Advanced Class

Our Jiu-Jitsu school has tons of White Belts, heaps of kids, and a thriving women's self-defense program.

It is shallow in the advanced-student department. There are currently 8 of us who wear Blue Belts. "Not bad," you might say.

One of the 8 is out of town for a couple of months. Another is about to leave permanently. The rest all average about half-time training due to school, work, and other reasons. I'm the only one who attends regularly.

There is a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu rule that sets 16 as the minimum age for a Blue Belt to be awarded. A couple of months ago our instructor invited into the advanced class a student who has more than completed the training requirements for Blue Belt, but who is only 15.

This has been a success both for the group and for the young man.

The instructor has just extended this to 3 other skilled young gentlemen who are in the 14-15 year age range.

A win-win situation. They are all excited to be semi-promoted, and to start learning new material. For the rest of the group, it provides more training partners and a better class energy. I imagine that as they hit age 16 they will turn Blue one at a time.

There are also a couple of adult White Belts that the instructor is trying to motivate into working towards completion of pre-Christmas Blue Belt exams.

A good thing about a healthy advanced class is that it is the pool where the instructor can fish about for teaching assistants.

Currently, there are 4 classes on Tuesday, 3 on Wednesday, 5 on Thursday, 2 on Friday and one on Saturday. That’s a lot of time on the mat our instructor. He also cannot afford to be away. His family is about to go on vacation for a month. He has to stay here.

That’s dedication.

　

Cold

I'm kinda pissed. It's this cold. It arrived just in time to mess up a long weekend. I could handle that, but it's still not gone and there are three nights in a row of Jiu-Jitsu.

I could drug away my symptoms and go train, but that isn't really fair to my training partners. They'd be wallowing in my cloud of germs.

If I can't train this week, I'll miss all the Blue Belt classes pertaining to, "Straight armlock defense." This will not return until the 60 week cycle has rolled all the way around again.

I think I'll go, but not roll around with anybody. That way I can partake of the lesson, and just not practise the skills. I can do the physical training later when I'm well. It also won't tire me clear to the bone trying to do it whilst ill.

I doubt I'll get official credit for the classes, but that doesn't really matter. There is weirdness in that to complete the Blue Belt course one must complete all sixty techniques three times each, which takes 180 classes. One also must attend a minimum of 100 instructor-led classes. This inconsistency means I can miss getting credit for a few as being instructor-led and still get by.

I like loopholes.

It is my opinion that for it to take 60 weeks to earn a strip on a Blue Belt is arduous enough. It would be worse to be unable to test at that time due to unnecessary missing of classes.

I might have to miss one here and there due to school commitments. Stupid job. We're also going away for a while at Christmas and likely also at Spring Break. I know Jiu-Jitsu is shutting down for two weeks in December so only Spring Break might be a problem. If I miss a technique that week, I'll make it up somehow either from fellow students who attend, or from the online material at Gracieuniversity.com.

Summer could be a problem. Sometimes they shut down regular classes, but this is not a policy. If I'm in town I hope the lessons continue. If we go on a trip I hope they don't, or that I can make them up.

Anyway you look at it; I don't want any more colds. I don't even want to think about the flu.

Germs

I woke up Saturday morning with a stupid cold. Don't know if I caught it at work, or at the gym, but that doesn't matter. It's bad enough I've done very little all weekend.

Saturday morning Jiu-Jitsu was cancelled for the holiday, so I didn't have to agonize over going or not going. I did have to teach at Karate for an hour in the afternoon, but that was no sweat.

No bike and no running, and it's Monday already. I'm glad that it's Canadian Thanksgiving, so I get to spend another day in my puffy chair recovering.

I've gone over the videos of my next technique at Jiu-Jitsu. Does this count as training?

I've also been watching a string of UFC bouts on Netflix. I've always enjoyed these kinds of fights, but even more now that I can better understand the subtleties in the grappling aspect of the game.

Most fighters seem to have chosen boxing for their punches, Muay Thai for their kicks, and Jiu-Jitsu for grappling. This is well enough, but it leaves holes in their game.

Often they can't land their power kicks fast enough. Why not learn to kick like a Taekwondo guy as well? Less power but more speed. Why not learn Karate movement and hands? Get in and out faster. Why not spend some time doing Judo? Most of these guys have no throws at all.

