Jiu-jitsu

[haggholm]

Today I got to roll a bit with SuperDave Rothwell. It was very educational (After this, no one else is going to catch you with a scissors sweep, he announced after he'd flipped me over about a dozen times and I was starting to catch on); it was also a match so comically uneven that it actually made me laugh. I mean, I'm used to being outclassed—I don't have a lot of experience, I'm not terribly strong, and I'm not really that talented. I improve, but slowly. Dave is much taller than me (with long arms and legs), much stronger than me (I swear his hands might as well have been riveted to my gi), and more skilled by a margin roughly the width of Eurasia. I told someone that he could probably have humbled me with ease whilst reading a newspaper, and upon further consideration I honestly believe that he could.

Honestly, I'm not kidding. There's no way in hell he'd need both hands.

Rank means different things in different martial arts. In some places (like a lot of strip mall Tae Kwon Do), you can get it in a year or two of diligent payment of test fees. In the karate organisation I practiced with, it took about three or four years (for a first-grade black belt; the highest, fifth, takes decades). In Brazilian jiu-jitsu, it usually seems to take people at least a decade to get a black belt, and it's my impression that they are expected to have a solid competition record. The bar is set high. Today was an interesting, further insight into just how high.