We had a wedding to go to in the afternoon, and we hadn’t planned on making it on Saturday. But I was able to convince Bear Toe and Primo who were visiting from out of town to come work out. Coach Frank let us in at 11:00, and we had a blast.
Lots of playing with positions and little mini-rolls, and I had one good long session with Ed. He was able to tap me with the Americana after about 15 minutes. Another guy, Mitch, showed up on his bike. He’s been training at the gym here and there, but our paths have not yet crossed. He was not what he appeared to be. Very strong, very technical. I have no idea what the criteria are for belts, but he’s a blue belt and it felt legit to me. I think I had a cardio advantage on him though. I was talking to him later and found out that he rides ~200 miles a week. He’s definitely more slow twitch than I was when I was all slow twitch, and I could feel it in the roll. Any burst of energy was giving me an opportunity to take advantage of his recovery.
Dave, who is a friend of Coach Frank’s from Ocala, was also there to train. He’s a jiu-jitsu purple belt, and a black belt in judo. He demonstrated three white-belt judo throws for us–definitely some stuff there for all of us to work on our stand up game. I hope he’s able to make ti back more often–super helpful! I rolled with him and could tell he was going pretty easy on me. He’d get a position and then hang there for a while to see how I reacted. I don’t know if I passed or failed, but I definitely did not threaten him. I felt like a ball of yarn getting batted around by a kitten.
Overall, the day was a success. Both Bear Toe and Primo had a blast and are looking for gyms!
