Karate to Jiu-Jitsu

There seems to be two opinions regarding how much previous martial arts training helps a student of Jiu-Jitsu.

I can only speak to this from my own experience.

I trained in Shotokan Karate for 29 years prior to starting at Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, and continued for a couple of years after that. I hung up my old Black Belt once my knees made it obvious that to do so would be wise.

At first glance, there is pretty much nothing that Karate and Jiu-Jitsu have in common. Karate is hitting, and Jiu-Jitsu is grappling.

I did carry over attention to detail, and precision, but so would being an artist, or hairdresser.

Anything less general?

Actually yes, but I bet that for a less experienced Karateka it would have worked backwards.

At my low level, we have only been taught a single Jiu-Jitsu kick. Karate people

kick many different ways, and work on them constantly. However, the Jiu-Jitsu kick is absolutily nothing at all like any Karate kick.

In fact, prior kick training works against being able to do this different kick properly. Raw newbies have an easier time. Imagine a typist who is good with a traditional keyboard (asdfghjkl; home row) trying to switch to a Dvorak one (aoeuidhtns). It would be better to learn Dvorak from day one. A traditional typist would have to unlearn and retrain.

The new kick works that way for most kickers. As an old-timer in the Karate world, I utilized a strategy that I learned slowly over many, many years. I didn't try and relate this kick, which everybody compares to a Front Kick, to a Front Kick at all. I treated it as a totally new movement unrelated to anything I'd ever done before.

Doing this for years has worked greatly for me. If some boxer wants to teach me a Right Cross, I do not compare it to a Reverse Punch. I ask if there should be tension in my fist when starting the execution, or on impact, rather than assuming that the hand should be tight as in Karate. It is a totally new thing. What I bring to the lesson is understanding of principles. If the coach says that you launch the punch in a straight line, my fist will go in the precisely straight line that decades of Karate Punch practice has given me.

Granted, the kick was still a bugger to learn, but easier for me than for most kickers, and even easier than for non-kickers.

Karate gave me the knack of taking new things as totally novel, while making many of the components easier to perform.

Of course, this only applies to a very limited number of very specific Jiu-Jitsu techniques.

One area that has come very easy to me is understanding of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu standing distance. This certainly isn't true of most people.

The idea is to always stand outside of punching and kicking range of a potential opponent. This keeps you perfectly safe, and you try and maintain it if possible. If it stops being possible for whatever reason, or if you just get bored, you zip in licketty-split and grab the opponent prior to throwing or taking him down some other way. One does not linger between safe range and clinching contact. That's where you can get whacked.

You also don't necessarily want to be a little too far away, as it means you have to cover extra ground when launching your own attacks.

The long, safe range is exactly where Karate people spend 90% of their time when sparring. You maintain it going forward, or back, or sideways. Then, when you decide to attack, you blast forward as fast as possible to launch your strikes.

The only difference in all this for me is that instead of blitzing forward to strike, I now blitz in to grapple. Easy peesy.

There are other things as well, such as how to fake.

There is a Jiu-Jitsu double-leg take-down move where you start your blitz in, launch a fake strike to the face to get the opponent to think “high,” and then you drop, grab his legs, and dump him with you on top.

Almost everybody starts their blitz in, launches a ridiculous faked strike that looks more like a hand wave, while already looking down at their opponents legs. This in effect, tells him exactly what you're going to do next, which is drop, grab, and dump.

My long-trained Karate version is a little different. I lock eye contact while blitzing in and apply a lead-hand strike Karate style. A fake in Karate is a punch that you launch with full power and intent to connect, but that you don't expect to finish the fight with. Eye contact is maintained until after the fist connects, and then I drop, grab, and dump without ever having looked down at my real intended area of attack.

