Technique Cramming Solutions

There is a crunch coming.

It won't be here until the middle of April, but it will be have a significant effect on how we do things at our Jiu-Jitsu academy. The good news is that April is still 8 months away.

We used to go through a body of curriculum that contained a total of 60 techniques, along with their variations, in a 81 week cycle. That meant we covered each of the 60 items in an average of just over 4 hours of class time.

Now, in addition, we have a second level of technique to cover. That means 120 techniques. Besides more to cover, the amount of time to cover it all has been reduced to 54 weeks, down from 81. That has all conspired to change the average amount of time for each technique down to 1 hour and 21 minutes.

This is a huge change, but it is still working very well, even though some of our newer Blue Belts describe it all as feeling overwhelming. I would say that there is no slack left at all.

In April, we will be incorporating a further 60 techniques into the cycle. The number of weeks to cover it all will remain at 54. That will bring our average amount of class time for each of the 180 items down to 54 minutes.

About a year after that, the number of techniques will go up again, reducing average class time per technique down to 40 minutes. That's crazy, and it will just keep getting worse.

A logical short-term solution would be to add in some more weeks of training. We work on the curriculum in bundles that each get two weeks of time. If we added in a third week, that would increase our 54 week cycle into one of 81 weeks. Strangely enough, that is exactly how much time the cycle used to take when we did it the old way.

That would change the 54 minute crunch that's coming in April quite a bit. The average time per technique would increase to 1 hour 21 minutes. Strangely, that is exactly how much time we currently spend on each technique, and at that pace, things seem to be OK.

When the next level after that kicks in, the pace would be exactly 1 hour per technique, which could be too tight, but still far better than the 40 minutes we were looking at.

The only way I can see it working beyond that would be to switch from the current total-coverage system into one more similar to what is done at the Gracie Academy in Los Angeles.

They don't have 120 techniques like we currently do, or the 180 that we are facing in April, or the 240 of the year after. They literally work on thousands.

Like us, they also do theirs as a cycle broken into little bundles. Like I suggest would be better for us here starting in April, they invest 81 weeks on each time through the cycle.

I have been at the Gracie Academy when they worked through several of these bundles. Mixed in with everything else, there was some of the material we cover here, but not all of it.

They cover as much as they can in 3 weeks, and then move on; the idea being that the other stuff will eventually get covered in later repetitions through the cycle. They try to provide something for every one of a dozen levels, even if they can't do it all.

So my ideas are to add more weeks, and eventually to give up on the idea of being able to cover everything each time through the cycle.

Tawha thinks that perhaps we could divide the class into two groups, without adding weeks. If we are a big enough group by April, that might make sense, too.

Perhaps the newer people would work on the first levels of material, and the more experienced work on the higher-level stuff. The only problem with that is that our instructor would have to do twice as much teaching.

We are sort of doing this informally right now. The first two levels get addressed in the regular class, but the new, third level won't be rolling into the mix until April. To get ready, our instructor wants to work through the stuff as much as he can ahead of time. Therefore, we have an extra class once a week just to work on level three. This is optional, and most people don't attend, but there is a little core of regulars.

Doing this only adds one hour to our instructor's workload, but gets the higher material out to those who want it.

Most likely no one of these suggested methods will do the trick. Probably it will have to be a mix of several, along with other things that have not yet suggested themselves.

Strong Week

It's been a splendid week at Jiu-Jitsu, and it ain't over yet.

Started as normal on Tuesday; White Belt class followed by advanced.

Koko is getting ready for a fancy pants exam, and so worked on that every spare moment of the White Belt time. I like helping the beginners, but this was a chance to work on stuff my level with a highly motivated partner.

The advanced class was normal except for the sparring, that I'll talk about later.

Tuesday was the same deal. I worked with Koko, and then had a normal advanced session, again with interesting sparring.

Wednesday there was no Koko, so a more normal White Belt class. The advanced class wasn't normal at all.

Our curriculum is in three parts, called BBS1, BBS2, and BBS3. There are about 150-200 techniques and variations in each of BBS1 and BBS2. The last section consists of only about 25 as it is only partially released.

