As has so often been the case over the nearly five years that I've spent learning and training jiu jitsu, many of the answers to the questions I've had about the present and future of jiu jitsu at Gracie Barra Seattle were only a training session away.
Without getting into the specifics of things, Rodrigo spent some time talking about how both he and new professor Carlos (and other black belts) were going to be actually implementing the GB Fundamentals curriculum and, maybe more importantly, how we were supposed to be learning it. It was a message directed at the blue belts and white belts, like most things at the academy these days, but it did serve to "release me" to use the Fundamentals classes in the way that will work best for me. To that end, I made at least 1.5 major breakthroughs on positions I'd pretty much abandoned.
And while I don't think either breakthrough will turn me into Braulio Estima from the closed guard any time soon, it was a pretty good "redemption" of some of the points Rodrigo was making in his speech.
