Day 28

Just got back from a great seminar/lesson with Bernardo Faria (or Augusto, I'm confused on this front as his registration name for the Euros is different to the name he gives. I think it's a Brazilian thing), current Euro Heavy weight champion, think he's won a lot of other things too (like Pan Am's 2010). Unfortunately I didn't take my camera so I couldn't get any photos or pictures... hey it was a no gi lesson and I turned up with my gi, this is how unprepared I was. Never the less I rolled with my gi pants and rashie.
As I said, next week I will take my camera and get pictures and hopefully a video of techniques he shows. I would just like to say, after having only met him for a couple of hours (yes exactly, an informed opinion), he seems like a really nice guy. He teaches well, and you can tell when he is talking about Jiu-Jitsu it is something he loves, and is really passionate about.
I'm really impressed so far with Alliance Berlin. They've had two very successful black belts come round for seminars in the four months that I've been here. The way they run the seminars is great too, because the instructors are there for 10 days or so and they take a 90 minute class every night (for the very reasonable €10 fee) and two 3 or 4 hour seminars at the weekend (€30 per seminar). There is a price for everything but I don't think 10 days solid Jiu-Jitsu with two full seminars, whilst working is really practical.
Bernardo said at the beginning that he is happy and eager to roll with everyone, doesn't matter if they are white, blue, or brown (belt!) he always wants to be working so if he's ever taking a break during sparring you should call him over because he doesn't want to stop. (Of course those of you who've had a seminar with a Brazilian know that I have smoothed out the actual words said) So I did roll with him a couple of times. It was fantastic. Really enjoyed it. We were sparring first to score a point. Do you want to know how I did? Not really, well I'll tell you anyway. The first time I tried to do the exact omaplata transition he showed us in class, but tried it from half butterfly guard (does this exist?) instead of closed guard so he easily passed, but took the time to explain to me what mistake I had made. The second time, well, I'm absolutely buzzing, because the second time I caught him with an X-guard sweep, sadly though I couldn't keep his back to the ground and he quickly rolled into turtle and from there I pulled guard and vainly defended until he passed. So just an advantage, but I'm overjoyed with that.

So here is a highlight reel, hopefully a technical video to come next week.

Very shocking camera work, I think his team mates were very excited.

Tomorrow my girlfriend is coming, I won't be training again until Sunday, so I'll sign off now until next week.

(I need to add that I am very excited that she is coming and also add that I have not re-read this post to check for spelling/grammatical errors )