One thing about the new curriculum: it will certainly make it easier to keep current with my blog posts.
Wednesday's training included a basic self-defense, punch avoidance to takedown move and a nice improvement on the knee wedge strategy for opening the guard. The punch avoidance strategy was stepping to the side and ducking the strike and then stepping forward with a penetration step between the legs and a clinch around the waist. As with a lot of these moves, staying relaxed in the hips and bending your knees are key to getting the move correctly.
The guard pass - or guard opener - was terrific. One thing that I always worried about with the basic knee wedge in the middle guard opener was that it seemed to leave you temporarily off balance, with both knees together in the middle. The new variation has you put the knee out to the side first and then moving the knee to the middle. You really want to take the knee out the side, not just leaning that way while basically remaining square (the better angle always wins).
Tatame wasn't bad. I need to remain a bit more focused going into the second, advanced class. I don't feel very smooth at all right now, though part of that is maybe to be expected given my emphasis on standing guard passes, for example. I very much need to bring the underhook pass into my guard passing game, which will open things up on a variety of fronts. Plenty of time - but I do need to get on it if I want to feel as comfortable as I can over the next few weeks.
I'm also feeling more general fatigue thatn I'd like. That might have to do with some technical issues, too - which is typically the case whenever I start thinking "hmmm, maybe a little more weight-lifting woudl help ..." I was listening to Rickson Gracie black belt Henry Akins on the FightWorks Podcast the other day and - in addition to realizing how much Gracie Barra is embracing many of the same concepts - was reminded of the idea of the zero point, and how far from that point I often am simply due to a lack of focus in positions and situations I otherwise know throughly.
That said, as I wrote over at the Sherdog Grappling Forum, I'm excited about the new changes at Gracie Barra Seattle. Not that I needed it - I was rebounding fairly well from my "growing pains" year of 2009 - but it almost feels like a rejuvenation with the new curriculum. It's going to be a very fun spring and summer at GB Seattle starting March 1. I need to make sure that I'm training as much as possible (ideally MTRF) during that stretch of March, April, May and June.
159.8 on the scale post-training. Very encouraging to break down below 160. There's no reason why I shouldn't be able to stay down here from now until the Revolution in March.
