A short, short session on the holiday ... They opened up the Bellevue academy for a couple of hours for open mat. There weren't as many folks training as I had hoped, but there were plenty of folks: Pat, Nate, Dan, Jake, Chris, Jei and Sonia, Chaim, Jesse ... who were there and ready to go.
I spent most of the time rolling with Jake and drilling with Chaim. Jake is a blue belt with a very good butterfly guard attack and, more to the point, excellent balance when attacked with hook sweeps. It was a huge challenge to try and get him off base, reminding me that I need to secure more points of control to deal with those who are able to keep themselves balanced even deep into the sweep.
I wasn't able to work the 2on1 game that I want to focus on for the balance of the year. But there was some good movement and improvisation from the deep half that I liked and will probably indicate the way forward in the whole menagerie of halfs, deep halfs, X-guards and single Xs.
Again, not as much training today as I would have hoped for - it's been a bit of a low volume week as summer winds down. But I'm looking to make up for it in the days leading up to my mini-vacation in Portland in a little over a week - including that great seminar with Profs Feitosa, Joca and Almeida on Saturday. Here's to a four-day work week!
