It's all about me

At Jiu-Jitsu, I'm pretty selfish. The kicker is that people keep thanking me for it.

It is a great activity, but it's pretty difficult to do very much alone. Motivated partners are vital. I want to be as good at Jiu-Jitsu as possible, and that requires lots of practice, and that demands partners. Where to get them?

Recently, Cosme has been trying to prepare for and to film the final technical drill segment for his BBS1 exam. To do this, he needs a partner. We are the only two people who regularly show up on Saturday mornings. I offered to help.

The drill takes about 15 minutes when done full speed, and consists of a series of specific techiques, done in response to specific actions and reactions by the drill partner. Kinda like a very complex dance. I like training for this. More training makes me better.

He then asked if I would be his on-camera partner as well. I readily agreed. Doing more makes me better, which is my goal. We completed it last night.

All along, Cos kept thanking me for all the help. I should have been thanking him, but I didn't.

Koko also wants to complete her own BBS1 exam, but is nowhere as ready as Cos. She usually lives on-campus in the big city. She Is only home for the summer. I have been helping her in any spare time during class but it just isn't enough.

We therefore met for two evenings this last weekend so she could do extra drill. I am both tutor and partner as she brushes things up. She does the moves over, and over, and over.

I have agreed to be her on-camera partner as well, but things aren't at that stage yet.

Like Cosme, she keeps thanking me, and thinks it was all for her. I was even given a bag of blueberries out of gratitude. I should have been thanking her for the four hours of intensive drill and review. Again, I let my partner think I'm nicer than I really am.

I would therefore like to officially thank both Cosme and Koko for their recent help in making me better at Jiu-Jitsu. I am also glad that it was useful to you as well.

...and to anybody else that needs help. Please, feel free to ask, and I'll selfishly accept.

Water

The worsening drought in California, as well as in many other places is bringing water awareness to the forefront.

It blew my mind to learn that through all the years of shortage, there have been no residential water restrictions on most California residents. Isn't that crazy? They have instituted their first rules, and residential water consumption has instantly dropped from 30-40%.

People have also started freaking out about beverage companies in the drought zones continuing to bottle water. I don't quite understand what that is all about, but am loving the awareness. Citizens are saying to boycott products from those corporations. Others are saying to stop using bottle water altogether.

By whatever route, opinion is finally swinging into sync with my own.

Bottled water is stupid.

I came from a time when drinking water came from taps. Around me, it still does.

My first exposure to ordinary water in bottles came during a visit to Germany over 20 years ago. Nobody there drank tap water. When we asked why, nobody seemed to know. They admitted that tap water was perfectly safe. I, therefore, tried some and it was absolutely fine. It tasted exactly like water.

Even back then, if you wanted water in a German restaurant, they brought you the bottled stuff and charged you accordingly. You had to be specific to get tap water, and even then got looks like it was something they'd never even heard of.

Our second exposure was also pretty far back. We were in Disneyland near Los Angeles. For the first time, we saw vendors at the Disney parades selling bottled water. There were all the usual sellers of balloons, soda, snacks, but also ice-cold bottled water. I thought this very stupid, as the soft drinks were both larger and less expensive. Folks flocked to buy water.

It has since grown like madness.

What do I have against it?

There is the cost. We pay less per day for unlimited water to be supplied to our home that we would pay for a single bottle of water. It is mid-morning, and I have so far I have made a pot of coffee, done a load of laundry, washed my face, flushed a couple of times, and run the dishwasher. All this at less than the price of one bottle of the exact same liquid, and the day has hardly begun.

There is also a massive environmental cost. All our household water comes from the municipal supply at a minimal environmental cost. None of it is hauled around on trucks from place to place. It is also not packaged. Bottled water comes in those lovely plastic container. This would be bad enough, even if every single one were recycled, but only about 30% ever are. The remaining 70% end up in landfills and scattered around the countryside in general. In heavily populated areas it's a huge concern.

