Walkin' on Sunshine

I'm in an amazing mood this morning, that may or may not have anything to do with BJJ. My dog woke me up at 4:30am, and I was like "screw it, I'm up". I'm in a good mood and feel great. This is such a rare occasion, because of my chronic fatigue syndrome. I'm taking advantage of it today. I can't go do BJJ tonight, because its my best friend's last night in town and I have to take him to dinner.

Anyways, last night's class was pretty cool. We did more transitioning from guard positions. We practiced the armbar from guard again, and then we did a pretty cool sit up transition. I don't know what its called, but bascially if your armbar fails, you're still in a position to move. I really like the aggressive focus our school has. I think aggression is something that some BJJ schools lack, from some of the videos I've seen on youtube and around the net. That isn't a bad thing, I just personally like agression.

One of our guys, the big dude that crushes me everytime we roll, got a stripe last night. It was good to see. However, I prefer to roll with his 15 year old son. The kid is very technical, but not very large. This makes him a good partner because if you screw up, he's going to catch you. His dad just kinda crushes me into submission. The kid got his third stripe on his white belt a few weeks ago, after he won his division in NAGA. I'm always happy to see team mates get promoted, even if its just a stripe.

The best part of the night is Darrin, our black belt instructor, asked me if I wanted to stay behind and roll a bit after we bowed out of class. Darrin is, quite literally, the only blackbelt in our town. Because of his work schedule, he can only come two days a week. He is a very good instructor, and roughly the same size as me. He walked me through several chokes as we rolled, including the cross collar choke. We are lucky to have Darrin, as well as Joe (our brown belt instructor).

I'm still trying to find a bit more about Darrin's lineage. I know that he was promoted to at least Blue belt by Carlson Gracie Sr. He's has often talked about the late Grandmaster with reverence. I know he got his blackbelt from Carlson Jr., who he refers to as a "beast." I don't know who he got his purple and brown belts from.

So, I'm going to get off here and go back to work. Have a great day!