I'm also pretty good at relaxing while sparring, especially during a drill called Fight Sim that makes most of us tense up significantly. One partner puts on boxing gloves and plays the part of a non-grappling opponent who wants to punch their buddy's lights out. The punches aren't hard, but they land with a bit of psychological impact. I don't much care. I've faced talented, highly-trained people who have been trying very hard to smack me with unpadded fists.

Anyhow, these are the types of things that 30 plus years in Karate have given me to assist in my Jiu-Jitsu journey.

End of Week

There were two normal Jiu-Jitsu nights to open up the week of training.

Then, last night, more good training followed by a wonderful set of rolling no-gi by the entire advanced class.

Today there is no formal instruction. It's called “open mat” time. Typically, I get there first, and maybe one or two others show up. Today was NOT typical. Shawn, our instructor texted me to come a little early to act as his grappling dummy while he worked on the next level of material that will be introduced to the class next year.

This is good training for me, too. After a bit, Tawha and Tobias showed up, and joined us for a while. Before too long, the White Belts Nathan and Sarah arrived looking for some help.

Tobias went with Nathan. They have been working together to get Nathan ready for his Blue Belt test, so that was logical.

Tawha went to work with Sarah on Straight-Armlock-from-the-Guard and Trap-and-Roll. A couple of times they called me over when Shawn got distracted by phone calls and such. Sarah is doing very well, but is very slight and lacks confidence that this stuff will really work for somebody as tiny as her. Tawha is also pretty small, so they wanted me to play the part of a big lump. Sarah rolled me around just like I knew she would, and seemed pleased as punch that her moves were working for real against somebody my size.

Eventually, Shawn finished off the stuff he wanted to inflict on me, and the rest of us just ran out of steam. The timing was good, as the Hapkido class were starting to arrive.

In walked Koko. She returned to university in Vancouver last weekend, but is back for a short visit. She has been working most of the summer on the extremely demanding BBS1 Gracie exam. She got the three big, 15-minute technique drill videos successfully recorded, as well as two of the three 5-minute sparring videos. She left with one lousy 5-minute video still to complete.

She was there to touch base with me about meeting up tomorrow to get it videoed. She has arranged for Cosme to play her partner, and wanted me there to act as outside eyeballs and to run the camera. We are set for around 10am in the morning.

What a wonderful end to the training week.

Slippery

It was an outstanding night at Jiu-Jitsu.

The White Belt class was well-attended, and there was a new student, but that wasn't it.

The advanced class went well and we covered a lot, but that wasn't it.

At the end of the night, it was sparring time. No-gi, which I don't prefer, but what can you do. A couple of injured folks headed off, leaving 8 of us on the mat.

The buzzer was set for three-minute rounds, with a 15 second break in between. After each roll, we switched to new partners. This all went so smoothly, that we all ended up rolling with everybody else there.

So we began.

I've rolled with tons of people over the years, especially down in Los Angeles where there are unlimited numbers of potential partners. Out of all the many partners I've had, about a half roll with their egos switched on.

They really want to get a submission, and to avoid them at all cost. This isn't a bad thing, but it seriously messes up a nice roll. Pairs seem to get stuck, clenched in place, unwilling or unable to move on.

There was none of that last night, not with anyone. Move morphed into move, and submission attempt into counter, and back again. By the end of the second match-up, we were all dripping with sweat. The wetter we got, the slicker we were, and the faster we could move.

It was a total of 21 minutes of non-stop, high-speed movement before it was over.

I loved it.

I want to do it again, but wearing gi.

It would be quite different, due to the ease of gripping and even the fabric friction, but it would still be outstanding.

Types of Years

Belts mean different thing in every martial art.

Take my friends Elizabeth, Tobias, and Rob. They will be going for their Hapkido Black Belts in March. I'm willing to bet they'll all pass. They work hard.

All three are also students of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. In March, when they become Hapkido Black Belts, Tobias will be a Jiu-Jitsu Blue Belt with 2 stripes, as will Rob, and Elizabeth will have 3 stripes on hers.

