And In This Corner... the Batman

I just got back from my last Jiu Jitsu session of the season. The community dojo that I attend shuts down over most of the summer. All and all, I'd say it was a great experience. I attended a handful of competitions, went to classes weekly and was awarded my orange belt. Although the goal of this blog is to introduce me to (and not master) all the skills and abilities that Bruce Wayne would need before becoming the Batman, I think that I will continue with Jiu Jitsu next fall.

In the mean time, starting next Friday I will be attending a local gym for a training course in boxing. I hear that it's pretty intense and I hope to get alot out of it.
PS Anybody who wants to consider themselves learned about Batman's martial arts training must read the series of posts on the subject over at Comics, Films, Kung Fu, and Whatever the Hell Else:
Intro
Boxing
Jujitsu
Savate
Eskrima, Kali and Arnis
Capoeira
Kung Fu
Wing Chun
Mok Gar
Northern Shaolin
Tien Hsueh

Batman's the Best Martial Artist Ever

I fought in my first Martial Arts Tournament yesterday.

I don't know if you've ever been to one of these but they're interesting. That being said I'm not sure how useful they are. I spent alot of the day sitting around and very little of it actually competing. This one was multidisciplinary. I entered in grappling, self-defence and point-fighting.

• I was easily beaten in grappling. I definately need to work on this.

• I scored well in self-defence and placed high in my tier.

• I like point fighting but their wasn't enough low level belts registered in my category and so all the color belts were mixed together. I fought an orange belt from a karate school whom I'm certain considered me an easy victory.
  

For it being my first tournament I was fairly pleased but like I said, I'm interested in learning not competing and this particular tournament didn't present many opertunities to learn.

Oikiryu Jiu Jitsu

I asked my sensei what school of Jiu Jitsu I'm studying today at class and found out that it is Oikiryu that I have become a pupil of.

So what do I do after class? I come home to look it up and write a detailed description of it for you my faithful readers. But what do I find out from my trusty search engine? Nothing.

Nothing at all. In the age of the internet how can that be?

So I start to get a little more creative. Maybe it's aikiryu... no, nope. If it is so young and so western then I wouldn't expect a confusion over the spelling.

So what's going on here? Did I misunderstand my sensei? Is my spelling wrong? Is it uncommon? As always if anyone has anymore information than I do please speak up. Leave me a comment.

PS. Last week we were introduced to methods for deflecting attackers armed with knives and this week we started point combat. Holy shit, Batman! Did I ever feel like a cat in water! I've never punch or kicked before this and I'm being thrown in the ring and asked to just do it! It was crazy but by the end I was starting to get the hang of it. Although, I was told I have to loosen up.

Jiu Jitsu

On Tuesday was my first Jiu Jitsu class. It was great! I think I'm going to enjoy this component of my Batman training more than I had expected.

So before I get started I should clear up a few things. When I mentioned that my quest to become Batman would soon include martial arts training, I posted a link to Jiu Jitsu. Jiu Jitsu is a Brazilian variant that is descended from Judo. This IS NOT what my dojo teaches. The class that I'm attending teaches Jujutsu; however, they spell it Jiu Jitsu. As I understand it, Jiu Jitsu is a more archaic term and Jujutsu is the more accepted term.

Out of respect for my dojo, I'll refer to the tradition as Jiu Jitsu, ok?

To get an idea of the spirit of Jiu Jitsu, let me give you a brief historical tour of it's development. In feudal Japan, the combination of heavy armor and a highly tuned offensive techniques made samurai warriors the ultimate tank of the era. If one were to meet such an opponent unarmed and unarmored, one would need specialized techniques to be victorious. Striking an armored opponent wouldn't do the trick and allowing them the room to utilize a katana or yari would be a very bad idea. Jiu Jitsu is martial art for neutralizing enemies through grappling, throwing, locks and chokeholds. In this regard, it is far more akin to western wrestling than other eastern martial arts; however, there is a substantial difference: whereas wrestling seeks to pit strengths, Jiu Jitsu is literally the "art of softness" or the "way of yielding". Wikipedia says it quite well: "These techniques were developed around the principle of using an attacker's energy against him, rather than directly opposing it."

We began with exercises and stretches. These weren't so bad except for the squats. Those are muscles that I have not invested in and they were stiff until this morning. We were then introduced to falling techniques. Since Jiu Jitsu is a grappling art, absorbing the impact of falls is crucial.

We then learned three locks and two chokes. Although I've been practicing them every day I won't try to explain them to you yet. Don't worry though. I will as soon as I feel more comfortable with them and have found a reasonable body of resources on the internet to point you to.

