A smallish class compared to what's been the case for much of the summer - vacations and the heat of August seem to be taking a little toll. That said, I got to train with new fellow brown belt "Chopper" Jeff for the first time in years, and then with Elliott, who is becoming one of my regular training partners these days.
The lesson was back control, for the most part, with Prof. Carlos showing us a version of taking the back from turtle using the same grips that Givas Santana showed us in his seminar earlier this summer. I get the sense that Carlos and Rodrigo are really starting to put their own imprint on the GB Fundamentals now that we've gone through the whole course once. That will only be for the better down the line.
BTW, today was Week 9a: Guillotine. Hooks v.s. Turtle. Rear Two Collars Choke.
With Jeff, I worked pretty much out of half guard. I did a good enough job of staying on the attack, even from half, but should have converted the kimura attack to the kimura sweep, since the kimura sweep is high on my list of training priorities. Unfortunately, I was too self-conscious about missing the sweep and winding up on the bottom.
With Elliott, I was mostly dealing with his ever-ready triangle attack - that and his youth. After spinning around and around for what seemed like half an hour, I finally had to stop - partly due to time constraints, partly due to exhaustion. Elliott looked like he could have gone another 10-20 minutes, easy.
So, not a great training day in some ways. I'm still struggling to implement my post-train skills work - hopefully adding some late classes on Tuesday and maybe Wednesday will give me more opportunities. Between the heat, my shoulder, and general August laziness, I've backed off my conditioning save for finishing off the explosive-repeat sessions I've been doing since the July 20th. I'm trying to make up for some lost training time from last week, so maybe I'll give myself a bit of a break on the off-mat conditioning - maybe explo-repo tomorrow and some cardiac output work on Thursday will do the trick.
158.8 on the scale post-train. Summer on the mat.
