FRIDAY, 28 AUGUST 2015 IN SARASOTA

The five of us (me, Nick, Jason, John, and Tony M.) had a private lesson with Charles at 10:00 a.m. As an added bonus, my long-time friend Tony T., one of Charles' 1st degree black belts, came and joined us for the private lesson at Tony Spain's boxing gym (www.tonyspain.com), which is next door to Charles' academy. Tony and I rolled following the private lesson (after moving over to Charles' academy). It is nice to train with an experienced black belt in the sense that I have to keep everything in mind and "be serious" at all times. Following our roll, I taught one technique (modified smash pass) for the group class at 11:30 a.m. and Nick also taught a technique (De La RIva sweep). The other four guys rolled with Charles' students while Charles and I talked. It was a good time overall and I look forward to the next trip we take to Sarasota.

THURSDAY, 27 AUGUST 2015 IN NORTH PORT

We traveled from Sarasota to Earl Delvalle's academy (www.nokido.net) in North Port for the 7:00 p.m. adult class. I taught two different approaches to achieving Americana and one for kimura. For my efforts, Earl provided me with a foot sweep tool that I have been longing after for a long time. It will help us in judo immensely. I had a great time while teaching Earl's highly disciplined and respectful students. As an added bonus, my long-time friend and fellow martial arts practitioner Dan Lowman (www.kmofflorida.com) came up from Ft. Myers to hang out before and after the class with me. He and I will be getting together in a couple of weeks to train.

THURSDAY, 27 AUGUST IN SARASOTA

My entire crew (me, Nick, Jason, John, Josh, and Tony) traveled down to Sarasota to get a private lesson with Charles. Each student came prepared with items they wanted to cover, and it was their responsibility to remember what they asked so we can work on it as a group when we have our next group class. Josh returned home after the private while the remaining members checked into two hotel rooms to continue the festivities.

SATURDAY, 22 AUGUST 2015

Today's class consisted of me, Nick, Jason, John, and Josh. I started the class off with harai goshi for John. We moved into some shot drills for wrestling and I taught how to deal with wrist control from standing. I then had the guys pair up and roll. The main techniques for BJJ were defenses against the Ezequiel (sleeve) choke from mount and from inside guard. I spent a while having them drill the two main defenses just so they do not get caught by this. I then had them roll again after switching partners. I rolled with Jason at the end since I was the odd man out.

SATURDAY, 15 AUGUST 2015

This class consisted of me, John, and Josh. Half of the class consisted of drilling arm bars from guard, cross chokes from guard, arm bars from mount, and guard passes. We moved on to some wrestling take downs to complete the session.

SATURDAY, 8 AUGUST 2015

Today's class consisted of me, Nick, Jason, and John. We spent an hour drilling basics (arm bar from guard; cross-collar choke from guard; cross-collar choke from mount), an hour drilling two De La Riva sweeps, and an hour drilling take downs (Russian series to ankle picks and double legs; neutral position double legs; single legs). It was a productive practice, complete with "come-to-work" basics, a few combinations of basics, and some advanced items.

SATURDAY, 1 AUGUST 2015

There was not much to report for this day. Nick, John, Tony, and Kyle joined me for our early morning session. I forced everyone in attendance to do repetitive drilling of basic stuff on the ground: ten basic arm bars from guard on each arm; ten cross collar chokes; ten arm bars on each arm from S-mount. We then rolled. Following that, we moved to standing. I have Kyle and John work on wrestling take downs (basic double legs; basic single legs; Russian series). I had Nick and Tony work on judo. I moved in with each group.