The Locker Room Situation

The more I read around the internet about where people train, the more spoiled I feel when it comes to our facilities. I just read Jiu-Jiu’s locker room shower situation- they have one unisex communal changing area and one shower. Actually, I have heard of similar situations in the area around our academy.

Again, I feel a little spoiled when saying this, but we have separate men and women’s locker rooms: each locker room has two bathroom stalls, two shower stalls and two sinks. Separate hot water sources too, I’m pretty sure: there have definitely been a few occasions when the boys had to deal with cold showers while the girls were totally unaware of any issue.

It wasn’t quite always this way: we were temporarily displaced when the building was being remodeled, but men and women always had separate changing areas made with stacked lockers.

I’m sorry to hear this is a situation in some gyms. I understand sometimes owners/instructors make sacrifices when it comes to real estate: a space with the perfect square footage and the right location can make someone overlook the bathroom facilities, but I have to admit, if I was just starting jiu jitsu and someone told me that I had to change in a communal area, I probably would have quit, or brushed up on my locker room ninja changing skills from highschool gym class. Most likely the latter, contorting myself like I was in a straight jacket, with my arms inside a t-shirt when attempting to change from a regular bra to a sports bra.

For ladies who put up with all of this and still train, you absolutely have my respect. For guys who have women in their academy in this situation, I agree with Jiu Jiu- please understand that it can be a stressful situation for a girl, especially for one that is starting out in the sport. I’m not saying you should let this theoretical white belt girl walk all over you and take an hour shower, but understand that’s an uncomfortable situation for most women, and sometimes it takes women a little longer to get themselves sorted before leaving the locker room. I don’t even know what I would do about a single shower. I would most likely either go home and shower or only use the gym shower in extreme emergencies.

On a side note, congratulations on Meghan getting her blue belt! Hooray!

On a geek-tastic side note, I haven’t watched the season premiere of the new Game of Thrones, but I did take advantage of their site Join the Realm and made a Coat of Arms for the blog.

 

…Oh yeah.

Timing is Everything

 

Right up there with patience, timing I feel is one of the hardest things to teach in jiu jitsu. You can show someone techniques, how to turn, how to grab here, place the foot there, so on and so forth, but it’s timing that pulls the whole thing together and changes a series of what seem to be movements with no rhyme or reason into something effective and in some cases, quite beautiful.

The hard part in teaching timing isn’t so much the explaining part, even though that is a little challenging: it’s getting the student to fully understand the concept of timing in the situation the technique would be best applied. We don’t want to train people to respond in only one way to particular moves, but there are some common reactions, based on past experience and pure body mechanics. It’s those reactions, those opportunities we address and take advantage of, with our own positions we find effective from past experience and body mechanics.

It’s difficult, but immensely satisfying when someone finally gets the timing down. It may look a little different than how we do it, or how we do it, but the technique and timing are down, and the person may have adapted the technique for their game, which is pretty cool to watch.

So while timing may not be everything, it’s a pretty large part of jiu jitsu.

 

Jiu Jitsu and Lady Parts

So Julia has a post about ladies, that time of the month, and jiu jitsu.

It’s a little awkward to write about, but it’s also a topic that I have been approached about a couple of times in the locker room actually, and even on the mat, as there are women who are very concerned about what to do in such a full contact sport. I am really trying to keep this mature and as possible, but just warning this may near dangerously close to the light hearted and almost silly. Mainly because as stressed as a lot of white belt jiu jitsu women worry about it, it’s really not a huge deal.

And for guys who are confused about this and wonder why women don’t seem to have this part of their bodies under control, ask yourself the same question the next time you get an unexpected erection in the middle of the day. Our bodies are a teeming mass of hormones that tends to run on a fairly regular schedule and react to a predictable set of responses, but there are times when the whole system seems to go haywire due to unexpected circumstances, such as a hiccup in hormones due to stressors, general health or environmental factors. The body is just that, a body; a group of organs that (other than the brain obviously) doesn’t understand not doing something due to social context. Just like sweating or blinking or several other functions.  And if you can stop sweating on command congratulations I wish you the best of luck with your superpower. Please use it for good, not evil.

Anyway, my first response is: don’t worry, you’ll be fine.  If you realize something is amiss, ask your teacher to use the bathroom according to whatever protocol your academy has, and I image they will let you go. Some have been touting the Diva cup, multi product/combo use has also been suggested, and I say it’s never a bad idea to keep some products in your locker or bag, for both yourself and that inevitable day someone asks for something. Really,  in all the time that I have trained, there has only been one occasion when someone needed to change their gi pants: it was a guy (the instructor actually) who caught it, didn’t make a big deal out of it and mentioned that she should go to the bathroom. That’s it. Didn’t bring extra pants? Not always, but some students have extra uniform parts in their lockers, and academies sometimes keep “loaner gi’s” for prospects receiving an introductory introductory session with jiu jitsu. See if your academy has loaner gi’s as well, and if the occasion ever arises, clean yourself up, ask to borrow some loaner gi pants and make sure to take the pants home, wash them, and return them to the loaner gi collection. Not something that should be abused, but a possible last resort depending on how early on you are in the class.

