keeps behaving the way it recently has.

So what do I do now to avoid infection, and how might that change?

I don’t go out where people are very much at all. If I am in a grocery store, drug store, or other such venue I am always masked. I find all masks pretty much equally annoying so I wear an N95. Why not?

If I’m out on my daily run, I try to avoid getting close to other people.

I love going out to eat, but haven’t even considered doing so since the infection rate exploded.

My most important out-of-house activity is attending Jiu-Jitsu training. In normal times, this includes regular advanced classes, advanced principles sessions, beginner classes, training in the city, and training with partners. If is quite normal for me to train close to ten times a week.

Currently, everything is on hold except working with Sam. Both of us are extremely Covid cautious, and don’t train with anybody else, or even with other people around. We do this a few times per week, except when either of us might have been exposed to Covid in any way.

If the rate drops below 100 we are both ready to consider returning to the advanced principles sessions. These classes are incredibly interesting, valuable, and fun. I suspect that we would attend, but still only partner with each other during practice time and sparring.

If the rate goes below 50 perhaps we’d add more classes, or maybe other partners. We haven’t discussed this yet, and would both need to agree.

Even if a totally effective cure is developed for Covid my behavior has been forever changed. In crowded situations I’ll likely always rely on a good mask. Why wouldn’t I do that when riding on crowded transit or some similar situation? Even if there were no Covid around, there are always other lesser viruses and bacteria being coughed and sneezed about.

Repetition and Reporting

Martial Arts are all about repetition.

It is the key to mastery in every aspect of training.

You do things over and over to improve them, and to make them automatic and smooth.

There is also a lot of repetition outside of the training.

For me, one of these will be ending soon.

Rank in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu starts with a White Belt, and progresses through to a Blue Belt, then a Purple and Brown, and eventually to a Black Belt.

For each of the belt changes, there is a major exam or evaluation. These are usually very demanding and demand a lot of preparation.

There are also ranks awarded within each coloured belt level. The student starts with an unadorned cloth belt. Small stripes are awarded and added to one end of the belt. Each belt eventually receives 4 such stripes.

The rules for all of these stripe are the same regardless of the belt colour.

The student must have been training for a bare minimum of 8 months since their previous promotion, and have attended at least 100 classes. At that point it is up to the instructor to decide if the student is ready to move up. Sometimes this happens at or near the 8-month mark, but sometimes a delay can be considerable.

My own training has pretty much aways been a bit of a mish-mash. I attend appropriate classes at several schools in the course of any given year, as well as working one-on-one at non-class times.

Because of this the normal school-attendance recording system doesn’t work for me. When my 8 months are up I notify my instructor about the state of my attendance. As a Blue Belt this was usually to tell him that my tally wasn’t done.

I like moving along promptly. Missing my total for a first Purple Belt stripe was so annoying it inspired me to bump up my training on an ongoing basis.

I’ve been a Brown Belt throughout the Covid era, but it was much harder to get enough training done. I managed.

Yesterday was the 8-month point for getting a third stripe on my Brown Belt. I notified my instructor, and it’s now up to him.

I beat the 100 class requirement with a tally of 112. That isn’t a very wide buffer, and the patterns of training not typical at all. A delay in promotion might well be in the cards.

Whenever it happens I will be left with only a single stripe to earn….ever.

I don’t mind keeping track of my classes at all. Training a lot is also right up my alley. What I don’t like is having to nag my instructor about it every 8 months.

Luckily, I’m darn near done with that. Just one more time and I’ll be out of stripes forever.

Odds

In 2020 Canada had two peaks of Covid infection. One hit 231 and the other reached 232. (All infection rates quoted are from ourworldindata.org and reflect 7-day rolling averages of confirmed cases per million individuals)

It dropped to less than 10, and then popped up again. By December 12th it was a hair under 100, and headed sharply upward. The peak hit 1,093 on January 10th.

Thankfully, it has shot downward again just as quickly and reached 458 by January 26th.

The peak seems to have passed, and the trend is rapidly downward. However, it is still higher than at anytime in 2020, and 4 times as high as when we started locking down again before Christmas. Although many are deciding it’s time to loosen up restrictions I totally disagree.

I am waiting for the rate to get back below 100 before even considering loosening up at all.

I also don’t consider loosening up to mean a total dropping of precautions.

For me it will mean still wearing a mask whenever out and about. I will also avoid contact with non-vaccinated folk in particular, and any with anybody in general.

Using my main activity as an example I shall describe what this means. Let’s say the infection rate got low enough for me to rejoin group Jiu-Jitsu training, and that there were three classes I could attend.

The first group is a 20 member mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated people. The second also has 20 participants, but everybody has to be fully vaccinated. I doubt I’d join the first group at all. The second would be significantly more attractive.

But then let’s say that there is a third group that also requires full vaccination, but that only has 10 members. Everything else being equal this is where I’d much rather train. There would be less contact than either the first or second group, and a vaccine mandate.

Currently, I am only doing Jiu-Jitsu training with a single individual. We are both vaccinated, and neither trains with anybody else. My exposure is to one person.

Might I still get infected during Jiu-Jitsu training? Of course, but my current risk is more-or-less one tenth of what it would be from a class of ten, and 5% of what I’d be facing with a group of twenty. It is all a game of percentages.

Some of my behaviours have been forever altered by the existence of Covid. I will never again sit in a movie theatre, and doubt I’ll ever ride crowded transit without an N95 mask.