Painting

Eye on the prize. What's the goal?

Not the short term goal. Not the upcoming vacation, or the next wee course. The real goal.

Who is the person in the picture that I'm painting?

Long ago I wanted to be a teacher, so I went back to school, invested a few years, and became one. Got my first position in 1990, so I've been a teacher for 22 years. That is part of my internal resume and I'm ready to move on into retirement.

So I'm a retired teacher. What else?

I'm married to a wonderful woman. We've been together for 32 years and will be for a long time to come. I'm a husband.

What else?

The rest of my painting is the part that a person creates with their non-vital activities. The activities that normally reside outside of family or work.

I am a runner, and a biker, and a Jiu-Jitsu player, and a Karate Black Belt. I want to do all of these things for as many years as possible.

I am a geek for tech and history, and I also dance. Someday Helen and I will learn the Argentine Tango.

I love travel, and need a lot more of it under my belt.

I don't know if all this tells you who I am, but it helps me to define myself.

Trip

The general guideline for progress beyond Blue Belt is supposed to be about a level per year. I have been planning my future on this basis.

Turns out this is optimistic. It will take an absolute minimum of 60 weeks. I am returning to regular training in September. There are 16 week before Christmas. In the New Year there are 25 weeks before the end of June.

I am assuming we won't travel much that summer, so July and August will provide another 9 weeks.

The total is 50 weeks. Not enough, even if my attendance is perfect.

So what?

In the fall of 2013 Helen and I might just be heading south to LA for a few months. Clearly by then I will still be a Blue Belt working on my first stripe.

It matters. It means that while there, I can train enough to easily finish my requirements, and take my exam.

I can plan how much I want to train while in LA based on how much I want to learn. Learning for its own sake, not for how many stripes I can put on my belt. Train a reasonable amount, and I'll get my stripe. Work like a nut and learn a ton, and I'll get the same single stripe.

I'll train several times a day. They have a lot of classes down there.

There are hotels near to the Gracie Academy. I'll be able to walk to training. Poor Helen will have no training to do, and will be trapped in Los Angeles with tons of time and a car with GPS. I think she can keep herself entertained.

Together we will to all sorts of sweet touristy things. There is no training on the weekend after Saturday morning. I foresee lots of Disney visits, and day trips as far as San Diego and throughout the LA area.

It sounds like fun.

We’ve never, ever done an extended vacation like this.

Different

There has been a Blue Belt drought at Jiu-Jitsu lately. There are only five at the best of times, but with summer weather and other commitments we've been running with pretty much none.

This is hard on the instructor, as the Blues act as assistants. It has also rendered the Blue Belt classes moot.

Two of us just made the jump up from White to Blue, and both of us were there last night. Not only that, but three of the others turned up as well.

Tons of helpers, and the advanced class went on as scheduled. It was my first as a Blue and it would have been depressing if it had been cancelled.

The topic was a Guard technique, called Pass Prevention. It is a progression from the White Belt stuff, which you'd expect, but the teaching style is totally different.

It comes fast and furious, and you're expected to understand it immediately, and to apply it.

I managed to muddle through, but I don't think much of it got deeply rooted in my brain. Likely none did.

Need to figure out some way of taking notes, either during or immediately after.

Much more physically demanding, and on top of the exertions of the White Belt class.

Thursday will be different again. The White class is the same, but at Blue we do not wear uniforms. It is called no-gi training, and we wear shorts and t-shirts or rashguards. Not much to grab onto other than the opponent's body.

I won't be getting comfortable with any of this before I take my summer break. Going to cut off training in about a week, and it will be September before I'm back at it again.

Far Afield

Helen and I have plans to travel once we are retired. This is just a general ambition with only the vaguest destinations figured out.

What places will we hit in our first ten years?

We both love California, and go there quite often already. I'd guess there are a few trips there in the next decade. Particular targets will be San Francisco and the LA area.

Just one state over is Vegas, which we also get to fairly often. No reason for this to change.

Farther a field in the continental US is another favourite of ours; Florida. The entire state is fabulous, and we really enjoy both Miami Beach and the Disneyworld area.

We might get to Alaska again on a cruise, but maybe not.

We haven't been to Hawaii, and everybody says we have to go, so we will.

The Caribbean? Likely we'll go there again on a cruise out of Florida.

We both want to really "do" Europe. We've been there once before, but it was a visit focused on family in Germany. Our only non-family stop was a few days in Vienna.

We need to see London, York, Edinburgh, Brussels, Paris, Carcassonne, the Cinque Terre, Rome...well...you get the idea.

Japan would be fantastic, with a mixed Karate and tourist vacation.

These are all the easy destinations to figure out. All the rest we have to decide on the appeal. We both have to want to go or it makes no sense. Luckily we match pretty well in this respect.

For example, neither of us is drawn to Australia. Many are, but we aren’t. That saves us an entire continent. Neither of us are drawn to painfully poor countries.

The only African local I’m drawn to is Egypt. In the Middle East, only Turkey holds appeal. Parts of Asia are interesting, as are parts of Latin America.

With one or two trips a year, I think we can see a lot. It also means we cannot see everything.

