A Peek at What's to Come
Book Excerpt from Weapons of Opportunity, By Lori O'Connell

This is an excerpt from a narrative non-fiction book I am writing (slightly modified for format), which is nearing completion.  It chronicles my experiences teaching and training in martial arts over the past thirteen years.

The term "weapon of opportunity" was coined by Professor Georges Sylvain, the founder of Can-Ryu Jiu-jitsu. It refers to an object that lay conveniently at hand at the moment of an attack that is used as an improvised weapon in defense. 

To quote Professor Sylvain’s oft used example, if you are attacked while you’re bringing your groceries from your car to your home, carrying a shopping bag with a can of beans in it, you could swing that bag in the air and smack your assailant in the head. You didn’t buy the can of beans and with the intent of smacking people in the head with it; it just happened to be in your hand when you reacted.  So a weapon of opportunity is really just some every day object that is in the right place at the right time, which you use to your advantage. 

This serves as a perfect metaphor for the many aspects of my personal development in the martial arts.  Over the years, specific people, objects, experiences, while at the time may have seemed small, insignificant, sometimes even a nuisance, have taught me important lessons and shaped me into the martial artist I am today.

This is the inspiration for my book and chapter titles.

Weapon #19: An Ambitious Yard Stick

Sean and John were two students in the university Jiu-jitsu class that Gordon taught and I assisted with.  They were both old friends of mine from high school, so the three of us had known each other for many years. They decided to take up Jiu-jitsu after I got my black belt, knowing that I would be getting more involved in teaching.

The two of them made great training partners for each other. Not only were they friends, they were well-matched in terms of ability. Sean, though he had no martial arts background whatsoever, was a complete natural.  He had great physical learning skills and intuitive understanding.  While he had participated in sports of all kinds from when he was a child until the end of high school, it was obvious that his abilities had more to do the kind of uncanny physical knack that you either have or you don’t.

John, on the other hand, though not physically gifted, had over ten years of martial arts training under his hat. I’ve found over the years that the more training you do in one martial art, the easier it becomes to pick up skills from other martial arts. It’s not necessarily to do with similarity between the arts themselves, but more from having become familiar with the pattern of learning. John was fortunate to have developed this early in life having started training at the age of seven.

Before and after classes, I watched the pair very enthusiastically practicing all their techniques in preparation for their yellow belt test. Their abilities had developed well beyond the usual training requirements for the next belt and yet when it came time to test, they didn’t feel they were ready yet. They even requested an extension when we went out for coffee one day after class.

“You could talk to Gordon Sensei for us. I honestly don’t think my strikes are smooth enough yet,” Sean reasoned.

“Yes and my throws aren’t flowing well yet either.” John added.

To this, I shook my head and rolled my eyes with a smirk. “Either way, you two are testing for your belts at the end of the semester. Just trust me, you’re ready,” I said and took a sip from my coffee, while the two of them expressed needless frustration.

I wasn’t going to explain to them that they were already training far above the white belt level as it was. Why would I discourage them from getting the most out of their training?  They were using perfection as their yard stick to measure their readiness to test.  Though it wasn’t the same yard stick we as instructors were using to evaluate their development.

Having denied their request, they returned to their training with renewed vigor, determined to achieve the level they wanted by time of their tests.

It was a group test, like we did at the end of every semester. Christine came in from main Hiscoe dojo as the black belt examiner. She was a stocky woman, strong and tough as nails. No one who knew her ever questioned whether she deserved her belt. They probably would’ve received a head butt in answer. She made a great examiner because she had a good sense of when and how much to push people so that they achieve their best.  

Even with the extra training, Sean’s strikes still weren’t perfectly smooth, nor were John’s throws perfectly flowing, but their levels of training completely blew Christine away. She looked over at me at one point as I watched the test from the side. She raised her arms and shoulders in questioning gesture, while her facial expression was one of utter disbelief.

After the test, she came over to me to inquire about our two wonder boys. “Lori, where did you guys find these two? They’re amazing! Their technique’s more like what I’d expect a green belt.”Christine couldn’t help but laugh when I told her that they hadn’t thought they were ready for the test.

What Sean and John didn’t realize was that as a student, you don’t have to be absolutely perfect at every technique at a belt level before you test. First of all, perfection is an ideal that theoretically is never attained in the martial arts. The goal is simply to learn each level to the best of your current ability. 

Some people will have to train longer than others to achieve this depending on the individual’s natural ability, background and frequency of attendance. But if a student over-trains at a level without pushing on to the next, they’ll begin to stagnate, working on the same old techniques ad nauseum. 

The student needs to learn the new techniques that are offered at the following belt level because those new techniques will give them a different perspective on their old ones by teaching them different skills and body movements. This cross-training serves to polish the foundation they have already built.

It’s very important for an instructor to know who to hold back and who to push forward. It’s particularly difficult to make the decision to hold a person back whom an instructor may feel needs extra training. Even if the student has a good attitude, it’s hard to tell him that despite his hard training, he’s not yet ready to test for the next level, especially when students who have trained for a shorter period are being promoted ahead of him. This can lead some instructors to test such a student before he is ready, not wanting to disappoint and possibly lose him as a student.

When Christine finished the test, she took them aside to speak to them as a pair. “You two did amazing tests. They were probably the best yellow belt tests I’ve ever seen,” she informed them, to which they responded with humble thanks. “I do have a couple of very minor corrections for both of you, but they really are minor.”

Afterward we went of for a beer to celebrate. I couldn’t help but be curious what they thought of Christine’s evaluation. Before I even asked, they answered my question.

“So we were ready were we?” John rounded on me, smilingly confrontational. “Christine Sensei made corrections for both of us at the end of the test; we told you we weren’t ready yet!”

To this, I could only sigh.

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