If you are hesitant about going to class during that week, I would say attend. I agree with Julia that BJJ helps with cramps, but I have to admit sometimes I have skipped class due to a bone-tired feeling I seem to get early on sometimes. Do try to make it in, because you’ll be glad you did more often than not, but don’t force yourself if you know in your heart of hearts that you just want to play hooky for a day. More than a day I would say take your pain reliever of choice (such as Tylenol or Advil), try to make it in and roll around. You may be surprised at how much better you feel.

For other tips check out her post, and they also seem to have a pretty good discussion going on in the comments.

(Intentionally) Stuck Between a Rock and a Bad Place

You know, fancy sweeps and smooth transitions are fantastic and all, but sometimes you need to get stuck into a bad place. It’s necessary for development: it sucks like crazy, but again they are necessary. Things won’t always go the way you expect them to, because that’s the nature of jiu jitsu: when you attack, there is a high chance that you are leaving something vulnerable. It’s a necessary risk that is taken. We always hope for a positive outcome to our risk, but sometimes the dice comes up snake eyes and the cards aren’t in our favor.

At our academy we tend to do positional training in both positions: the good and the bad, giving each partner something to work on.

Because sometimes it’s good to get yourself stuck between a rock and a bad place.

Women and Whether They Can “Handle” BJJ

I know everyone has probably put in their two cents at this point, but when I first read the heading to Keith Owen’s post, “Can Women Really Handle Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?” my first reaction was to recall a scene from the movie 300, which I have (painfully) recreated for you with a free gif generator, so sorry for the poor quality:

“Clearly you don’t know our women…”

Granted this guy doesn’t make his living writing, he makes it teaching  jiu jitsu. Also granted there is an expectation that as an instructor he should have a little more open mind and less sexist attitude when it comes to recruiting women students into his academy. 

Maybe it’s just me, but in his post the instructor creates an “us versus them” mentality, which may also reflect in his teaching at his academy. In an attempt to not scare women away, he in fact is creating a segregated culture by putting women to the side where they won’t be”harmed” or “made uncomfortable” by rolling. By putting women to the side you create a double standard; a perfectly healthy man is pressured to train, where the “delicate flower”of a woman is not pressured to try her new skills out on the mat. 

Aye, but there’s the rub: to try something new, jiu jitsu or not,  is about getting out of your comfort zone and being challenged. And while we know the joys of overcoming those challenges in the art, they can be immensely frustrating and practically a deal breaker for ANY beginner. It takes time and patience to get a new student through that first obstacle, regardless of gender.  I’m sure if this is he notices a lot of women walking out the door, there’s a good chance a lot of white belts in general are walking out the door, frustrated with the experience: it’s just women are the smaller group and so their absence is more noticeable. While you will find a few exceptions to the rule, your white belts aren’t quite “in love” with jiu jitsu up to the first 60 to 90 days-you have to share that passion, that enthusiasm with them. Challenge them, but also make sure someone isn’t smashing the living daylights out of them the first week in.

I do find the mention of the married men a bit out of line though. I could be totally wrong, but to mention it as an issue means there’s a good chance someone is making it an issue on the mat which would make any female uncomfortable no matter how much they love training.

I never thought I had to be Captain Obvious, but women don’t think about sex when they are training with male partners. We are there to learn and improve, not to “get our grind on”. Just….ew. And if the wives of these guys are complaining about women training with men, encourage them to try a few classes to see what the whole thing is really all about. Who knows? Maybe you’ll have a few women sign up that way.

My point is treat everyone in your academy with respect, encourage that respect among one another, have  relatively little to no double standards (guys in our academy are not allowed to wear a shirt under their gi, but women are allowed- that sort of thing) and most importantly share your passion for the sport with your students. That is how you will get women to stay: by focusing on the sport and everything you love in it, and not a woman’s perceived “delicate sensitivities”.

I’m linking to Julia’s post on the subject, mainly because she was the one that brought the whole thing to my attention, and also I don’t want to give this guy any more publicity than he already has gotten in response to the article. If you are going to read it, read Julia’s analysis first, and like her post so she gets the readership traffic boost.

