A great day of training today - something very different that I've been wanting to try for a long time.
While the Fundamentals class was going on (I got to the Academy about 45 minutes after class had started), I did some cardio power drills. Three one-minute rounds each of alternating tripod hook sweeps against the wall, the side control escape series (hipscape2belly, roll out, hard bump) and the half guard drill. I added a lap at the end of each drill (actually, two laps around the smaller mat) and, aside from taking heart rates (30/36/40 BTW), I did the whole circuit with no rest.
By the time I was done, the class was finishing up with some calisthenics of their own, which seemed like a good time to join in the push-ups, sprawls, squats, hipscape2belly and more to finish things off.
From there, we went into Live Training. I got to roll with Mark and Prof Carlos for about 8-10 minutes each. Excellent movement, which was my main priority, even as much of it was spent in escape with the Prof.
A very nice session today. Before the Live Training, I drilled the basic switch reversal out of half guard with Mark, a critical reverse to have if you spent a lot of time in half guard. This is especially good when the guy is trying to wedge your half guard open with the instep of his free leg. And after training, talking with Brian, Chaim and Prof Carlos, we spent a lot of time talking about movement, and Carlos' "blind" training with Brian, which was something I think he said he picked up from Rickson Gracie ("If you use strength, I stop. If you grip my gi, I stop. If you open your eyes, I stop. Do you want to roll?").
Excellent conversation. It was also a good opportunity to pick up a tip on getting control of the leg when looking to attack with the stack pass, for example in the #1 Feitosa pass (leg high). I'm definitely looking forward to trying that out the next time I get the chance.
160.1 on the scale post-train. A little porky but a tame Thursday should have me at a reasonable gravity by week's end. Today's training also marked my 15th of the month. One down. Eleven to go.
