Gracie Seminar

This weekend was my first Jiu-Jitsu seminar.

Rener Gracie was the big name instructor instructing. He's a grandson of the guy who started Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and the son of the current head of the Gracie style. He's one of two Gracies who run the Gracie University program.

At any given time there were about a hundred people on the mat. It was held in a high-school gym where they must have a heck of a wrestling program. There were enough huge mats to totally cover the gym floor. Unfortunately, they hadn't been cleaned in a very long time.

It was interesting. He'd show us a movement in great detail, repeated several times. We then worked on it for a while with a partner. He'd then take it farther, and again we'd go work. This would be repeated about half a dozen times per topic.

This really worked for me, as the first slice was always exactly the material I'm working on at my level. The next slice would be the level above, and the rest were step-by-step progressively higher in level.

At each topic I got great coverage of one of my techniques, and the higher levels lent me a much deeper understanding. The progressive nature of the lessons had us practicing the first slice many, many times as it was always included in the subsequent slices.

By the end we were all doing the easy, first part mindlessly as we concentrated on the trickier, newer higher levels. This is exactly the kind of practice that makes a technique really sink in.

My hope going in was that I'd get great work on my own level. I certainly received this, and a bunch more that I consider a bonus.

There were four people from my Gracie school attending. Hopefully, between us we'll be able to remember the high-level stuff.

Even if we can't, I got what I was there for.