Each of the started their Jiu-Jitsu training on the same date that they also started in Hapkido. Interestingly, they actually train twice as many hours per week in Jiu-Jitsu.

At a minimum, in March when they get their Hapkido Black Belts, Rob and Tobias will have about two years still to go before their Jiu-Jitsu Blue Belts turn into Purple ones. Elizabeth is a bit ahead, and will have one more year for Purple.

In comparing Jiu-Jitsu to Shotokan Karate, I will be getting my 4^th Blue Belt Jiu-Jitsu stripe within a month of the length of time that I earned a Black Belt. My Purple will come something like a year later.

That's why I say a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Purple Belt is like a Black Belt in most other arts. I say it because it's true.

If age doesn't stop me, I could theoretically earn a Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt ten years after getting to Purple Belt.

In that same amount of time, it is also theoretically possible to earn up to a 4^th Degree Black Belt in Shotokan.

The ranks just mean different things.

Karate and Hapkido give their fancy rank after about 4 years, and Gracie Jiu-Jitsu at about 15.

Let's say one school district gives it's successful students a Gold Star after they have completed kindergarten, and grades 1, 2 and 3. The neighbouring district doesn't, but instead awards one after their kids have completed their second year of university. It's still Gold Star, but it would mean something different.

Not better or worse.

Stupid Brain

As I've said many times, my Jiu-Jitsu goal is to get as far in rank as I can before old age shuts my progress down. This means I'm racing the clock and calendar, and like my promotions to come along in a sprightly fashion.

My stupid brain tried to trick me off of this very-simple goal.

Today it was open-mat time at the academy. I unlocked, swept the mat, and got changed. Promptly at start time Sarah showed up looking for some help. She's a new student, with about three weeks under her belt. Being clever and ambitious, she's figured out the system that we have where Blue Belts can give official credit for out-of-class work.

She was hoping that Cosme would show up, as he is a certified instructor. Working with him earns double credit. Sadly for her, no Cosme today.

I agreed to help her out, so we started working on her stuff. Better than nothing, I suppose.

After a bit, Nathan arrived, also hoping to find Cosme. He figured out the fast track months ago, and is already in the process of recording his Blue Belt test videos. He wanted to go over the guard test material for his next filming.

No Cosme, but I was happy to help, so he wandered off to grab a bite to eat while I finished up with Sarah.

A bit later, she'd put in enough work, so I checked the appropriate box on her attendance card. She thanked me and headed out, just as Nathan was returning.

We worked on his guard test for maybe 20 minutes, and then he headed off. This wasn't enough time for me to add a check to his card, but he doesn't need them anymore. All of his boxes are marked in already.

I headed home as well.

That's when my daydreaming brain tried to screw me up.

It started to tell me that I like helping others, which I do, and that if I were to become an instructor, I would be better equipped to do so. Shawn, our instructor, and Cosme are our only people with teachers certification. Tobias is going through the procedure right now, and will be certified soon.

I started thinking about when it would be possible for me to hook into the Instructor Certification Program, and thought about the costs, and the logistics.

And then the snap back to reality occurred.

My goal is to progress as quickly and far as I can in rank. Becoming an instructor could seriously mess that up.

I have a Purple Belt exam in my not-too-distant future. Let's call it a year away. After that, assuming almost-perfect attendance, I would work through 4 stripe promotions, and then, just maybe face a Brown Belt exam. That would be a minimum of 4 or 5 years altogether. Just possibly, a Black Belt exam might happen 4 or 5 years after that. Age could easily be an issue at Brown already, and even more so at Black. Delay would be a bad thing.

What does that have to do with being certified as an instructor? The problem is that the Gracies have a higher standard for the people they authorize to spread their system.

They are tough enough on “ordinary” promotion candidates. With instructors they are brutal.

Taking an exam for a Belt is a big deal. It means a trip to Los Angeles, with all the hassles and costs that entails. Being a winter-only traveller means that a failure would put mean re-test would cost another year. Repeated failure is quite possible.

