A good night of Fundamentals training with Jesse teaching. Every time I think about just going to the Live Training session at 7, I can't help but feel as if I'm just not going to get my time's worth unless I'm at the class at 6, as well. It doesn't really matter much to me if it is fundamental or advanced. If you're only going to get one bite of the apple on any given day, you might as well make it as big a bite as possible.
A lot of things to like about tonight's training. The headlock throw, the kind of judo that almost everybody can pick up after a few good reps. And then the armbar and the triangle from the guard. Nothing fancy or elaborate, but it was great to work two techniques that are both absolutely fundamental attacks from the full guard as well as being submissions I almost never use.
Very fun also to work with a white belt during the instructional part. There's no better way to be reacquainted with the fundamentals than to train and drill with someone who is really just learning them for the first time.
That said, I'm filing the finale of tonight's training under "could have been worse."
Some folks are always dealing with knees, others elbows, others backs. For me, apparently, it's all about the eyes.
There are a few things I'm going to have to do differently. I'm convinced that part of my subsequent left eye injuries years ago were at least in part due to my obsession with playing the half guard on my right hip, overexposing the left side of my face while I was still very much trying to learn the position. I've torn through three gi pant cuffs using a grip break that works perfectly well against legal grips, but not so well against illegal grips. So I've had to toss that otherwise very effective way of getting my legs back in exchange for something else.
And now, the posture break that sets up my Guy LaFleur sweep has started to become more dangerous than it is worth. Although I don't do a whole lot of flying around on my own dime, some of my set-ups and deceptions that encourage sudden and unexpected expenditures on the part of my training partners during sparring are starting to be plenty rich for my blood. Literally.
We'll see how much healing up takes place overnight. I'd love to get back on the mat tomorrow - even if I can't spar I can at least get some drilling in.
162.2 on the scale, post-train. It's amazing how much less energy I expend during training compared to three or four years ago. I used to routinely lose 2-3 pounds back at GB Seattle 2.0 ("The Treehouse") after a hard night's training. But despite doing my explosive-repeat conditioning earlier today, it seems as if I never shake the low 160s for the high 150s for long.