Oldies but Goodies

While jiu jitsu is still evolving, and there are new guards, submissions and positions it feels like every couple of months,  it’s nice sometimes to see a “blast from the past” so to speak- an old technique that’s like that you loved and for some reason or another moved away from. It’s like that song you used to play all the time, stop listening to for a couple of years and then hear on the radio again. You may not remember every single word, every nuance, but everything has a warm, familiar ring to it and tends to bring back memories. Some probably good, some probably a little frustrating, but that’s part of the whole process, and advancing in rank.

Tonight’s Oldies but goodies were some sweeps from x-guard- have you gone through any techniques you would consider an old friend you were re-acquainted with recently?

Congratulations and Different Classes for Ranks: the Cons

I will give my short list for the cons of separating classes, but first congratulations to our students who got stripes, and to Matt for his promotion to purple belt- congrats Matt!

Anyway, back to the cons of teaching classes that have been separated by rank. I don’t think there are very many, but here’s the short list I came up with. I very much favor having classes separated, but in an attempt to be fair I’m going to keep my mouth…er, fingers… shut and not argue against these points.

Lower ranks don’t have as much interaction with higher ranks- lamentable, but true: if they are kept with their white belt brethren, there’s less of a chance to mingle with the higher ranks

Lower ranks have less of an opportunity to drill or train with a higher rank- someone mentioned their game improved immensely when they trained with a higher rank when they were a white belt, which I could understand.

Lower ranks don’t have as many opportunities to see the more advanced stuff- I could argue they don’t really need to see anything too fancy and get overwhelmed at such an early stage, but for some people I’m sure they would love to see what lies ahead for them in their jiu jitsu career.

So there you have it: personally I think the pros outweigh the cons, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

What do you guys think?

**UPDATE: Sorry, I didn’t make myself very clear;  I am in favor of separating some of the classes, not all of them. Carry on!**

Different Classes for Ranks: The Pros

Someone on facebook posted an aritcle on the pros and cons of dividing a class according to rank. We recently did the same thing at our academy, and I think it will be beneficial for the lower belts. Here’s a short list of why:

A heavy focus on the basics- in a white belt class there can be more of an emphasis on the simple stuff, and even if they have heard the information before, they’re white belts and could use the extra repetition.

The class is geared toward a specific group, rather than a broader audience- Sort of hand in hand with the previous item, say you’re teaching a mixed class, and while you have higher ranks there you can mention some things and combinations of techniques and common problems that you are sure they have encountered. There is no guarantee like that with the white belt though, so you run a pretty high risk of confusing them.

Less students, and therefore more individualized attention- this one is just simple math: a divided class means less students taking up mat space, which gives the instructor an opportunity to focus their attention on a smaller number of students

Chance for higher ranks to teach and hone that skill- For those who are higher ranks, especially students below black and brown belt, this is a perfect opportunity if they decide they want to teach to take advantage of that opportunity.

I’m running out of time, so I’ll go over the cons tomorrow, but that’s my short list for the benefits to a divided class.

Youtube BJJ Technique Videos: Worth it?

I’ll be honest, I haven’t really watched a Youtube technique video all the way through in, like, forever. Chalk it up to all the time I’m in class, of my limited attention span for anything longer then a gif or webisode nowadays, but while a lot of people watch them with a religious like fervor, I just go to class and get my jiu jitsu from the class setting.

How many people do find them useful though? Be honest- I certainly won’t judge. There are definitely days where I think they could be potentially helpful, but then I get distracted by great procrastination-enabler known as the internet, and I just never get around to it.

So what about you, do you watch technique videos off of youtube? Do you generally find them helpful?

 

It All Comes With a Price

Have to admit, I’ve been watching “Once Upon a Time”- a show where all the familiar fairy tale characters run amok through a little town in Maine. It’s more complicated then that, but that’s about all I want to invest in when it comes to explaining the plot.

One of the main characters, Rumpelstiltskin, has a tag line that magic always “comes with a price”- you can’t have what you want without paying for it in some way. Which I feel can be applied to jiu jitsu: they are prices we are willing to pay, but when you think about it, there are sacrifices that are made when training.

Luckily though you don’t have to deal with this creepy bastard every time you want to learn a fancy new technique…

Gi burn, mat burn, accidental black eyes, dislocated toes, popped ribs, that pain in your back from that time you tried that upside-down spider/tornado guard…thing that didn’t turn out so well. The dieting before tournaments, the worrying about dieting before tournaments: it’s all a part of the price we pay for jiu jitsu.

But, since it’s something we really care about and something we want to excel in, we continue to make those deals and sacrifices: because it’s in the pursuit of something that makes us happy, and ultimately will keep us healthy and relatively spry in our old age.

I hope.

Here’s a question: if you could ask our creepy fairy tale fellow up there for one technique, one submission that  you could be the absolute best at, what would it be? But remember, when it comes to magic, wishes and other short cuts, these quick fixes always “come with a price”. If you think of something, please by all means let me know.