My whimsical thought of getting instructor certification could seriously derail my main goal of fast rank progress.

Never mind. Not doing it.

Stupid brain.

Young People These Days

I don't feel old, usually, but I am the oldest person at our Jiu-Jitsu school.

Our instructor, Shawn, is about 5 years younger, and we have two other students about 5 years younger than that.

None of us feel as old as we are, or act it. There is, however, a real difference in how our brains work than is true of the younger folks.

We have one guy in his middle thirties, and he seems like us, but there is a big jump down to our herd of folks in their twenties.

Us old buggers decide to do things, and then pretty much follow through. The youngsters decide things, too, but then tend to let things slide. They still want to do it, but they don't make it happen. Of course, this is a huge generalization.

I think it's how the two groups perceive time. To us oldsters, a year is no big deal, and a mere couple of months is nothing.

Koko is a good example. She came home from university a few months back for one of those glorious, four-month, college summers. Right at the beginning she announced her intention to do her BBS1 exam. Such a thing takes tons of extra out-of-class-time work.

Month one passed, and she didn't start. Month two was the same. Month three, nothing.

It wasn't until almost month four that she got rolling, and only then when I pointed out to her the reality of how little time was left to accomplish what she was after. She still really wanted to get going, so we started doing the extra work required.

The test has three huge segments, and three small sparring ones. She got first big part recorded on July 30; the third on August 23, with the second in between. She did the first sparring video September 2^nd, and the second the next night. Only one left to go, and 4 days to do it in.

She clearly has as much drive as any of the old farts, but somehow a different sense of time.

Scott and Cosme are young, and worked towards the same test that Koko is almost done with. They each got two of the big parts done, and a couple of the little ones, and then just stalled. Time slid, and slid, and slid, and now over six months have gone by with no progress at all.

Shaw is one of us oldies. As an instructor he has to keep up with the exams. He has to complete each within a year of their release. BBS2 came out in January, so he had all of 2015 to get it done. He was finished in about four weeks, which is about as is fast as is humanly possible. No sliding; done.

I think I know how it feels to have a younger person's sense of time. Remember when you were a kid, and on your way home on the last day of school in June. You had over two months of free time stretching off into infinity before you.

I hated school. How much pain did it feel like every Monday morning when that 9 o'clock bell rang?

Of course, our young people aren't that young, but they are closer to being that age than they are to being ours.

There also seems to be a difference in asking for as much help as these tests take. Getting one done means getting somebody to agree to putting in 20-30 hours of intense, extra work, and seeming to get nothing back.

Koko never did ask anybody. I offered. Scott and Cosme never asked anybody. They acted as each others partners. Shawn not only asked for help, but he gathered a team of it. He had Scott as his partner, and me as reader (a person to call out the techniques rather than stopping to check the list frequently) and pair of outside eyeballs.

I wonder if this blog will piss anybody off. It might seem that I've just said that people under 30 are useless at getting things done, and that geezers rock. I suppose I have.

There are counter arguments aplenty.

The same Cosme who hasn't gotten his BBS1 exam completed, has gone through the similarly-difficult program to become a certified instructor under the Gracies, and that included getting himself down to Los Angeles for part of the training. This is just one example.

Nathan is still a teenager, and has pushed his training along so that he is within a hair of earning a Blue Belt. He has done this by corralling help from advanced students during open-mat time, and doing private lessons.

Anyhow, I like my basic thesis enough that I'm going to stop now, and not argue the opposite case. I'll leave that for people to do in the comments section.

Or even better; they should prove me wrong by getting BBS1 done.

Drive Out

Helen and I love to travel, but the return home is always good, too.

If we go to visit family, it is in a city called Victoria. To get there or back involves two ferry trips. There is no way to really plan a travel time to there or back with any great accuracy. Not only would we have to predict highway and city traffic, the added complications of ferry schedules (which are a bit bizarre), as well as guessing how heavy the ferry traffic is. We don't try. We just go.