There is also quality and safety. Municipal water supply is incredibly safe, and held to the highest standards of purity. Some North American cities had the safety factor, but had stuff that could only be described as yucky in taste, but even this has changed. Los Angeles used to have the worst-tasting water anywhere, but no longer. On our most recent visit I was merrily guzzling it like it was, well, water.

Bottled water is not regulated in the same way. Patrons are trusting corporations to keep them safe by providing good tasting and safe water. Personally, I don't trust corporations any farther than I can throw them. I like water that has been sterilized by local authorities under the direction of higher government regulation.

There is also the sucker factor. Customers are told one thing, and given another. Bottled water is always presented as coming form clear mountain springs. It very rarely is. The most common source for bottled water is municipal water supplies. Sometimes it gets filtered, but this is totally up to the corporation involved. It is perfectly legal for them to fill their bottles from city water, name it something attractive, put pictures of mountain streams on the label, and sell it in the supermarket on the same street where it was produced for over a thousand times higher price.

I should perhaps harp more about taste. Let's say you buy a bottle of water that some corporation has actually brought it from some huge factory that actually uses dandy mountain water. To get it to you, they hauled it a thousand miles in a big stinky truck, and packaged it for you in a clear plastic bottle that likely will end up in some landfill. By the time it gets to you, there will have occurred a tiny bit of chemical leeching from the bottle. If you were drinking cola, or juice, this would be undetectable, but water has no masking flavour of its own. On the few times I've had water out of a bottle it has always tasted like plastic. Yum. My tap water tastes of nothing.

My wife carries a water bottle. It is made of glass, and lasts for years.

Purple Glass Ceiling

There are a lot of old guys in Jiu-Jitsu.

Take the most famous of Helio Gracie's sons. Royce is 48, Rickson is 56, and the oldest, Rorion is 63.

There is, however, a big difference between an old guy who has been doing Jiu-Jitsu for his entire life, and a beginner of similar age. The experts have bodies and minds that are shaped by many decades of training. A beginner is just like you or me.

In fact, I am just such a beginner. I started four years ago at the age of 55.

I only know of two Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Black Belts who started anywhere near my age. The late John Boyd was one who helped Rener and Ryron Gracie form many of their ideas about older students. He received his Black Belt at age 51. The other was the actor Ed O'Neill, who earned his at age 61.

As I said, I started at 55, and according to the Gracie's rules for distance students, the earliest I could possibly earn a Black Belt would see me being 70 years of age. That's a whole other kettle of fish. I won't even see a Brown Belt until I'm 65. Purple isn't so far off, being possible when I'm only 60.

It is a difficult road for an old student like me at an outlying school. At the main Gracie Academy in Los Angeles, students train, and when the instructors deem them ready, they are promoted. No tests are involved. For a distance student, the minor stripe promotions work that way, but the jumps from belt to belt are very different.

We have to arrange for an in-person evaluation with the Gracies. These exams are very extensive, lasting up to an hour. Saw a few video clips of an exam done by a visiting student from the UK, which was only for a stripe. It was so demanding that he ended up puking.

I don't think it would be realistic for me to expect to pass any sort of physically demanding test at age 70 for a Black Belt, or even at 65 to earn a Brown. If there are any delays due to injury, illness, or even long vacations these ages will be even higher.

I think that I am facing a purple-coloured glass ceiling due to age.

I would still be earning belt stripes after getting Purple occasionally based on time and attendance. Once my upcoming Purple Belt is filled up with four such decorations, my rank climb will be done.

I will certainly keep training as long as possible.

That's OK.

It does make me a little jealous of the younger folks in the class. Even Rob, the next oldest gentleman student, who will be facing all the same promotions as me, will do so a decade younger. For him, Black and Brown are quite doable.

Although there will be a cap on my ultimate progress, it will remove one nasty ongoing worry. For a long time I've been working to get myself as far along in rank as possible, as quickly as practical, which has been causing me to obsessively tally attendance. Each stripe requires 100 classes, which I've been trying to collect within each minimum 8-month period. Sometimes, like now, it's easy; other times it's impossible.

