Twisted Fitness- 2nd Session

I went back to Plavcan’s because I liked it the first time. Thursday night’s class had 2 brown bets, 6 purple belts, 4 blue, and 5 white. It was a full mat for sure.
Mark led us through a different set of warmups that were based on the elbow push escape. We also did the same open guard pass series from the first night. The man has some good drills.

We split the class between people who wanted to drill in preparation for the Chicago Open and people who wanted to roll.                                                                                                                              I got in a rollers’ group with a purple, a big brown, and a brown my size called Shaggy. People in Minneapolis said Shaggy was pretty good, so I was excited to train with him.  We worked for pass/sweep from open guard and rotated in. Sure enough Shaggy was pretty damn good. I quickly realized he had some techniques I had no answer for, so I tried to create scrambles as much as possible. I had some acrobatic sweep evasions and avoided giving up side control numerous times. But eventually I’d run out of directions and he’d take my back.                                                       When I tried to pass, I gave him hell, and almost scored a couple times, but again, he would find a way to sweep.                                                                                                                                         I have good mobility and creativity due to lack of technical knowledge, but it seems like there’s a certain level of jiu jitsu where it just doesn’t cut it. Truly, technique conquers athleticism.

I handled the purple belt and the brown belt, but Shaggy kind of schooled me. I did pass his guard one time; he began to fatigue at the end from dominating the group all night and I hustled my way to one measly cross body. He might have even given it to me, I don’t know.

We bowed out and Mark and Shaggy hung around to talk with me and go over some techniques. Mark gave me some leads on Chicago gyms to visit and invited me to come back anytime.

I had a great time. That’s two awesome Alliance gyms so far.