Another down

Another fifth of my test is done. It was the very last of the drill sections.

All that I have left to do is the part called Freestyle Fight Simulation.

For four minutes the candidate and their partner do an exercise that looks like two people fighting. In it, the partner repeatedly presents as many of the cues and indicators as possible, and the examinee has to respond with the correct countermove.

You try and cover as many techniques as possible. Some will be missed, and others done several times. The examiners watch to make sure that too many cues are not missed, and that there are no significant pauses between the movements.

It is said that this is the most important, and also the most difficult part of the test.

It certainly is difficult. If one is too tense, or too nervous, it can be almost impossible. Four minutes doesn't sound like much, and it isn't if one is relaxed. I may be old, but I am really, really good at relaxing while fighting.

The instructor said we’ll be working on this stuff Saturday, so I’ll likely get a shot at finishing off the last of my exam.

My instructor still has to review my recordings. Some might require re-recording, but I won’t mind. I have almost a month to brush up any that are flawed.

I hate exams, but I can see the end approaching.

With care

I have to be careful.

In martial arts there is a seniority system inherited from the Japanese. If someone has been a higher rank to you, they are your senior forever. You might pass them in rank, but it will always be shaded by their earlier seniority.

This is why, at Karate, Black Belts with rank higher than mine often step aside and insist I stand on the higher-ranked side of the line.

In our Jiu-Jitsu class, I am one of the least senior members. When I started almost everybody had already been training for a while. A few have joined since, but not many.

By almost perfect attendance, and by taking extra lessons I have advanced more quickly than my group, and started my Blue Belt test over a month ago. Over a dozen people who are senior to me are still not ready to begin their own exams. Likely my belt will turn Blue months before theirs do.

I will outrank them, but they will still have the legacy of seniority over me.

Already I find myself seeing things my seniors are doing wrong. I don't want to offend anybody by seeming a know-it-all, so I usually don't point these things out. If I do, I only do so with people I am sure won't mind.

Sometimes, they ask me questions. If they do so, I share.

So is it a matter of rank, or of seniority? It is both, and more than both. The fact that I am a Black Belt in another art also matters. It also makes a difference that I am an old guy, and that some of them are teenagers. It also matters to the teenagers that I'm a High School teacher.

I don't know how the Japanese keep track of it all.

Every possible pairing in Japan has a relationship of senior and junior. They handle this with ease, as it is the same in all aspects of their lives. It two students join a Dojo at the exact same time, they will already know who should be considered senior from other cues. They are only really confused by equality. When such a thing happens, it is as if they are waiting for the disquieting situation to resolve itself by one or the other getting promoted or some such thing.

In Canada, we can handle equality, and also can handle rank. Layers of status can be the confusing to us.

In any case, I have to be careful who I try and help. Will they be offended?

Don't want that.

Strength

I learn a lot from big training partners.

In my class, I'm one of the larger people. As a result, I can make most techniques work on my smaller classmates even when I do the move somewhat wrong. I can just muscle through.

With any of the other big guys, I can't. I must do it correctly.

It's funny, but to work on big people, it is actually better to use less strength.

As I've learned from this, I have become careful to also apply it when training with smaller opponents. I treat them as if they can hold me as firmly as the big boys do. I do not use strength, but try and apply only technique. In doing this I am practising moves that work on both small and large opponents.

Jiu-Jitsu really requires very little strength. If done right, it is like performing magic.

Once I am a Blue Belt, and get to walk around helping the White Belts I'm going to specialize in the bigger guys. I will watch them carefully for evidence of bulling through. If they are guilty, I'll swap them off to work with me. I won't let them succeed through muscle.

If they are too strong for me, I'll suggest that Sterling or Corey partner with the violator for a while and not let them muscle through. Sterling and Corey are the two biggest guys in the club, and both work in construction, and are both Blue Belts. Bulling through does not work on them if they don't want to let it.

If a big strong guy trains properly he should have no trouble with people smaller or his own size. He should succeed equally well against the dreaded bigger-and-stronger opponent, too.

Settling down

Almost June. There is not a lot left on the season's martial arts calendar for me.

I've been working on the five segments of my Jiu-Jitsu belt test. Three are done, so only two to go. One will be done any day now, and then only a single part will remain.

In my Karate training, I've had a very important seminar looming. I was concerned my ankle wouldn't heal in time. It did, and the seminar has passed. I enjoyed it and learned a lot.

My Karate club just has training to continue, with exams before July kicks in.

That's it. Two Jiu-Jitsu test parts, and one set of tests for my Karate students.

I'm shutting things down for the summer, and it all starts again in September.

I'll try and attract a few more Karate students. I'll be back at Jiu-Jitsu, hopefully wearing a Blue Belt.

No tests for anybody in either activity for a good long time.

Just like I like it.