Just my two cents.

It's fun to watch when germ infested.

Unequal Colours

People always wonder about the belt rank thing. Just what does it mean?

To get my Shotokan Karate Black Belt it took me a little over four years. Some do it faster, but most don't.

It didn't mean I was a master or anything like that. It meant I'd done enough to be accepted as a raw beginner. A Black Belt in Japan is a beginner.

I'm training now in Jiu-Jitsu with a similar intensity. I recently earned a Blue Belt. With the same amount of Karate training I was a Yellow Belt. By the time my Blue Belt gets a fancy stripe added it will be about a year from now. By that time in Karate, I'd passed through Orange, and gotten my Green.

In Karate, my third year earned me a Blue Belt, a Purple and the lowest of three levels of Brown Belt.

My third year in Jiu-Jitsu might get me a second stripe on my Blue Belt.

A fourth year in Karate, and I'd moved through the two levels of Brown Belts and was about to get my Black Belt.

A fourth year in Jiu-Jitsu and I might have a third stripe on my Blue.

Perhaps this is an unfair comparison. Here we have to deal with a long-distance type of situation in our training. If we could train at the main school in LA the progress could be twice as fast.

Let's say my early skill level as a Karate Black Belt would be equivalent to somewhere between a three-striped Jiu-Jitsu Blue Belt, and a single-striped Purple.

How does this all compare to other arts? Judo levels mean about the same as Karate ones. Taekwondo Black Belts tend to be a little quicker to earn by maybe a year.

It's all just different standards. Japan and Korea consider Black Belt to mean beginner, while Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu considers it to mean that one has mastered the skill.

Neither system is better than the other, but it is nice to understand what it all means.

　

Revealing outfits

This summer my wife laughed at me.

In Jiu-Jitsu we sometimes wear a garment called a rash guard. This is a tight  fitting stretchy material top. They can have either long or short sleeves. My prying myself in is what Helen found so amusing.

I prefer the type called compression fit, and they are even tighter.

I tried on quite a few this summer.

My wife equated this to fashions foisted onto women. You know; clingy shirts, pantyhose, Lululemon leggings and such.

I must admit that I've never worn anything even slighty similar.

Picked up a few and wear them to train. I'd feel darn silly wearing one to saunter around town.

It is possible to purchase matching pants, but I don't think any are in my future.

Long, lovely fall...

The weather has been glorious for all of September, and the first week of October seems like it's going to be the same.

This makes my weekend runs pretty painless, and my early morning ride to work a joy.

It can't last forever. Soon it will be seriously dark when I head off to work, and the temperature is slowly inching its way down.

Once the bad weather kicks in and stays things can get nasty. Imagine a month of riding through the dark at near freezing temperatures, through driving rain. Such is the joy of Canada's pacific coast in late fall and winter.

I've done it for the last four winters. It is something I won't miss at all after I retire. This will be my last ugly season of bike riding.

I hate the dark almost as much as the wet and cold. Luckily, it hasn't really snowed for the last four winters and I haven't had to deal with that. On those days the plan is to use the car. I ride to be healthy, not to get squished by either somebody's out of control auto, or my own slip-sliding bike.

If the weekends are crappy, I don't get out and run. I know people who like ugly-weather runs. They are crazy.

Uncertain

I am quite confused.

The new class started at Karate on Saturday. Two beginners showed up to try. That isn't enough. We won't be able to pay the bills, even assuming that both sign up and pay.

What to do? I was starting to panic about the situation. Me, with the returning folks, plus two beginners still won't cover the gym fees. None are made of money. Raise membership cost? Try for more new people? Scrub the whole thing? Look for a cheaper location?

Today it was our Monday class in town. The two from Saturday didn't come back, but four different ones did. I gave them their trial class, and they said they liked it. One of them knows the people who had attended on Saturday and he said they didn't come back because the class was too small. He's going to tell them that it got bigger.

If all of tonight's four continue, and if the two from Saturday return, we are doing just fine. However, six possible beginners are not yet committed. About half said they can't make it to Saturdays until soccer is done.

What does this all mean? I have no idea. Do we have a viable club, or do we not? I guess I cannot know until the fees start coming in.

Is it any wonder I hate the administration of a Karate club?