Out of nowhere, Jesse, one of the guys I trained with back in the GB Seattle 1.0 days, is back. He'd been off living the rest of life, i.e., having kids and raising a family. But things have stabilized enough it seems that he's back on the mat and training again for the first time in years.
It's nice to see. Sometimes you get so focused on the training partners that you lose over the years, that you don't appreciate enough the ones you have - to say nothing of the ones like Jason Garcia and Jessee who manage to make it back to the mat after taking care of business in the rest of the world.
Good training on Friday. Prof Carlos led the class and we worked on a duck-under takedown from standing, as well as a double grip break and takedown from standing. On the ground, some of the details that Prof Carlos provided w/re2 the Royler pass: push/pull on collar and sleeve, sitting on the hip, stepping forward with the free leg and kicking your trapped leg free were all things that will help me improve on a pass that is pretty 101 when it comes down to it.
Lessons from Live Training: work more Marcelo/Rodrigo deep half ... of the Glovers, #3 ... keep working for the back out of all positions ... nice kimura back attack to armbar, for example ... less regular half (gordo/plan b) unless training weak side and more sitting guard (armdrags, hooksweeps, omoplatas ...) ...
Frustrations with my deep half game have me migrating toward the X-guard, oddly enough. I'm not as comfortable as I'd like to be with the Glover deep half and want to try some of the versions that Marcelo and Prof Rodrigo have been showing us this year and see if they get me closer to where I want to be.
158.2 on the scale post-train - my lightest Friday of the month.
