More good stuff on competition training day. Another round of lycanthropy had me arriving just short of 12:30 p.m., but I think I more than made up for the lost time with Prof Carlos' aggressive training style and what seemed like half an hour of Live Training with Lance (more on that in a later post).
Competition drills were based around guard passing - at least the first half of them. I missed the first pass, but the next two were a toreano push-pull-mount pass and a spider guard pass that I used to call the Jack Pass when Prof Rodrigo showed it to us years ago. One key detail in the Jack Pass was to bring the legs/knees together and get the cross knee grip first, then get the sleeve grip, then step back with the cross knee grip hand to give room for the guy's body to rotate.
It's been nice to train at this accelerated pace. I can't tell if that is the majority opinion or not. I'm convinced - and I think the science backs it up - that repetition and drilling is what is going to improve both technique and conditioning. And as far as jiu jitsu is concerned, those are really the two most important bases to cover.
My 4-week training average is still a pretty mediocre 2.25 as of this week. Ideally, I'd be at 3.0 at this point (end of Week Two), but the time lost in late December is truly coming home to roost. I'll be looking to train 5x next week (including Saturday) and 4x for the week leading up to the 2nd Seattle Open on the 29th. That would put me at 3.75 going into the tournament - not great, but not too bad heading into the second half of prep for the March Revolution.
With Week Three beginning (and the Seattle Open two weeks out), I'll need to work toward a 4.0-4.5 average, adding a Saturday training day to a MTWF schedule whenever I can. I'm lucky enough to be in a position where I think I see my biggest flaws relatively clearly (as do a growing number of GB Seattle black belts). So the task at hand to fix these problems is fairly straightforward. The issue, as always, will be a matter of having the discipline to continue to hammer out the errors until new, more productive habits take their place.
161.4 on the scale post train, everything but the coat. 164.4 post-train in the gi. The middle of the week has been very good for my weight, as I've managed to drift back toward more sane levels heading into the weekend. A little restraint during what are likely to be epic NFL playoffs on Saturday and Sunday could go a long way toward finding myself still on the lighter side of the 160s, if not less, when Week Three begins.