If we are on a flying trip, it isn't bad going. We just leave tons of extra time, as we don't take a car. That means riding a transit bus, a ferry, another city bus, and the train to the airport, in order to get to our plane. Coming home has all of that backwards, plus whatever the flying adds into the mix that everybody else has to contend with, like connections and possible flight delays. We don't try and predict our return when flying, either.

Road trips are about the same. Normally those head into the US, which involves a border crossing, which is always a crap shoot, especially if you have to try and hit a particular ferry after it. Again, no point in trying.

What this all means is that we never race when heading home. No point to it, and what are we racing for? Wouldn't there have to be a goal?

So anyhow, we were off with my sister Kathy, and her husband Al for a few days in Ucluelet, after a week in Victoria. Ucluelet is also on the island.

The plan that Helen and I settled on for the day of leaving was to pack up, do one more (rain-soaked) beach walk, and then head out. Google maps calculates the drive to the ferry as 2 hours and 39 minutes. Ucluelet is one of the places Google maps has trouble with. The road out winds insanely, and is mostly one lane each way, and runs through several towns. Along the way, Helen wanted to hit Costco, and at least one craft supply place.

We would then catch our first ferry, whose trip lasts an hour and 45 minutes. Then it would be a short drive over to the second ferry, which sails for 45 minutes. The end part is a 45 minute drive home. The first boat sails hourly, but the second only goes every second hour.

I had mentioned a desire to get home in time to get to Jiu-Jitsu, which starts at 7pm. It was just a, “it would be nice if” kinda thought, not a real goal.

The day before our return, I downloaded the boat schedules, cranked up Google maps, and did the math. I told Helen that there was no way we would get me home in time unless we were on the road by 9am., and if we limited our Costco time to 30 minutes (fat chance), and dropped the craft store stops. That translates into impossible, and didn't even take into consideration a final beach walk.

I thought that settled it, but after thinking about it for a while, she said she didn't need that last beach walk (who was this person and what did she do with Helen?), or the Costco visit, and only needed to hit one craft place?

We were on the road by 8:30am, making my Jiu-Jitsu class a distinct possibility.

Ever get caught on a long, skinny, tight-cornered road when you're in a hurry? What happens nine-times-out-of-ten is that you scoot along until you catch up to a big, fat RV, or a freight truck, or white-knuckled slow poke. You slow to a crawl, and can't escape as there is nowhere that is safe to pass. Any kind of a slow drive would have killed the dream.

Miracle of miracles, this didn't happen. Sure, we were less than lightning fast, but no serious slow-downs.

Found the craft store on the way, and they had exactly what Helen was looking for. We were out in no time at all. I couldn't believe how well everything was going.

Got to the ferry terminal with time to spare, loaded aboard, and were on our way. Ate on the boat, and did the switch over to the lot for boat two as slick as a whistle. The schedules don't line up at all (horrible actually, as we got to see boat two pull out just as we arrived, but that's what is supposed to happen). We did the parking-lot wait, and loaded right to the front of the boat. Napped during this leg of the voyage.

At that point, ETA prediction became, well, predictable. I was going to make it to class.

We banged off the final drive, got home, unloaded the car, and I gathered up my Jiu-Jitsu gear. I usually enjoy the half-hour drive to class, but after 11 hours of travel I didn't.

Class was lovely. We worked on sit-up sweep, which I am pretty sucky at, as well as some guillotine work, which I'm also lousy at. Perfect training for me. There was exactly the right amount of sparring at the end. After we broke up and people headed to the change rooms, Koko grabbed Tobias and wanted to film one of her 3 test sparring videos. Scott and I each ran a camera (backup, you know), and her roll with Tobias looked good enough to submit. All-in-all, a great night at Jiu-Jitsu.

Then a little half-hour drive home.

I was tired, for some inexplicable reason.