Choose Wisely

A lot of people would like to do some sort of physical activity to improve their health, and have trouble deciding what kind of thing to take up

There are million of opinions out there held by people who are already physically active who want to encourage participation in their own favourite activity. They list benefits  of all the good things, but they aren’t really doing the best thing to help you out.

Let me explain.

For a physical activity to provide maximum benefit it has to be done for a very long term. A day won’t do it, nor will a week or a month. A year is a start, but a decade is far better. Life-long participation is the best.

Take me, for example. I have tried going to Yoga classes. I went with friends, some of whom absolutely love it and told me all sorts of great things about it. I found that I hated Yoga. I even managed to hurt myself, which everybody said was impossible, but it turned out it wasn’t.

I didn’t like anything about it. Don’t get me wrong, I can understand what makes it appealing to many, but I’d rather go to the dentist.

I had a pretty good idea that it wasn’t my thing before I tried, but decided to give it a whirl under the subtle pressure of some friends. I even went a bunch of times just to make sure. It never got any better.

So how should somebody choose an activity that will work for them for a very long time?

It’s simple. Find something that you will enjoy. If you enjoy it, you will be much more likely to keep doing it.

I have tried lifting heavy objects, and found it to be absolutely awful. I can’t imagine enjoying going to a gym full of machines and weights, and lifting things for fun. Many swear by it, but it certainly isn’t for me.

Other things hold much more appeal. When we moved to a place in a rural setting, I wondered if I should try running. I had liked it somewhat way back when I was a teen. I wondered if I could make it a mile. I measured one off with the car’s odometer along a very scenic and interesting route. I gave it a shot.

Not only did I make it to the one mile point, but also ran all the way back home. I was hooked. Soon I was running daily, and my distances grew.

Eventually, I stopped improving, due to the stupid aging process. Now, I am extremely happy being able to keep running at all. A good day might hit 10 kilometres, and my average is about 7. I am still running 30 years later. How much good has that done to my bone structure, cardio, and muscle tone compared to the few minutes I’ve spent trying out Yoga, or playing with gym machines, or doing Tai Chi, or playing tennis, or golf?

Maybe for you, tennis sound fun, or maybe swimming is your thing. The plan should be to find something that you will do because you want to. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you will be able to use self-discipline to force yourself into something you that will be a drag.

I have been a student of Jiu-Jitsu for the last 13 years. I love it to bits, and am on the mat every chance that I get.

Let’s say you find bike riding to be your thing. You should do that.  It doesn’t matter what anybody says about some other activity being somewhat more beneficial. Let’s say that you read somewhere that bowling burns more calories per hour (it doesn’t) and you’d rather do that for the greater benefit. That’s great if you like bowling more than biking, or even if it’s exactly the same. Maybe, try them both and pick the one you like the most. That will be the one you’ll do for more hours per week, and for more years of your life. In the long run that will do you far more good than choosing the other. It will also be more enjoyable by far.

People often ask me how I manage to drag myself to Jiu-Jitsu four times a week. The answer is easy. I go because I enjoy it more than staying home watching TV, or fiddling on the internet, or reading, or pretty much anything else.

My strategy works pretty well for me. I trained in Karate from 1982 until 2013. I started running about 34 years ago, and Jiu-Jitsu 13 years back, and am still doing both of those at the age of 68.

Add those three together, and it totals well over 80 years of activity. I’ve been very lucky in finding things that I like to do that also carry strong health benefits.

Good luck with your search.

It's Not a Break

I’m an old guy who has been long-retired from a very-rewarding career teaching high school students.

It’s funny how everybody thinks they have a pretty good understanding about teaching. This is probably because everybody has spent many years in the school system as students.

It’s both amusing and annoying how wrong they are.

I concede that they probably do know how to recognize strong direct teaching.

Let’s look at a very specific example of direct teaching.

You are attending an evening Jiu-Jitsu class. The instructor calls the group together, and explain what will be covered in the lesson. He then demonstrates the first part of the material with a partner. He does this several times, from different angles, and points out all of the non-obvious movements.

He then sends the group off to partner up and work on that first slice of the material.

After a while, he calls the group back in and explains and demonstrates the next slice. The class goes off to work and drill again.

This is repeated until the material has all been covered, and practiced. Typically, a Jiu-Jitsu class lasts an hour. After that the group breaks apart into those who are heading directly home, and those that want to free-roll, or to work with a partner.

Probably half of the class-time hour is direct instruction and the other half of the time the students are trying to master the material in pairs.

I contend that it is the job of the teacher to have as many of his students as possible learning as much as is they can for every moment of the class. To do this he needs to be working during the practice time.

Let’s assume that the instructor is absolutely wonderful at direct teaching, and that while they are explaining and demonstrating every student is fully engaged and paying complete attention to every second. Full marks for that teacher for half of the class time. What about the other half?

During practice time students display a lot of different styles.

Some want to chat for a while with their partner before getting to work; perhaps about the move, but often about something else altogether.

Others get right down to work, but never seem to do more than a two or three repetitions of the move. They then sit about waiting for the call back for the next demonstration.

Others get promptly down to work, and keep doing repetitions right up until the callback.

It is the teacher’s responsibility to get students of type one or two to work more like those of type three.

The practice segments are usually each around five minutes long. It isn’t like anybody will be getting really tired drilling the technique. Even if they are, they will be resting during next demonstration very soon.

So what should the instructor be doing?

The first thing is that they should not be acting as if it is a time for the teacher to be on a break. They should not leave the training area, or hanging off on the side chatting with cronies.

They should find a pair who is getting promptly to work, and intently watch them from just a few feet away. If they are doing OK, the shouldn’t do anything to interfere. Likely there are a dozen things the students could be doing somewhat better, but this is not a time for interfering. If they are not “getting” it at all or if they ask for help then certainly the instructor should jump in. As long as they are good enough, he should watch for a short time, and then move on to another pair.

If he intently watches you practice, and then moves on without interfering, it can be the greatest morale boost ever. I’ve seen students high-five each other when an instructor who supervises this way has wordlessly moved on.

This kind of teaching method also gets students to work. If the teacher hits a group that isn’t practicing, he stares at them for a short time. Under the instructor's gaze, almost every group rapidly gets going on serous practice. If they don’t, he watches then for maybe 20 seconds, and then moves on to the next student pair. It’s like he has just said that they wasted his time and that they also wasted their own.

When using this tactic an entire class is soon in a pattern of getting starting quickly, and continuing right up until they get called back for the next demo. Nobody starts slow or slacks off early.

It’s like the instructor is silently saying that every student's progress is of great importance. He gets more work out of them without making any kind of verbal direction.

This type of instructor movement through the practice segments also makes him extremely accessible to the students for help. He isn’t off at the side chatting. He is giving this class every minute of the hour that he promised, not just the part where he is up at the front directly teaching.

Not every instructor does this kind of thing. In fact, most do not. In fact, most have never considered it part of teaching at all.

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.