157.0 on the scale, post-train. The calories are light these days, if not always clean.
Good training tonight, focusing mostly on what I called "flow" training elsewhere. Prof Rodrigo has us work guard passes, guard submissions, mount submissions, etc. against a partner who is really doing less than 25%, just giving enough movement for the other person to be able to effectively spot a particular opportunity and attack.
Rodrigo talked about doing more of this kind of training, and I couldn't be more happy to hear it. And not just as tournament prep, but as a regular component of the curriculum at GB Seattle.
One of the concerns I had was that the adoption of the official GB Seattle curriculum would stifle the ability of our professors to really share the wealth of what they knew (and maybe more importantly, what they were themselves learning and working on).
In many ways, this has turned out to not be the case. Whether it's the informal public/privates that sometimes happen an hour after the training is done or adjustments like the new Thursday classes for all levels, there's a nice balance between deliberate learning and focusing on individual techniques (much like the example of the violin players in the book, The Talent Code) and more wide-ranging, creativity/spontaneity/speed oriented training such as tonight (the example of the soccer players in The Talent Code.)
What was especially nice was getting to work on the Feitosa (formerly the unwieldly-named "Rodolfigo"). Mostly the middle and low passes, but I can't tell you how nice it was to pass the guard - even in a flow drill - and feel more solid, more leveraged, more in control than I've felt in years.
I'm not kidding. My jiu jitsu soul is so desperate for a coherent guard passing game that tonight's success at working on the Feitosa in drilling is probably going to help keep me up watching the rest of the DVR'd Sounders FC San Francisco match.
There were some red flags. My submission game from on top has stalled and started to succumb to entropy. But what's worse is that the holes in my rear mount escape are really starting to become an issue. Obviously the focus should be on not giving up my back in the first place. But to the extent that I've made the mistake, I need to do a better job of fixing the problem.
But again, the flow training was just great. I got to drill my weak side Flat Pass a little bit. Drilled the hell out of the Feitosa (the low and middle mostly). My sweeping was a little sloppier than it should have been. Some good flow work on my weak side (the old one-two), but my deep half could have been much smoother.
Tempted to roll out to the first "new" Thursday session tomorrow night. But it may not be until Friday when I'm back on the mat.