We are both the kind of people that like revisiting our greatest hits over and over. I still find fascinating new stuff exploring Vancouver.

Imagine how long Rome will hold my interest.

Talent is Overrated

I've recently been reading a book called “Talent is Overrated” by Geoff Colvin.

He presents evidence to reinforce the value of focused practise.

We all know what that is. It's working on only the skills you need for a particular endeavour. It also involves working on the parts you suck at, rather than more generalized practise.

You've likely done this, especially if you play a musical instrument. You have a performance coming up, and have three pieces to play. Two are no sweat, but the first part of that third piece is giving you fits. Where does 90% of your practice need to go?

Sports are pretty much the same thing, although for some reason it's harder to get people to not practice the things they're good at and to focus on their weaknesses.

It is long, slow, often done solo, and is unpleasant.

It also accounts for why there seems to be an entire generation of athletes pushing the bounds of old age.

One of boxing's all-time greats was Larry Holmes. He held the heavyweight title and had a record of 48-0. He was considered an ancient, old man clinging on by his fingernails. Starting in 1985 his next three fights were all embarrassing losses, and his career never recovered. In 1985 Larry Holmes was 35 years old.

Randy Couture was the UFC Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight Champion. He has recently retired in 2011. While no longer top of the sport, he was still competitive with the best. His age at retirement was 47.

Every sport currently has examples of dinosaur athletes that would have been unheard of a generation ago.

In every case the individual involved continues to do focused practise, working only on the skills their sport requires, and concentrated on their weaknesses to the exclusion of all else. It doesn't keep you any younger in general, but it does keep you younger within your particular activity.

It is what we do in Karate, at least in part. If the class sucks at Kata, we do Kata. If they can do a particular Kata properly, except for the last sequence, we work on the last sequence. If somebody can't do a decent side kick, they have to work on side kick.

In Jiu-Jitsu, my weakest technique is the triangle choke. I am lucky that it's also my favourite. When it's, "grab a partner and do some review" time, I usually ask my partner to help me work on the old triangle choke.

It won't keep me from wandering around malls with my fly undone, not knowing why I went to the mall in the first place, but it means I'll still be able to kick in your chest if you tease me about it.

Passed

Gracie Jiu-Jitsu HQ has only had their hands on my Blue Belt exam video for less than a week. My instructor said it takes from one to three weeks to find out how a grading has gone.

Today, suddenly my results showed up. Somebody down there was working on evaluation on Sunday. I don't know who they are, but I like them a lot.

I passed, and am thrilled. The news is all over Facebook, and the congratulations are pouring in.

The test has taken over seven weeks to complete. It will be good to really get it out of my mind. I can also get back to cycling to work. My bike has been in the shop.

Back to normal.

I get to start attending the advanced Jiu-Jitsu classes. This doesn't mean that I'll give up on the White Belt class. I'll go to both.

When I started Jiu-Jitsu back in September, I didn't know if my old body would hold up to the strain. It has performed in a sparkling fashion. I have managed to complete the path to Blue Belt in nine months. This is pretty fast, as people usually say it takes a year.

I believe I've also broken a minor record in another way. There are only three Gracie Jiu-Jitsu schools in Canada, and two of these are under a year old.

I might just be oldest guy in the country to get a Gracie Blue Belt.

Hold the applause.

Gender issue

Martial Arts can be so sexist.

I suppose that's no secret.

My Karate club is pretty even. There are five of us who're fee paying members. Two are male and three are female. Other than dividing a person in half, I think we can call that 50-50.

The local Jiu-Jitsu instructor teaches a very non-sexist class, and there are a fair number of girls and women there, too.

So what's the problem? It's in the unavoidable details.

Looking at the new Jiu-Jitsu schedule for the fall the problem appears. Let's say someone is really keen, and wants to come to as many classes as possible.

Let's say he's a guy. If a White Belt, he can attend a total of 5 sessions a week. If a Blue Belt, he can come to 8.

Suppose she's not a guy. A White Belt will have 7 classes to attend, and a Blue Belt can have 10.

Why the difference?

The plan is that there will be a Women's Self-Defense class. This will be open to all the female members, as well as those that sign up for just that one course. This makes sense. It is also closed to all the male members. This also makes sense, for all the obvious reasons.

Perhaps some of the guys will sometimes be invited there to act specifically as training aids (evil male attackers, and punching bags), and the instructor is male.

Gracie Jiu-Jitsu also provides a course called Women's Empowerment, which is basically self-defense. It is also a women-only class. Upon successful completion, the participants can earn a Pink Belt. (I find that tacky, as do all our current female members)

The Pink Belt is the only one awarded by Gracie Jiu-Jitsu that is gender specific. I can never earn one.

That course is only ten classes long. The material looks interesting, and if it wouldn't make some of the female participants uncomfortable I'd probably take it. I've taught women's self-defense classes several times and like to keep up to date.

Of course, none of this is done to be deliberately unfair to male practitioners. It is just the realities of gender that necessitate the separation of people doing women's self-defense, and that make the course valuable at all.

Otherwise the pushing, pulling and sweating has nothing to do with gender at all.