South Shore BJJ

We had some visitors today at Summerlin. Kyle and Dana, two purple belts who train under Fabio, started up South Shore BJJ in Appolo Beach. Our Summerlin crew went to visit them a few weeks ago and today they returned the favor.

What I love most about visiting the different branches of all our schools is getting to roll with new people. It's not a tournament, but there is still that thrill of the unknown.

Take, for example, my grapple today with Kyle. I'd never rolled with him and I had hear many ominous warnings about his deceptively calm, passive-seeming style. Notice that I said passive-SEEMING. People joke about this one brown belt at Fabio's who sometimes seems to have only one speed: full-throttle, all thrusters on. When he "goes light" it feels pretty much the same as when he "goes hard". According to what I had heard, Kyle is just the opposite. His "going easy" feels a lot the same as his "going hard"...right up until you feel a sudden sharp pain and start tapping. After today, I can safely say that all the reports were true! (haha, I know you're reading this Kyle). You're rolling with the guy and thinking, "Ok, he's just chilling out, letting me move." Meanwhile he's setting up some kind of ninja position designed for my demise and I don't even notice until I'm suddenly finding my base gone and the world turning upside down. Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!

I also got to roll with a couple other people from the school who had completely different personalities and styles. One girl was super aggressive, going for things without fear. It's always refreshing to me to meet other girls who love the sport and aren't afraid to go for it. Another guy I rolled with was more passive, but pretty good at defending. I love it because, every grapple, you're presented with a new set of challenges and you have to figure out on the fly how you're going to adjust.

Ben said we're going to try to do these cross-training visits back and forth more often. I'm looking forward to it!! It will be cool when one day I'll actually remember everyone's names!!

You guys will get a little bit of a reprieve from my constant ramblings for the next week. My family is leaving for a much-needed vacation. As happy as I am to be going, I am feeling a little bit regretful because I missed all of last week being sick and now I'm going to miss all of next week for our trip. At this rate, they're going to give me the "welcome" again when I come back!! ;)

By the way, Dana and Kyle have a pretty sweet blog on their school's website: http://southshorebjj.com/


(Top row: Kyle and Dana. Bottom row:Ben, Fabio and Paul)