les learns cool stuff

The gentleman to your left, dear reader, is one Marcelo Garcia. This is one of my BJJ heroes. He is like the Mozart of BJJ. By that I mean that he is a virtuoso. Google up his name and watch his videos if you don't believe me.

Best, he is a small man who competes successfully against big men (and being one of the smallest "guys" in my BJJ school, I need heroes who do small man jiu jitsu).

So not only is Mr. Garcia my hero, but I actually got to learn from him today. It's true. Little old Les learned from and rolled with the man who is considered by many to be, pound for pound, the greatest grappler in the world.

How, you may well ask, would little old Les have a chance to even breathe the same sweaty air as Marcelo Garcia? Well, oddly enough, Les is connected. She is a student at Link Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (formerly Marco Alvan BJJ). And Marco brought Marcelo to Ludlow for a 2-day seminar. I attended the gi seminar today.

We spent 2 1/2 hours on positions. Beginning by pulling guard from the stand up, we segued naturally into a sweep, and then took the back--pausing to learn how to get the hooks in against a defensive player--then passed half guard, with each technique flowing one to the next most sensibly. Afterward, we sparred for a while. I had a chance to have my right arm barred by my hero. Thank you, Marcelo, I'll nurse my stiff elbow with fondness.

The best part of the whole day was getting to sit back and watch world champion grapplers like Marcelo Garcia and Gabriel Napao Gonzaga (one of our Link instructors) and Regis (sorry, forgot his last name--he was there as Marcelo's uke, but he is also quite an accomplished grapper), roll.

Now Les is home, holding down the couch, nursing her stiff joints and watching the Pats alternately shine and embarrass themselves against Detroit. Looks like it's time to head to the shelter holiday party. Sigh.