Live Training on Friday. I got in some good rolls with Jesse (who was killing me with his very tight, knee cross pass v.s. my half guard) Brian, Elliott, Ben, and a visiting purple belt with a very good deep half game (and single leg switch off the near leg ankle pick)
Nothing especially noteworthy one way or the other. I'm still easing into the 2 on 1. One thing I've decided is that if I end up on my left hip from the half, I'm going straight for the deep half. Insofar as I'm not yet "ingrained" when it comes to the deep half, I'm thinking there's a halfway decent chance that I might actually be able to go both ways on the deep half if I start now.
About that knee cross ... I need to be more aggressive in going for the Rodeo, which is a counter that's worked for me almost every time. I think a part of me feels as if it is a cop-out move, which is ridiculous. If I were trainig no gi, then maybe I'd opt for the Jeff Glover reverse sitout. But I tried that today with Jesse and just got mangled - in part because the gi provides for too much friction to be able to make that escape against someone with a good, tight pass.
Feeling a little more fatigue than I'd like, but then again we are training hard. Maybe I'm expecting too much. I'm doing a better job of competing - or at least surviving (see "Elliott: Back Mount") - when the body feels less than 100% willing.
The thing to constantly remember is that there are technical solutions to getting into better positions than the one you are in. Save your energy for following those solutions, and don't waste your energy on movements that don't contribute toward those solutions.
One good example was the deep half from the visiting purple belt. He did a great job of disrupting my base and putting me on the defensive. I focused on the far side underhook and waiting for the opportunity to step over the head.
I don't remember the specific resolution (I think over the whole 7 minutes I might have passed his deep half once and been swept once). But the point was that I was able to find a technical solution to the initial deep half attack. And that have me the "stillness", so to speak, to avoid making major mistakes.
Dropped by the new academy a few hours after class to help out a bit with painting. There wasn't as much work as I had anticipated, but it was great to see the interior of the new facility.
In many ways, it reminds me of Gracie Barra 1.0, the Tully's academy, in terms of its size and "industrialness." Our current spot a few clicks north is no powder room. But the original Tully's location and the new spot off 4th Avenue South definitely have a feel to them that is all business.
It's hard to express how exciting it is to imagine the new academy filled with students. Hopefully the MT classes will draw well. You can tell that there are a lot of newer folks who are into striking to one extent or the other. They provide a different sort of energy that will probably really fill the new gym - which is pretty sizable.
The idea of having tournaments there is obvious. I see why Rodrigo was so quick to restart the GB Seattle tournament series: The Seattle Open. Now that I think about it, the new academy reminds me of Tully's on the outside and the Fife Wrestling Room on the inside. Very easy to imagine seeing tournaments run in a space like that.
A good jiu jitsu day. 158.0 on the mat post train (168 and change in the gi pre-train). It was very nice to see the new room. It looks like it is going to be a great place to train.