Oishi Sensei

My Achilles tendon is OK. Yesterday I was at Karate for five hours and pressed pretty hard. By the middle of the second class it was starting to protest, but never really got worse than that.

Funny thing. I didn't even think about the rest of my body at all. This morning I'm definitely walking like a thousand-year-old man, but my Achilles has nothing to do with it. All my muscles are trying to punish me for working them so hard. My typical recovery pattern says they are just warming up for a big protest tomorrow.

The big instructor at the training was Oishi Sensei. Back in the day he won the All-Japan Championship 4 times. Since then, he's been the Chief Instructor at Komazawa University. That's the one institution that has produced more All-Japan and World Champions than would seem possible. He has just retired, being 71 years old, and is doing a last few seminars. Through connections, BC made it to the list. He's been here all week.

His helper and translator on this trip is my own teacher, Sakurai Sensei. Sharp Sensei, our group's 6th Dan, was second helper.

The first class was lead by Oishi Sensei and was for Black Belts only. All of it was good, but the best was at the end. He explained the four times when it's best to attack. I really want to retain that part.

It was a little after 10:30am when that session ended. The next class for my rank was not going to start until after lunch. I had registered for a Coloured Belt ONLY class with Sharp Sensei online, but I asked him if it would be OK for me to stay. He smiled and said, "of course".

For an hour-and-a-half we trained, and he explained many of Oishi Sensei's key lessons from the week. It was great. At the end he recapped the four main points of his lesson and of the week so far. I was sure I'd remember, but only have found two of the four in my brain; knee moving and knee kicking. Somebody must have gone into my brain and erased the other two.

The hour lunch break had somehow turned into 15 minutes, but I got to sit down for a bit and chat with an old friend. Back at it again in another Black Belt class with Oishi Sensei.

Sakurai Sensei was off teaching Coloured Belts, so a female Black Belt was playing translator. She had a polite, Japanese-female voice, which meant I couldn't hear much at all. Again, it was superb training.

Helen, after a long hard day of shopping was there to join in the mass photo opp after class. I got changed and we sat down to watch the Black Belt exams. Five Brown Belts were testing to try and become Blacks. Three Blacks were going for Second Dan, and five more were trying for Third Dan.

One of them almost passed out. It was really cool. The results will likely be online soon.

Morning after; in my puffy chair, ice on my Achilles and 375mg of anti-inflammatory drugs in my bloodstream. Nothing today that I must do.

The morning after.

Gentle

For the last two nights at the White Belt Jiu-Jitsu class our 23 lesson cycle of lessons was on hold. We pick it up again on Tuesday.

Instead, our instructor showed us variations on the kimura armlock on one night and assorted chokes on the second.

It was great fun, and very interesting. I don't know if I'll be able to retain much of it, but it was sure cool.

For one particularly nasty technique I ended up with a partner who always uses unnecessary muscle. I really was a very painful collar choke thing. I went first and was very gentle. Obviously gentle. Gentle and slow. It was all right in front of his nose. I slowly and deliberately applied the movement for a single centimetre, and his head almost popped off.

When he did it to me, as gentle and slow as I've ever seen him. He doesn't mean to use power; it's just how he's programmed.

We kept switching, and he never over-pressed.

Then the instructor stopped to watch us perform the move. I did it as I had been doing all along, gentle and slow, and the instructor announced it perfect.

My partner's turn, and he reverted. It was nasty, but I was ready and tapped quickly.

Until then he'd been doing the technique as well as I had. No praise from the instructor when he added muscle back in.

Again, I don't think he'd meant to do it. His brain must have decided, "Teacher watching...must do well...strength equals good...must use strength..."

He did it worse, and if I were one of the little people of the class I might have been hurt.

He had it right for a while.

There's hope for him yet.

Conflicts arise

I have conflicts.

There is just too much to do.

I was attending a friend's Karate class. It was enjoyable, but I wasn't learning new things.

I started Jiu-Jitsu classes so I could get back to learning. That worked great, but the training times conflicted. I had to give up half of the Karate. The other Karate night was Friday, and everything that popped up seemed to fall on Friday.

I decided I had to let the Fridays go, too, but I didn't want to leave Karate altogether. Some friends kept asking me if I was going to teach a class again, and I finally said yes.

Set up the Karate times so they would not conflict with Jiu-Jitsu.

The coolest day of my week became Saturday. I have Jiu-Jitsu in the morning and teach Karate in the afternoon.

Still conflicts arise. This Saturday I am off to Chilliwack for a really big-deal Karate seminar. This bumps me out of both grappling and my own Karate class.

These things happen. Jiu-Jitsu I just have to miss. Karate goes on without me. The students are all expected to show and work on their Katas and such. They'll be fine for one day.

There is some chance that grappling with change days and times soon. The instructor is trying to get a different location.

It is hoped this won't create new conflicts.