The Jedi analogy

For jiu jitsu still holds strong.

But I think training at a new club has made me realise that it can be extended.

:warning: extremely geeky (and long) post on many levels

In my 'old' club I was one of the top level guys. This was helped by some of the best and brightest leaving for greener (or blackbelteder?) pastures, but I also managed to climb there through attrition, by being one of the ones who stuck it out. By researching, training regularly, sure... but for the most part, just by having done this jiu jitsu thing for longer than most in the club.

The downside of this status was I could eat rubbish food, not work uber hard, and still stay on top of things. My technical ability and knowledge was enough to keep me ahead of most of the other guys. This was also helped by the club being hobbiest in orientation - the average member was in their thirties, looking to get a bit fitter, and not an all out competitor. We would have extremely high level guys pass through our academy from time to time doing seminars or similar, and I'd sometimes train in academies with guys much better than me, but for the most part I was a Jedi in the club.

But I was a Luke Skywalker type of Jedi (with a bigger gut).

Except for my initial foundational training, I was mostly self taught. I'd pick up new techniques and ideas from seminars (like visiting Yoda in the Dagobah system), but the adjustments I'd make were not amongst other Jedi, they'd be amongst those that had been training for 6 months, 2 years, 3 years. The guys who really pushed me, or had been training longer than me, would often be giving up some size on me, so I had a number of real advantages. Luke was the only Jedi in a world full of normal people. He could do crazy stuff that had people in awe of him, but this awe relied on the limitations of the majority, rather than the utter exceptional nature of Luke's ability amongst his peers. Luke's only real challenge was Vader (I don't really count the Emperor - he was Vader's problem), who was an old man with severe asthma, who wasn't exactly the most dynamic on his feet. Luke also beat Vader by turning him from enemy to ally - a good strategy, but one that didn't rely on winning via skill.

I lost all that by moving to the UK. Training here is like being in the Golden Age of the Jedi, being in the Jedi academy, like a kid growing up amongst a whole heap of talent, all climbing over each other to stand out. It's a place where there are a number of normal people, but there are also Jedis everywhere. I do not stand out, my powers aren't that impressive really, and my once highly respected purple belt is a highly regarded, but also middling rank. I have to use a lot more effort to do things, I have to think more, work more, be even more efficient with my movement, use my powers to their fullest extent, but do so knowing that won't always be enough. I have become fitter, stronger, faster and a lot better, simply by training in a different context.

I've gradually climbed into being a different kind of purple belt. I feel like the Gareth of 2014 would smash the utter crap out of Gareth of 2012, despite being much lighter. Although this would be a likelihood even without the move, the level to which 2014 Gareth would smash 2012 Gareth is something I can't even clearly articulate. It would be just like most Golden Age Jedis would wipe the floor with Luke - Luke would be dead in moments. I really don't know what this means for an eventual return to NZ. I don't know whether I can help raise the level of jiu jitsu at my old club, or whether there are 'pockets of the Golden Age' I need to find elsewhere.

I also don't know how to return to a club wearing the same belt I was wearing two years ago. Where people have gained a stripe or more in less than half the time I have. Where I've seen people that I smashed two years ago with ease in NZ leap frog me to brown belt. Where my perspective on brown belt has been changed by rolling with a number of different guys that wear them. Where my perspective on purple belt has been changed by a number of guys that wear them here.