2 Man Training

I have been fortunate enough to have the week off this week to spend time with the wife and kids. I have also managed to get some additional mat time in on the Monday and Tuesday afternoons. In a stroke of genius last week I checked the training schedule times for over Easter at my local gym, Sweat FA - Weston Super Mare, and found that there were some pretty huge gaps in the mat usage times which I could exploit. So I grabbed my trusty training compatriot, Marcus Hedley, and ventured down for some 2 man training.

And may I just say that although you are not getting the tuition aspect of a full class, I cannot recommend this format enough for an occasional session of additional training to help you polish up your skill set and maybe work on things that you've not had the time or space to try in class.

Monday was a bit impromptu as I didn't know whether we'd actually get to train so neither of us planned anything and we basically did everything on an as we think of it basis. Stuff we covered includes practising triangles, omoplatas, some judo throws, and an absoluute shit load of rolling.

On Tuesday however, we each managed to plan a bit the night before. I took reference from my good friend (yeah right) Marcelo Garcia, via his new book Advanced Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Techniques. From there we worked on his Arm Drag section practising and drilling a load of Arm Drags starting from the seated guard position with a few variations and then working on standing Arm Drags, also with a few variations. Marcelo is so thorough on this subject in his book that he even show a few variations where things don't go right for you initially and how to bring it back to your advantage. We spent a decent amount of time on this and by the end of it we both came away amazed at how much we didn't know about arm dragging and how many different ways you can actually initiate and arm drag and go straight to back. The guy really is a "Jiu Jitsu Genius".

Marcus went away with the Ed Beneville and Joe Moreira : The Guard manual. From there we did some guard techniques, sweeps and subs. We also tried a couple of Butterfly Guard sweeps from Marcelo's X-Guard Book.

It was really good learning these techniques that under usual circumstances, we wouldn't get the opportunity to try. We even found ourselves chucking a few of them in during the heavy rolling sessions we had at the end. It's good to apply the stuff you've learnt so when you hit something you've been trying out it makes it all feel worthwhile.

I truly cannot recommend enough getting in a bit of one on one training and experimentation time with your techniques for anyone who is semi-serious about learning Bjj. Roll on Thursday for Ian's class. I love this martial art!

\m/