Goals

It seems I do better with goals in my Jiu-Jitsu training.

Didn't know what that could be after I returned from the south. There were regular classes, and stuff such as helping people during open mat. Nothing really big enough to be considered a project.

Then Tawha asked me if I would help her prepare for her BBS1 exam. That's a different kettle of fish, and I readily agreed. I've been involved with that for four different people, besides myself. Here was something to use as a goal.

Such a thing takes a minimum of ten solid hours of work on the mat outside of classtime, give or take five or ten hours. We met on Sunday morning, and got going with a two-hour session. We made it through 1/7 of the material, and not in any sort of polished form, but it was a healthy start.

The hard part will be finding the time. I have lots, but Tawha has both family, and work, to consider.

Then I chatted a bit online with Koko. She is away right now at University finishing off the winter semester. Turns out, she'll be home soon for about three weeks before returning to school for the summer. During her time here, we will get together like we did around Christmas. Back then she was doing her own BBS1 work, and I wanted to polish up some of higher, fancy techniques. We did both. This time she doesn't need BBS1, so it will all be the good stuff.

So that's going to be my goal for the short term; to help Tawha with her test prep' and execution, and to work on advanced material with Koko.

Then I'll be ready for something else. Rob wants to get going on the test, and I think Tobias does, too. Perhaps I'll help with that.

Cosme wants to get going on the higher, BBS2 exam, so maybe that is a possibility. It will be significantly more difficult. Around here only our instructor has done that one so far. If Cosme does start working on BBS2, of course I will help, and it will be a splendid time for me to do that one for myself as well.

Putting it all together, I might just be set until well into the summer.

And then something else will turn up.

Jesse and Scott

Just this I got to see two perfect examples of Jiu-Jitsu in action.

By this, I do not mean that I saw high-ranked students defeating one another, or some kind of street fighting.

What I saw was safe, and controlled, but clear as day.

The first involved two of our White Belts warming up by rolling around for a few minutes. Jesse has been attending classes for a good long while, and is easily the most skilled student we have at that level. Even more than skill, he is quite comfortable with the whole idea of Jiu-Jitsu. The other is a considerably larger and stronger guy, who has also been training for a fair chunk of time. He is close to the other guy in skill, but nowhere near as comfortable.

They started to free-roll, which White Belts don't normally do. The bigger guy went a bit crazy and was doing everything he could think of to control and dominate his partner. Jesse went onto the defensive, just like he is supposed to do in that type of situation.

For a while, it looked like size and strength would prevail, but every time the bigger guy started to achieve a superior position, Jesse would scramble just enough to wrap him up again in the guard. This happened over and over. Jesse never freaked out, and this in turn made his partner try even harder.

About 60 seconds in, it was clear who was going to eventually “win”. The big guy was turning a shocking shade of red due to the intense effort he was putting in. Conversely, Jesse remained as fresh as a daisy.

By the two-minute mark, the big guy was starting to flail, and could no longer control the situation. He was ripe for a submission, that he was too exhausted to prevent.

The only thing that “saved him” was the call for class to begin. They both got up smiling, and shook hands, but one of seemed to have a little trouble walking over to the lineup for the start of training. He could barely stand.

This is exactly what Jiu-Jitsu is about; becoming skilled enough and confident enough to be comfortable in a very, very uncomfortable situation. The plan is let an attacker largely defeat themself.

The other example was much faster.

One of our instructors, Scott, has invited a few people to come and roll in a sort of wager. If they want to roll with him, they get a free month of training. For every minute they last, they get an extra month. There is an upper limit, but I don't recall what that is.

So anyhow, in comes this guy, who has actually done a bit of Jiu-Jitsu training. There is a rule about the challenge being grappling only (no hitting), and staying on the ground (no dangerous take downs).

Scott didn't want to embarrass the guy, so didn't make a production out of it. Only a few of us knew what was going on.

Anyhow, they started on their knees.

The guy grabbed Scott, who wrapped him up in his guard. One hand latched onto the guy's collar, then the other... squeeze... tap. The whole thing lasted just under 16 seconds.

After the surrender, they rolled on for a bit more just for enjoyment.

The guy got his automatic free month of training.

Extra Credit

Jiu-Jitsu promotions can be tricky to finish in the minimum 8-month period. Often people come up short on their attendance requirements.

The problem lies in the Master Cycle class requirements, and there are only limited methods to make them up.

On rare occasions, our instructor holds extra classes to work on the most recently released curriculum. These count, but they happen very rarely.

It is also possible to arrange for private lessons. These are by far the best way to learn Jiu-Jitsu, and this is reflected in how they are counted attendance-wise. They count as two classes each. The only downside is the cost involved.

Sometimes, a Gracie seminar happens somewhere within drivable distance. In a typical seminar day, there will be 4 sessions, and each count as a class for attendance purpose. Seminars, however, are incredibly rare.

Sometimes students work incredibly hard on their own time preparing for optional curriculum exams. Completing all the training, and the actual taping, can easily consume ten hours of very intense effort. It would be nice if that work counted for something on the tally, but it doesn't.

Take my next belt-stripe promotion as an example. Instead of taking 8 months it will take 12. This is due to a number of missed classes due to planned holidays for my wife and I. If there are any opportunities to catch up, I will take them. Seminar? I'll be there. Extra, new-curriculum classes? I'll be there. Might just shave those long 12 months down to 11.

Back

I received my Purple Belt on February 26.

After that, Helen and I spent the month of March in Mesa, Arizona. It was a time of sun, and of swimming pools. Last year before I attended a few classes at the Scottsdale and Phoenix Gracie schools. The Phoenix group had a Black Belt instructor, and he taught a lot of stuff that was new to me and very, very interesting.