If I have no reason to try and hurry anymore, it ceases to be an issue. For my upcoming stripe promotion, I will have plenty. For the next to Purple, it is irrelevant altogether. That leaves just the four stripes that I can expect to eventually collect on my Purple Belt. They will each require 100 classes, but if the gathering of these takes an extra few weeks, or months, or years, it will have no effect on my eventual rise.

Counting classes becomes a thing of the past.

Gi styles

It's funny how much martial arts uniforms are influenced by fashion.

I don't mean the people who wear Kung-Fu jammies, or even have gi in pretty colours. I am talking about folks who wear the traditional white uniform.

When I started Karate back in the early eighties, everybody wore gi that were white. The only adornment, would be a single, small manufacturer’s patch of maybe two square inches.

Even these simple garments went through cycles in style. The weirdest was when people started wearing them with jackets that went almost down to their knees.

In Jiu-Jitsu things are even more volatile. Even white gi tend to get all decorated with a plethora of patches, emblems, and writing. People seem to want to decorate more, but there is strong peer pressure to wear less. I prefer the cheapest and least decorated of the uniforms available through the Gracies. It has two small association patches on the upper arms of the jacket, and a couple on the pant legs.

This is all annoying enough, but there is also the actual styling.

Gi were invented by the Judo people in Japan, and when they did so they made them baggy. They were loose for comfort and for freedom of movement. It became a tradition, and they still like them that way.

I don't know if the newer type of styling in Jiu-Jitsu gi came from Brazil, of if it's an American thing. The new type is the same length as the old style, but much, much tighter to the body. Some people call them “skinny gi,” in reference to “skinny jeans.”

They are less comfortable, and have less freedom of movement. The pants are also cut with a low rise, and underwear shows out all over the place. Basically, they suck.

It's what the style conscious are all wearing, dumb as that might be.

There is even a technique, called an Ezekiel choke, that is much more effective with a baggy gi. It still works with a skinny gi, but is harder to sink, and is then only a trachea crush. With a looser sleeve it is easier to hide from the target, and faster across the neck. It can also be a trachea crush, but using the sleeve against the “other” side of the neck makes it a blood choke as well. You can put people to sleep.

Then, of course, there are the belts. They come in about a bazillion colours, but Jiu-Jitsu limits itself to five. These are white, blue, purple, brown, and black. So are there belt styles as well?

You bet. The three related issues are belt length, how it's worn, and what knot is used.

Length is usually a fluke. When we earn a belt with the Gracies, they ship one out from HQ. Our instructor guesses what size would fit best, but they seem to use a number of suppliers. It's a crap shoot. Most people end up with belts that have about 6 inches beyond the knot on both ends. My original blue belt was much shorter.

Overly-short belts tend to come undone more frequently, which is annoying. Mine was such a problem that I exchanged it for a longer one when I was in LA a couple of years ago.

There are three body locations to wear a belt on. It could go at the thinnest part of the waist, or below the hip bone, or just above. Only children ever wear their belts at the waist. This is due to parents dressing their kids. Located here, there is no slack, and breathing can be affected.

Below the hips avoids this, but the belt tends to move around a lot, which makes the knots loosen. Wearing the belt at the hips prevents the belt from slipping around, and doesn't impede breathing.

For some reason beyond my understanding, the same crowd that favours skinny gi seem to all prefer their belts down below their hips.

The knot can be tied several different ways. This doesn't even include all the many people who use incorrect knots. An incorrect knot is one that doesn't use a reef knot shape, or that fails to capture the inner belt wrap within it. It is remarkable that so many Jiu-Jitsu people (not Gracie students) cannot tie a knot. It's the first thing kids in Karate learn.

There are three basic knots. The first is a basic reef style. It is quick to do, but in grappling tends to untie. The second is a reef, with one of the tails routed between the two belt turns, rather than outside of them. This added friction keeps that end from slipping. Strangely, most people only do this to one belt end. The last method is the same as the second, but with both belt ends tucked inside. Mine has never, ever come undone accidentally.