Instead of churning ahead on a couple of items for the evening, the instructor had us partner up, and then he called out chunks of BBS1 in rapid succession. Less experienced people were partnered with old timers.

We started with the knowledgeable folks performing the material, while their partner acted as the bad guy (or victim, depending on your viewpoint). We got through the Mount chapter, then reversed roles, did Mount again, reversed roles, worked through the Side Mount chapter, changed roles again, and did Side Mount again.

In hour we did about a third of BBS1, or about 60 to 70 techniques, for each partner. That's about 130 moves total, or about 30 seconds each. Quite remarkable, considering some students were doing things they'd never seen before (with a lot of partner assistance).

By the end we were all dripping with sweat.

We've never done this before. I loved it.

Time was up, so there was no sparring in-class, but Tobias wanted to roll with me afterwards, which we did. Like crazy people; we went for well over 20 minutes.

Which brings me to this week's interesting sparring.

I had about 10 rolls total, for a total of over an hour. This is more than we get in a normal week.

Also, abnormally, I only rolled once with a small person, and once with a less-experienced guy. All my other match-ups were with people of approximately my size and experience level. In every one of those even rolls, both partners went hard.

I learned a lot, and none of it was about technique.

Those guys move faster than me, and on-average are stronger, and they push harder.

Had two roles with Scott. The first was on Tuesday when we were both pretty tired, and the other was the next day, when we were both fresh. When tired, it was pretty even. I suspect I conserve energy better than Scott, but he's generally in better shape, and only in is 20s. I bet he started our roll more tired than I, and burned his remaining fuel faster.

During the roll when we were both fresh, he dominated me. I could feel his heart pounding away as he did so. He was still burning faster than me, but it didn't matter. He easily had enough gas for the length of time we were partnered. In a longer fight, my only chance would be to defend, and let him burn faster. The only problem is that he's gotten too good technically, so that survival for so long a time would be a tricky matter indeed.

My extra-long roll with Tobias yesterday further illustrated the endurance aspect. We started moderately tired, but equal. We've roll a lot together, even before Tobias got his Blue Belt. I am very comfortable with him, and hope he feels the same towards me.

We roll fast, and strong, but are not afraid to try out some goofy shit. Normally nothing good comes of it, but we often laugh without interrupting the roll at all.

Anyhow, I was really getting incredibly tired, but didn't want to stop. Tobias seemed to be slowing down even more than me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nathan. He's a White Belt who comes back late to do private lessons with Tobias. I stopped, and pointed the waiting Nathan out to Tobias. We bumped fists and I headed off the mat. Tobias looked near dead with exhaustion, and was a colour that is only healthy in a tomato.

Again, my manner allows me to conserve more energy than an opponent half my age while still pushing hard. Cool.

Against all the rest of the big and skilled Blue Belts I faced, my big awakening was that I have no technical advantage left. I used to be able to beat them pretty consistently, but no longer. They know everything that I know; the rat bastards.

If there had been a round-robin competition held at our club a year or two ago, between the guys that I'm talking about; me, Scott, Tobias, and Rob, I would probably have beaten all of them.

If we held the same event right now, I would likely end up rock bottom in the pool.

I am still competitive against them, but am definitely the underdog.

I also noticed a few things about my damaged hand. I hurt it a while back, and it turned out it was broken. Since then, I've injured another part of the same hand, and the first injury still isn't better yet. It's at a point now where the hand is fine for regular training, or for a light roll.

In a hard roll, where people resist tapping, it's useless for any form of choke; just can't crank on it hard enough to get a submission. That's a pity, as I like using every sort of collar choke. I still got them, but couldn't finish. Trying probably hurt it more. I learned that I really shouldn't try to finish hand chokes until things are back to 100%. I think I'll still go for them, but then release without applying pressure.

So a week of good training, and a great BBS1 review activity, and rolling that told me to protect my hand by not forcing chokes, and learning that I am solidly surpassed in the free-roll food chain.

All that, and the week is not over yet. It's not even quite the weekend yet.

Tonight there is an extra class devoted to the new BBS3 curriculum. There is a good chance that Koko will want to work out Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. There is also an open-mat session Saturday morning.