This year, I dropped in at Phoenix again. Things have changed a bit. The staff is the same, but they have finally gotten around to fully following the Gracie Master Cycle curriculum. At the class I attended, they were doing a lesson I've done many, many times already. No more fancy-and-new material for me. It was still fun, but the drive was an hour getting there, and an hour getting back. I didn't return.

It was back on the old home mat starting April 5. In the previous 38 days I had only trained that one time.

There were two disconnects happening at once. I was both a brand, new Purple Belt, and a guy who hadn't trained in over a month.

It was all good, but as regular classes were starting to wind down on my first week back I was beginning to wonder about a focus for my personal training. Before any conclusions were reached, Tawha got in touch with me. She is one of our Blue Belts, and about to reach the rank of 3 stripes. She has decided to work on doing the first big, nasty curriculum exam. I am probably the best person we've got, other than our absent instructor Shawn, to assist with this. She asked if I would help her prepare.

This will also be splendid training for me, and a dandy focus. If we put in lots of extra hours, the process should take about 3 weeks.

Then, just as I was feeling all happy and settled with this, I got into a message conversation with a friend who is currently off at University. She will be back home in about ten day, and then be here for about three weeks until she heads back to school. We agreed to put in some training together during that time.

We were regular partners for maybe a month earlier in the year. She was working on her own curriculum exam, and also worked on the fancy-pants stuff at the BBS3 level.

Another chance for more of the tricksy, high-level material.

Two partners, and I'm all set for maybe a month. By then, other opportunities will have arisen. For example, both Rob and Tobias have mentioned starting in on their own curriculum tests, and there will always be BBS3 to learn and polish.

Maybe I'll even start working on doing my own second-level curriculum exam.

Back in the saddle.

Slow Blue

Our Jiu-Jitsu school has a few issues regarding belt promotions.

The first is the slow progress people are achieving through their Blue Belt levels. As most people never make it out of their Blue levels, it is the more important.

I have heard many people in locker-room discusions about rank say they are in no hurry to get promoted. They say they would prefer to develop solid skills, rather than progressing too quickly. They would rather be a, "good Blue Belt, instead of a weak Purple Belt."

Interestingly, these are not the two choices available.

The rules for promotion through most levels are 8 months of training, and attendance at 100 approplriate classes, and an OK from their instructor. The reason people are not getting promoted promptly is usually failure to complete the attendance requirements.

Lets create a pair of hypothetical twins. They earn their Blue Belts together. The first wants to progress quickly, and he maintains near-perfect attendance. The other, "is in no hurry," and takes a year to complete the attendance requirement and is promoted then.

Which twin will have a more solid level of skill on their promotion day?

It will certainly be the 8-month eager student. We go through material very rapidly. Missing training makes it very difficult to try and keep up.

They will both have accumulated an equivalant amount of sparring experience by promotion time, but even that won't be really equal. The more eager twin will have more things they will actually be able to try out, and that only takes into consideration a comparison at their promotion time, which are actually 4 months apart.

At the first twin's promotion at 8 months, he will have done 1/3 more rolling than his sibling. By the time the other twin "catches up" at 12 months, the first twin will not have stood still and still be 1/3 ahead. He will already be halfway to his next promotion.

Now, don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with setting your own pace; just don't think that going slowly makes you in any technical way superior to somebody training more intently. It is much more likely that the exact opposite is true.

And just what the heck is a, "bad Purple Belt," anyhow? Not only has every Gracie Purple Belt put in every bit of the required work, they also have to have passed an evaluation by one of the Gracie's themselves.

My advice to anyone who is proud about how long it has taken to earn a promotion; stop it. Choose your own pace, and be happy with it, but if you want to get as good as possible then get on the mat. Doing so is not only the most efficient way to improve, but higher rank will appear. Rank need not be a goal, but that's not allthat it is.

It is also a reflection of effort expended and proficiency gained.

19 days in

So I've been a Jiu-Jitsu Purple Belt for all of 19 days.

In that time, I've attended a single class at the Phoenix Certified Training Center, and nothing else. Back home I would have attended 4 beginner classes, 2 Reflex Development sessions, 6 Master Cycles classes, and 5 open mat times. That type of pace will have to wait until after our month in Arizona is over.

I like winter in the desert. We have pool time every day, and it's warm. Back home it's the season of dark skies and rain.

In any case, out little Canadian Jiu-Jitsu group has changed a lot in the last year. Back then we only had a single Purple Belt; our instructor. Now we have 4.

I, personally, have no evaluations upcoming anytime soon. With nothing in particular to prepare for, I can focus more on my own journey through Jiu-Jitsu.

Our class is working through the material included in two levels of curriculum. I will be part of all that, but we also have access to the third level. Next year some time that will be incorporated as well, but I will be working on it in the meantime.

I quite enjoy working on the first two levels, but doing so definitely has a review feel to it. All of level three is new to me, and I enjoy the air of discovery.

So that's what I've figured out so far, 19 days in.

New Belt

I am pleased as punch, having been recently awarded a Purple Belt from Rener Gracie after a two-week evaluation at the main Gracie Academy in Los Angeles.

I started training in 2011, and received my Blue Belt in 2012. My road to Purple therefore has taken 4 years.

There is no way I can keep up my current pace of training as my body ages. Even if I could, a Brown Belt would not arrive until age 63, and Black at 67. Those promotions may or may not ever happen.

My current long-term goal is to remain on-the-mat as long as I can. That means I have to keep healthy. I don't heal as fast as the 20-year-olds, and have to play smart. No ego games for me. I have to be willing to tap quickly, and often.

A big issue for a few weeks will be getting my new belt to tie properly until it softens up some from use.

That's always a giveaway in identifying a rookie in a new rank.