This blog has gotten way too long, especially considering the topic. Therefore, I won't into the clothing options for underneath the gi jacket (bare chest, tshirt, sports bra, rash guard), or that are starting to appear hanging down below the pant legs (like a rash guard and called spats).

Perhaps another time.

Roads

What is the absolute best thing about being a student at the Gracie Academy in Los Angeles?

Just forget about the great instructors, full training schedule, first-rate facility, and even the training itself. The absolute best thing is that there are no promotion exams at all.

All the little levels have the same requirements that we have out here. A student must train for 8 months and have attended 100 appropriate classes to be considered for a belt stripe promotion. The one difference is that at Certified Training Centres like our school, those are rock-solid minimums. Down in LA they are not carved-in-stone. If the Gracies want to give somebody a belt stripe early.... well... they are the Gracies.

Two years ago while training in LA, I overheard a student congratulating another on a stripe promotion. The other student thanked him, and said he had been surprised as the promotion had come early.

I have been to LA twice, and on the second visit there were a few people wearing higher rank than strict adherence to the rules would have made possible. Far from the centre, it is 8 months and 100 classes or nothing.

This is how it should be.

Down there, when one is ready for the next Belt, it is awarded. It doesn't seem to matter how many stripes a student has on their current belt, if they are ready for the next belt it is given. No test needed, as they know all of their students very well. The one restriction on this is that they only hold two belt promotion ceremonies per year; one in June and the other at Christmas.

For Certified Training Centre students belt promotions are very, very different. To be considered, students must have the maximum number (4) of stripes on their current belt. They must also record their months of training and class attendance since receiving their 4^th stripe. No guideline is given as to how many months or classes this should be.

They must then arrange to do an in-person evaluation with the Gracies, or one of their authorized Black Belts. This can either be done at a seminar somewhere, or it might require a visit to Los Angeles.

Once under the microscope, they are subjected to a test of their general Jiu-Jitsu knowledge, and to extensive sparring. I suspect the process would be quite intensive, not to mention long. At the end, the student is either promoted to the next belt, or not.

Let's use me as an example. I have a Blue Belt with 3 stripes. If I were an LA student, and if the Gracies felt I was already good enough to be a Purple Belt I would have been awarded one this month (June) (fat chance).

If not, I should receive my next-and-final Blue Belt stripe in October (same here and in LA).

If I were a Los Angeles student, and good enough, I would then receive a Purple Belt at Christmas. If not ready, it would likely be awarded the next June. In all of that, no decision or action would be required from me. I would just concentrate on my training until the rank came.

As a distant student, I have to decide when my Purple Evaluation should be done. How long should it be after receiving my 4th stripe? How many classes should have been attended? Should I wait for a seminar near home, or go to LA? Failure would necessitate another, later evaluation.

This entire process would be bad enough if each student only had to do it once in a career. A long-time distance student will go through this process this three times; once for each of Purple, Brown and Black Belts.

For a distance student, if we assume 6 months to go from beginner to Blue Belt (very, very fast), and assume they are successfully promoted for each belt 6 months after receiving their last, previous Belt's stripe the total time to reach Black Belt is very daunting. The total comes to 12.5 years, and this should be considered an absolute minimum, and would include 3 difficult and stressful evaluations.

The shortest-ever time for anyone to go from beginner to Black Belt at the Los Angeles school is 7 years, and no exams were required at all.

I hate tests.

Septembers

September has been the most important month for me in Jiu-Jitsu. You wouldn't think so, as, for example, my promotions all happened in June, December, March, and February. It is true, nevertheless.

I started Jiu-Jitsu about halfway through September of 2011, as a somewhat casual student. That in itself is big enough, but before the month was over I already knew that I was hooked.

I was promoted to Blue Belt the following June, but was doing a lot of travel over the summer. That made my real start in advanced training to be September of 2012. That is a huge change, and many people quit about that time.

I started my time as a Blue just taking whatever came along, but soon realized that I wanted to progress faster than that. I started doing tons of extra training, and private lessons, so that I would earn my first stripe early.

