Great Week

What a great training week.

Tuesday and Wednesday each had a beginners and advanced class. They are always good, but that isn't what made the week outstanding. The Tuesday and Wednesday before that were just as good.

Thursday also holds a class for our White Belts, and one for our advanced folks and that's when it started getting good. Our Chief Instructor, Shawn, has been gone for more than the last three months living in Mexico. He is back for a two-month visit before returning to the south.

He is an exceptional instructor, so those classes were great.

That ended our normal training schedule on a positive note, but the week wasn't even close to being over.

Today it's Friday, and Shawn and I met at 7:30am to train. We went for well over an hour. We worked stuff as advanced as we've got. What a great week?

Later in the day, open-mat time rolled around. Nathan showed up, and he's always game for whatever I want to work on. Today he asked me what I wanted, and I just said, “submit me.” We rolled for a good half-hour with him on the attack, and me mostly defending. It was a really good practice. Then, a White Belt needed some help with something, so Nathan joined him, and I ended up free-rolling with Tobias.

We roll really well together. We are evenly matched for skill, and slide from one position or attack into the next. It was wonderful sparring practice.

Tomorrow, there is another open-mat time, and the last training of my week.

My friend Koko spends most of her time in the city attending University, but has been coming back for weekends lately. She'll be there. We have very similar learning styles, and will work hard for about two hours. We do high-level drills for part of the time. For the rest, I typically I work defence, while she attacks me relentlessly. We both gain from this. She's the only person around here who can consistently trap my free arm from side mount top.

Altogether, a good Tuesday, and Wednesday, along with a great Thursday, finished off with an absolutely outstanding Friday and Saturday.