Posted by: oldman
The "I Can't Believe We Are Doing This Tour" - 08/07/09 06:33 PM
I don't travel very often but last week I found myself in L.A. for 5 days on the "I Can't Believe We Are Doing This Tour".
My 18 year old daughter was auditioning for a scholarship to a dance center. 140 people competed for 20 spots. My daughter Johanna ended up as "21" and an alternate to the program. She will still be moving to L.A. in August anyway. She will train at the school either way. I can hardly believe her mom and I have gotten on board with the idea.
I was really hoping to get together with Butterfly but mt Dad duties got the best of me. We were able to chat on the phone a few times. I could have done that from Kansas. Alas a dads gotta do what a dads gotta do. I did take an opportunity to train at Rickson Gracie's academy. I had my choice of a few places to visit. Hollywood BJJ, Eddie Bravo, Machado, Gracie Torrance but decided on Ricksons. I have always heard BJJ was expensive but I really did not know HOW expensive. A Private with Renner or Ralek? a cool 400 smackers. A month of unlimited classes at Machados? 390. Yowza.
I stopped by Ricksons and introduce myself to the man behind the counter Ricardo Rosa. I had arrived just in time to catch a beginning / intermediate class taught by Eric Soderberg a brown belt. I think I may have been the only person over thirty and the only person with more than 6% body fat. The lowest ranking person in the class was a 2 stripe white belt. Two of the players present including my partner participated in a limited fashion to to "back" injuries. I was not really exposed to anything I hadn't done before. The warm up and the pace of things was pretty fast. That combinded with no air conditioning really wore me out. I needed to stop and force some fluids as I was about a quart low. We did 2 or 3 techniques and drilled them. They used a little more resistance when drilling than I was used to but once I became aware of that it was ok.
I did find myself able to pass closed guards with a couple guys and get to side control. I was really stymied by their open guard play as I have not experienced a good open guard much. There were white belts, blue belts and one purple belt. I did not work with any of the colored belts. It was a good experience.
I managed to get out of the proshop without purchasing and paraphinalia. Though I thought about smashing the glass display case and taking Rickson's crysal PRIDE trophy home with me. I considered taking a private the next day but needed to be available for my daughter back at the dance school.
We spent many meal times at "Swingers" cafe on the first floor of our hotel. I ran into a renzo / Marco Vincinius student and chatted a while. He commented on a defection of a number of guys from Ricksons to Marcos school. Perhaps Rickson was not around enough for their tastes.
So, there it is, an update of my travels. It was an interesting trip. Since my baby girl will be living out there I'm sure I'll be back. Just don't tell her.
My 18 year old daughter was auditioning for a scholarship to a dance center. 140 people competed for 20 spots. My daughter Johanna ended up as "21" and an alternate to the program. She will still be moving to L.A. in August anyway. She will train at the school either way. I can hardly believe her mom and I have gotten on board with the idea.
I was really hoping to get together with Butterfly but mt Dad duties got the best of me. We were able to chat on the phone a few times. I could have done that from Kansas. Alas a dads gotta do what a dads gotta do. I did take an opportunity to train at Rickson Gracie's academy. I had my choice of a few places to visit. Hollywood BJJ, Eddie Bravo, Machado, Gracie Torrance but decided on Ricksons. I have always heard BJJ was expensive but I really did not know HOW expensive. A Private with Renner or Ralek? a cool 400 smackers. A month of unlimited classes at Machados? 390. Yowza.
I stopped by Ricksons and introduce myself to the man behind the counter Ricardo Rosa. I had arrived just in time to catch a beginning / intermediate class taught by Eric Soderberg a brown belt. I think I may have been the only person over thirty and the only person with more than 6% body fat. The lowest ranking person in the class was a 2 stripe white belt. Two of the players present including my partner participated in a limited fashion to to "back" injuries. I was not really exposed to anything I hadn't done before. The warm up and the pace of things was pretty fast. That combinded with no air conditioning really wore me out. I needed to stop and force some fluids as I was about a quart low. We did 2 or 3 techniques and drilled them. They used a little more resistance when drilling than I was used to but once I became aware of that it was ok.
I did find myself able to pass closed guards with a couple guys and get to side control. I was really stymied by their open guard play as I have not experienced a good open guard much. There were white belts, blue belts and one purple belt. I did not work with any of the colored belts. It was a good experience.
I managed to get out of the proshop without purchasing and paraphinalia. Though I thought about smashing the glass display case and taking Rickson's crysal PRIDE trophy home with me. I considered taking a private the next day but needed to be available for my daughter back at the dance school.
We spent many meal times at "Swingers" cafe on the first floor of our hotel. I ran into a renzo / Marco Vincinius student and chatted a while. He commented on a defection of a number of guys from Ricksons to Marcos school. Perhaps Rickson was not around enough for their tastes.
So, there it is, an update of my travels. It was an interesting trip. Since my baby girl will be living out there I'm sure I'll be back. Just don't tell her.
