Chico Seminar.

Great weekend of Bjj this Sat/Sun as Chico Mendes (2nd Degree Black Belt) is holding another Checkmat seminar weekend at Trojan Cheltenham. I am only able to go to the Sunday but that is still very pleasing for me. Some lucky bastards I know actually get to go to both days which would be absolutely phenomenal but is, alas, a pipe dream for a family guy like me.

I am going on the Sunday with a few of the guys from our SJJA club and can't wait. I love these club days out we have occasionally. It's always good to see some of the guys from the Taunton Club and there's usually a good bit of banter on the journey or while we're there. The seminar start time for Sunday is approx. 10:30 - That's a 9:30 journey start, no heavy drinkin' Saturday night then - and features 2 hours of No Gi Bjj, a half hour break and then straight on to 2 hours of Bjj in a Gi (urgh, that last 5 letters brings the horrible Rener Gracie rap tune to mind).

I'm quite full of nervous anticipation for the No Gi portion of the seminar as I haven't trained Sans Gi since the day I got my first (horrible, thick Adidas thing that shrunk unbelievably) and almost feel like I'm stepping on the mat as a white belt again. This will probably lead to me getting owned all over the mat during the sparring as even the static punch bag at the side of the matt gets a tap out of me. Look forward to learning though and a humbling experience every once in a while is character building.

The main reason why I'm going though of course is for the Gi part of the seminar as I can't wait to see what stuff Chico's got planned for the Techniques and drilling part. Chico never fails to show some pretty advanced and yet attainable techniques that can actually find a place in your Bjj arsenal. Some seminars you go to, you find that the stuff being shown is stuff that's so advanced or so specific that you wouldn't use it in your average everyday Blue Belt journey. Chico's stuff is always usable from a fairly early grade but a lot of it is stuff you haven't really seen before (from my point of view) or helps to polish/perfect the stuff that you already know with little tips that round off your technique.

Also, as this is Checkmat, we are going to be graced with the presence of a number of other Black Belts including Leonardo "Bomba" Queiroz, Luiz Neto, Marcus Canha and Rafael Heck. That's what I love about these Checkmat seminars. They tend to bring in loads of Black Belts so they can all train together too, but this benefits us all as, when we're practising techniques, you'll often get a stray Black Belt stop you and give you a few pointers to nail the move correctly. That's the beauty of the Checkmat family, they all pool together for things like this so we get a more complete experience.

We will undoubtedly also get the opportunity to roll inter club with some of the guys from Cheltenham and Worcester, which is always a good litmus test for how your skills are coming along against guys you've never or rarely rolled against. All in all, good times ahead.

Can't wait 'til Sunday. \m/.