PS If anybody does know of good resources that I should be familiar with please leave me a comment.

Breathing Room

Last night I attended my very first Jiu Jitsu class and so have raised my Batman training to the next level. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. But tonight, let's answer yesterday's non- Superhero Fermi Problem (we'll use this answer for the next, and second from last Fermi problem).

The atmosphere pushes down on you (you might not have the weight of the world on your shoulders but you definately have the heavens weighing down on you). That pressure is measured in atmospheres (atm). The pressure of the atmosphere is normally 1atm (duh). In useful units 1 atm = 10^5 N/m^2. Where's that pressure come from? All the air molecules over head weigh down on you. Since the pressure is force per area, above every 1 meter squared there is a force (or weight) of 10^5N and remembering Force=Weight=mg where we round gravity to 10m/s^2. So the mass of the particles above 1 meter squared is 10^4kg.

We already used the area of the earth in the buses Fermi question and we use it again here: surface area of earth =5*10^{14} m^2. We know the mass of atmosphere above every square meter AND we know the total number of square meters that make up the surface of the planet. Therefore, we estimate the total mass of the atmoshere to be 10^4 kg/m^2 *   5*10^{14} m^2 = 5 * 10^{18}kg of air in the atmosphere!

BUT

Air isn't pure oxygen, O_2. The percent of the atmosphere that is O_2 definitely isn't 100%and it's not 1%. So we could guess 10% but I think that it's fairly common knowledge that air is 20% O_2 so let's use that number.

5 * 10^{18}kg * 20/100 = 10^{18}kg of oxygen. That's alot of elephants - or subway trains for that matter of oxygen. Wikipedia says that the atmosphere is really 5 quadrillion tons. A ton is 1000 kg and a quadrillion is 10^15 so we were only off by a factor of 5. Once again, we're pretty darn close.

The Dark Knight Returns

I registered and payed for my beginner-level Jiu-Jitsu yesterday. It feels like I've been wait forever to start. The first class is on Sept. 2nd. Classes occur once a week and go for 10 weeks. I'll post what I learn each week.
P.S. I'll post all the other Fermi problems this weekend and then we'll be done with them.

Training - but not posting

Sorry about the large delay between posts. I know we all hate it when a blogger stops you from reading your favorite blog for an entire month (this is your favorite blog ever, right?). I've been working on another project and it took all of my attention. Sorry about that.

BUT although I haven't been posting, I have been keeping up with my training. In fact, I've started a whole pile of new enterprises. Firstly, I've started doing chin-ups and pull-ups everyday instead of so many push-ups in response to a comment by Thelonious_Nick on an old post. On top of that, I have been jogging three mornings a week, biking twice a week and swimming twice a week. All and all, I have never been in such good shape. As often as possible I am doing my flexibility training.

Why all of this exercise? Well first because Batman is supposed to be at the peak of the human condition. Now I'm not ever going to claim that I'll be in an athlete's shape but I would like to be in better shape than most of the people I meet on the street. And second because the next few Bat-skills that I'll be adding to my arsenal of superheroic arts are all physical.

I've found a friend who boulders. This will be great! Batman can ascend the highest skyscrapers with ease. I bet Batman is one mean wallclimber. We haven't gone yet but I'll let you know when we do and tell you how it went. Hopefully, I can get competent.

The second thing to learn is a martial art. I've been trying to figure out what to do first but wanted to go with someone. I finally found a pal who would like to learn Jiu-Jitsu. There's a school near our neighborhood. Hopefully, we can get in and learn a bunch. I hope that it's a good martial art to start with. I don't plan to master Jiu-Jitsu just learn the basics.

So those are my summer plans. Oh wait! There's two more things. I've bought a copy of Gray's Anatomy (standard textbook on anatomy from the turn of the last century - it's ok that it's old. The human body hasn't changed much over the last hundred years). I've been reading through it and making notes. Batman, always the scientist, would tackle his physical training with the precision of a surgeon. If I'm going to train my body, then I'll understand it too. I'll write you brief synopsizes of each component of the body. I promise that these won't be super in depth or boring. I'll spice them up with true comic book showmanship but they will be accurate and hopefully point those of you who want to know more in the right direction.

I'm also learning French (I know maybe not the most practical language but it is a language and if I'm going to learn multiple foreign languages in my life then it's time to start). Finally, I have some brain exercises that I'll be introducing to start getting the detective part of this project rolling.

So lot's of what I have been doing and what I will be doing for this season.

And finally a promise. I'm dedicated to posting more often than I have been. In fact, I'll have a post for tomorrow finishing up lock-picking once and for all.