Why Pass?

Our LA vacation in the second half of February, 2015....

Day 02/19

I have not been enjoying the 7am Tuesday and Thursday training times much. The classes are good, but the time isn't. I wake up plenty early, but in my "real" life I just sit around with the iPad, computer, or Xbox. More a time for coffee than takedowns.

Today is Thursday, and I trained at the early class. I'm sitting out the noon session, and after that class (I'm not attending the evening session) we're heading for for Disneyland. My hand is stiff and tired, so I'm going to watch today's mid-day class rather than participating. In a way the distance from the mat makes it easier to understand the lesson, but only in a way.

I am shocked by the small number that showed up for the class I'm watching. Only 8 students at starttime; by FAR the smallest advanced class I've see here. One Brown, one Purple, and the rest all Blues. The instructor, Ryron, doesn't seem to mind. Late arrivals fluffed it up to 16 by the end.

He started with a normal lesson, but I think something tweaked along the way. It turned into messing with what everybody thought they knew. He was showing how to win from within somebody's guard, and kept saying, " why pass?"

By the end they were all so confused that it was funny. Everything in their fundamental Jiu-Jitsu structure got turned backwards. I went through the same thing, but from the comfort of my bench.