I picked the right hobby.

Secret to my weightloss

People have expressed great surprise that I have lost 8 pounds (8.8 actually) in 3 days.

Logically, that should be impossible given;

A) My start and end weights were accurate

B) I am not currently dehydrated

C) I did not experience any truly epic bowel movements

Let me explain. To lose 8.8 pounds of tissue with A, B, and C all being true should be quite impossible.

There are only two ways to lose weight. One must either cut caloric intake, or burn lots of calories up. At my size, if I cut my eating to nothing, that would total a hair under 7500 calories in three days. I ran yesterday and the day before for about 1500 calories, and used up about 2000 at Jiu-Jitsu class.

That would add up to 6000 calories. As each 3500 calories burned uses up about one pound of tissue, that means that even without eating a thing, I could only have dropped about 1.7 pounds. What gives?

However, my actual totals are not as impressive, and so should have produced a weight loss of only 1.2 pounds as I didn't cut my eating anywhere near that much.

There has to be a magic trick.

There is, but not one that is under my control.

While away with friends, we ate a lot of yummy food, but it wasn't calories that got my weight so artificially high. Our meals at their home were bigger than any of us eat normally, but they didn't do much. It was our many, yummy restaurant days eaten over a ten day period. There were a lot of calories, but again that wasn't the issue.

It was salt. Neither my wife, nor Lola, nor Bernie are salt junkies. I am attracted to it more than them, but only on certain foods we prepare at home.

Yesterday, for example, I fried some pork. I added salt as I cooked it, but as the meal wasn't large, not much salt was consumed.

Our friends didn't cook with salt at all. It was the restaurant chow.

Salt is what controls our body's signals regarding fluid. If our bodies get too salty, receptors interpret this as meaning we are dehydrated, and cause our bodies to retain fluid. Most people's issue with this if the effect it has on blood pressure. My pressure is freakishly low, so no problem there. I do, like anybody else, retain fluid.

That means I was very well hydrated when I weighed in at home three days ago. You could call it super-hydrated.

My secret has been to diet and to exercise to handle any real weight gain from our trip, and to let time leak out all the extra juice I accumulated. Salt doesn't stay in the body terribly long.

I'm back to normal.

Weight is Up

Ten days in Vernon with dear friends; what could go wrong?

For the most part, nothing. They are great people to go out with, or to stay in with, or to do projects with, or to just sit about with.

They are our cruise ship buddies. We've been shipboard with them over a dozen times. Most of the fun of that revolves around the dinner table.

...and the breakfast table, and the lunch table, and the in-between table, and assorted yummy snacks.

We kinda act the same way when we get together for a land vacation as well.

So after ten days of yumminess, my mass was up 8 pounds. Not worried, as that was my “arrive home” weight. Whenever it has shot up that quickly it tends to drop just as dramatically for about two days after things are back to normal.

People who don't know, or who are just gross, always think that it must be due excess material exiting the digestive tract. Nope.

Since my “arrive home” weigh in last night, I've eaten a bit, drank a bit, and slept. A little urination happened, but nothing special. No pooping at all.

My weight right now, which was up 8 pounds about 12 hours ago, is now only up 5.4 pounds. I predict this will drop as much as another pound tomorrow.

After that, it gets slow and normal. I'll have somewhere around 4.5 pounds to get rid of the old fashioned way.

My secret? I eat less than a person my size would consume to maintain weight. Nothing dramatic, but a few hundred calories per day. I also get much more active.

Today, there will be a bike ride of at least 10 km, and a similar length of running. The kicker will be over two hours of Jiu-Jitsu tonight.

The diet might shave enough calories to shrink me by a tenth of a pound a day, and the activity will be enough for up to half a pound more.

That, of course, assumes a perfect day. I only get two hours of Jiu-Jitsu a few days a week, and some days Helen is too busy to go bike riding, so I drop it. Sometimes I run daily; sometimes not.

Some days something yummy happens along, and I eat it.

Dick

I try and be a nice guy, and I think I usually do pretty well. Sometimes, I don't succeed.