September of 2013 was when this process wrapped up, and I started to actually prepare for the exam itself.

September 2014 is the only September that didn't have any big milestones attached to it that I can think of.

The one upcoming, in 2015 will see the attendance requirement for my fourth Blue Belt stripe completed. I won't receive that promotion until mid October, but there will be no more attendance requirements for quite a while. There are no specified totals for the following promotion; the one to Purple Belt. This could mean as little as 7 months, and as many as 19 months with no attendance requirements.

Can I see farther into the future than that? Nope.

Not really a pattern, in my opinion, but rather a coincidence.

50s

The Bellator organization put on a big mma promotion this last weekend.

The main event event featured a man named Kimbo Slice. He was a popular fighter a while back, but never really achieved a lot, and is currently 41 years old.

That's pretty ancient in the combat world, but he was by far the baby in the match.

The other guy was Ken Shamrock, and he's 51. That isn't a typo. This guy fought in the very first UFC event back in 1993. In UFC1 he lost to a guy about 50 pounds smaller, and the rest of his career ran about the same way.

He looked lousy on Saturday. His double-leg takedown attempts looked like he was moving in slow motion, and yet somehow, he managed to catch Kimbo Slice in a rear naked choke. He had the submission imperfectly locked in, and he managed to eventually lose it.

Kimbo got out, and back to his feet. A punch or two later and the referee called a halt to save Shamrock's life.

Sometimes old folks perform feats of magic, but sometimes they just plain fail. Keep in mind that this isn't a story of an old warrior losing to a young buck. It's an old warrior losing to a slightly-less ancient fighter.

How exactly did he fail?

He was moving really, really slowly in his attacks. Surely, if he was doing that during training, it would have been an obvious weakness, and his fight plan would have been modified. What was happening is that he was allowing nerves to cause muscle tension that robbed him of his speed.

That wasn't a failure of age. He just plain did not relax. It's actually a rookie mistake.

So he managed to catch Kimbo in a rear naked choke. I don't mean he had a half-assed choke, it was really, really good. However, again Shamrock didn't relax, and cranked that neck as hard as he could. Another rookie mistake. He should have calmed down, and worked to adjust things the little bit they needed to reach perfection; then he should have applied the pressure, but he didn't.

He yanked and yanked on that neck, and it wasn't working. At that point he should have switched gears, and gone for the readjustment he had foregone earlier, but he didn't. He just kept cranking, even after it was obvious that it wasn't going to work. He kept trying, until his arms couldn't hold on any more, and so Kimbo got away.

Back to their feet, and now Shamrocks arms were so heavy that it made Kimbo's punches much more effective, and Kimbo started to connect. Bang, bang and it was all over.

Old Man Shamrock lost by making stupid rookie errors. He looked so bad that many people are convinced the fight was fixed.

Old guys can't afford to make mistakes like that. I'm 8 years older than Shamrock, but I still roll with people in their teens, and twenties.

Perhaps I am deluding myself, but I don't think so.

Most Jiu-Jitsu schools are full of young people. People in their forties are considered geezers. People even older than that are extremely rare. Our school's advanced class has four members over 50.

One is our instructor, and he beats everybody. I am the oldest, and regularly tap out everybody other than our instructor. Another is perhaps the steadiest person around here, and has first-rate technique. The final one is the smallest person in the class, and yet rolls in the least predictable manner of anybody here.

I roll with everybody, and rate these other geezers are amongst the school's elite. The secret to our over-fifty-group's success is an emphasis on quality of technique.

I do, however, wonder what our upper age limit will be. There are many old folks doing martial arts, but normally they started when much younger. Training has given them bodies moulded over decades. Their skills are likewise conditioned by time.

Our instructor is a Purple Belt, but the rest of our old-folks group are mere Blue Belts. We are still rookies in the Jiu-Jitsu world. Our bodies are not moulded by decades, nor our skills conditioned by time.

Will we still be advancing ten years from now; all in our sixties? Or in twenty years; in our seventies?

It would be nice, and only time will tell.