LA in 2016

I am about to start my third pilgrimage to the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Los Angeles.

The first time was for 8 weeks, the second for 2, and this time will also be for 2 weeks.

They try hard to make it an inviting place, but there it is also intimidating.

For the first trip, I literally had no idea what to expect. It turned out fine, and everything was properly done, and painless for the student. They have a front desk to handle any issues or explanations, scrupulously clean change rooms and showers, and a huge training area, as well as several small, private-lesson chambers. The classes all run precisely by the clock,

I went all in, attending all 13 advanced classes every week. This was perhaps too much, especially for so long. By the end, I was pretty much exhausted, both physically and mentally. It was a good tired.

Last year, I wanted to add in a few private lessons, and so decided to dial back on the group sessions a bit. I went to 10 group classes and 2 private lessons per week. That was a much better pace. It adds up to 12, but the private lessons are not demanding in the same way. In terms of exhaustion, it was the right way to go.

It also worked well as to injury, and working on things that I wanted to. As the noon and the evening classes were always about the same on any given day, I would attend the first, and then decide if I would return for the later session.

One day they almost killed me with a bunch of lifting-type of throws. I did not return for a repeat at the evening class. I would have been wrecked. On another day, they did a very mma-oriented bunch of wall/cage fighting. I didn't double-down on that one either. I also prefer training in gi, rather than nogi. If there weren't any classes I rejected due to safety or material, I would give the evening nogi training a miss.

I'd judge that 10 classes done that way was about half as demanding as I'd experienced the year before by training all 13.

This year, my goal is to continue a 10-class-per-week pace.

The only monkey wrench is that I will be doing a big belt exam somewhere in there. I have requested that it happen as late as possible during my visit, to give me the largest amount of training, but don't mind when it gets booked. It will crank up my tension level until it is complete.