I'm by far the oldest student at our Jiu-Jitsu school, and realize that some people might not want to roll with me. Most of the time I let other people do the picking of partners. That way anybody can easily avoid me. It is pretty rare that somebody doesn't grab me to work with.

I seem to attract partners smaller than myself, and take that as a compliment. If they don't pick me, one of the more skillful and larger guys does. Being with either a smaller partner, regardless of skill, or one who is my size and similar in ability I take seriously.

On occasion, my partner is my size or bigger and is not yet up to my skill level. That's when I sometimes behave in a way that I'm not proud of.

If they are on the attack, I counter every one, and turn it into a reversal. If they defend, I move quickly from attack to attack. Sometimes I launch no actual submission attempts, but it's pretty clear that I could.

Sometimes I catch myself, and knock it off. I would hate it if some Purple or Brown Belt did it to me.

It is never in my mind to frustrate or humiliate my partner.

It's more like I'm having fun dancing, and my partner just happens to be the dance floor.

With partners of similar skill, there is no way I could get away with it, and breakdancing on a smaller person would be dangerous.

This is probably why I am rarely grabbed as a partner by lower-level folks who are my size or bigger.

I'm a dick.

It is my resolution is to eliminate this behaviour.

Pity that it's so fun.

Like a Dummy

Had a fun encounter on the mat the other day. It was during a free roll.

My opponent is about 50 pounds bigger, and a lot stronger than me. Around here I count as one of the larger people, but nothing like him.

Like a lot of big guys, he tends to force things through with raw power, and to prevent escapes or reversals with little effort.

His ingrained reliance on strength worked against him.

He got me into a lot of inferior positions, but I kept twisting out. The stuff I was able to use involved a lot of rolling out of things. When I try stuff like this on our instructor, or people like Tobias or Rob it very rarely works.

This time I got away with it over and over, as my partner was used to controlling people with strength and mass instead of technique.

Granted, he submitted me several times, but it should have happened twice as much.

All it would have taken to stop my tricky escapes would have been slightly different leg and hand placement.

He usually doesn't have to worry about this kind of thing. He's literally twice as big as our smaller people, and our other big folks are fairly inexperienced. My skill level is a tad higher, and my size is at least in the ballpark. He couldn't merely "hold me down".

There are two ways this could go.

If he tries harder to hold onto me, I'll keep getting out. If he tries to figure out how to hold onto me, he'll trap me consistently.

Going more towards technique will also serve him well should he end up rolling with people who dwarf him in size or power. Just trying harder to hang onto me will not help prepare him for the really big boys.

The biggest Jiu-Jitsu person I've ever worked with was a young guy who played college football, and had been on-track for the NFL before injury ended his chances. He was about six-and-a-half feet tall, and easily 300 pounds, mostly muscle. Although he could have fought as a giant, he didn't.

He wanted to work on improving the precision of his technique, and allowed his partners to do the same. He had nothing to prove, and therefore displayed no ego issues at all.

It's a bit like me working with a grappling dummy. They have no strength at all, literally. When working with them I use it as an opportunity to achieve perfect placement and movement. The football guy used me in the same way. I could even move a bit to make me seem even more realistic.

How stupid and useless would it be to out-muscle a grappling dummy?

And what if you failed?

Mo Time

My cunning plan to get extra training by helping people who are working toward completion of BBS1 exams will soon run into a snag.

I've been putting in a little time with Cosme, and a lot of time with Koko. He has just finished, and she has only a few weeks left to go.

That means I will run out of training partners.

I have been bugging Elizabeth a bit; trying to get her interested, but she hasn't taken the hook. I've also started sounding out Rob. Either of them would be great to work with...or both.

It's always a long shot, as these exams are optional for non-instructors. They are so demanding that it is actually pretty nuts to put oneself through the process.

It does, however, greatly solidify Jiu-Jitsu understanding and general skill.

Cosme and Scott both say they want to get started soon on the next one up, BBS2. They both have instructor aspirations.

Likely I'll be working with them, and will therefore do that exam as well. It would be silly to do all that work getting them ready to grade and then not do so myself.

All this, just to get in more mat work.

Of course, as time on the mat translates directly into ability, if it's quality time. Test prep is about the best quality time that there is.

Need more of that.