Out of the sick bed and on to the mat.
My first day back (I missed about six classes or a week and a half) wasn't nearly as difficult cardio-wise as I'd feared. Rodrigo is restructuring the classes to both make sharper distinctions between new students, advanced beginners, and advanced, as well as to emphasize what are going to be the 20 Fundamentals of Jiu Jitsu from a Gracie Barra perspective.
We did a bit of it today: a 180 drill (half of the 360 drill) and that Machida/Jacare combination that we've been working on for weeks (and damn me to hell if I don't attack with the Machida/Jacare in November ...). I think this is going to be a great development, even though the schedule re-arrangement also means that the Monday and Wednesday sessions will be back to 5:30 instead of 5:45. I'll have to get my act together that much sooner in the day.
Cramps and fatigue caught up with me. I managed to roll through an Achilles tendon cramp (?!) when sparring with Andrew, but needed to break for a few minutes when rolling with Stephen, who had an injury of his own. Even though I faded pretty quickly , I'm glad I waited the cramp out instead of just calling it a night as I have in the past.
Hopefully my cardio will catch up fairly quickly. Every night there is a brown or black belt in the Live Session and I'd love to be able to start having that final roll of the day with someone who will probably be my most difficult challenge. Daniel Coyle talks about the importance of focusing on error when it comes to achieving greatness. Ending the evening or afternoon with a roll with some of our best guys (and gal) could provide plenty of error for me to focus on.
153.8 on the scale, post-train. A crazy number given how long I've been off the mat. Then again, there's probably some sort of ill health discount that I need to be wary of as I move back towards 100%.
Speaking of which - the GB Seattle Invitational was moved from this weekend to the third weekend in October (the 17th, I think, the week after the Oregon Open). That's perfectly fine with me. I didn't embarrass myself tonight on the mat, but I'm hardly competition ready - even for a Friendly.
Rodrigo also announced a tournament in Fife on December 13th - my Dad's birthday, ironically enough. It's a gi only, "traditional jiu jitsu" tournament with only 8 schools involved.
I have to admit that I like new events like this. With Sub League allegedly starting a gi division, it could be that we get five major gi-based events a year in within an hour's drive from Seattle, with almost as many intramural tournaments in on the Eastside. While I know that there is more to jiu jitsu than competition, I can't help but think that more tournaments - especially for the gi - are a great thing for jiu jitsu in Western Washington.
