Made it to the academy a little late, so I just took the Live Training class after a full UBS/LBS stretch. Both Rodrigo and Carlos were nowhere to be seen, but Jesse was leading both the class and the Live Training afterward. Live Training was mostly specific work, King of the Guard, King of Side Control, that kind of thing. I actually spent most of the time training with Pedro and Doug (both of whom have become pretty regular Saturday training, training partners.
That said, some of the best work was done after Live Training, going over some specific and technical stuff with one of the newer guys. This has traditionally when I've gotten some of my best work done. Too often, rolling with guys who are bigger and/or better leads to a restricted game of focusing on just your strengths alone at best or, at worst, just your escapes and defenses.
And while there is a place for that kind of thing, it makes far more sense to mix it up so that you are almost always getting a change to roll with someone against whom the trial of new techniques is not likely to end in futility.
With three weeks to go, I'm trying to focus in on those areas that most need improvement in order to perform better in November than I did last July. Jeff is running a Master's division, which I'll sign up for if it helps the school win points, but that I'd just as soon avoid otherwise. At least until I earn my black belt, I'd rather just be in the pool with the rest of the brown belts.
