Gracie Barra, Austin, Texas, March 2017

And yet another I wrote up back in March but didn't post. Weird.

Like I said, got to go down to Austin, Texas for a minute. But I also had my first BJJ tournament coming up on April 2, Jiu Jitsu By The Bay, so I had to keep the training up. Luckily, there's some great BJJ down in Austin, and I was lucky enough to get over to Gracie Barra in North Austin. 

Opinions are everywhere about BJJ schools and styles. Gracie Barra has a reputation for being a bit more sport oriented, which was fine by me, what with my tourney coming up. They have a nice large open space, with a bunch of colored belts who were very inviting and supportive. They were gracious enough to let me train there the week I was in Austin. I trained with Anthony Leon, who's identified on their website as a Purple Belt, but who had a Brown Belt while training. I might could be wrong about that. Either way, he's a beast, but very humble. 

We went over this North-South (69) double bicep slicer/compression lock, that I really can't even explain let alone find a video to describe it. Point is, it's a cool space with some very friendly people. 

Jiu Jitsu Diary - 6

First class of the new year! Today Diego 2 taught and I rolled with Mike Guadamuz, who is a fierce Muay Thai fighter and a BJJ Blue Belt from Ralph Gracie. He's also tremendously strong and one time nearly got out from Side Control just by sitting up. Anyhow, it was a rough but good class. Felt like an old man, which I am, compared to these kids. We did mostly basics again, Armbar from Guard and then drilled from various positions: Back Control, Side Control, Full Mount. I pretty much got submitted all over the place, but I did manage to get him in an Ezekiel from Mount! I'll take it! Was very good but very exhausting. But here's to a new year.