Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Open Mat, Open Mind

Open Mat (10/25/08 12:00pm)

After a full week of e-mailing back and forth Neil, Dr. Evil, and I met up at the open mat session on Saturday. We all had things we wanted to work on and it is just nice t0 be able to train with guys that you know you like and who are willing to help you learn.

I always enjoy training with Dr. Evil, for some reason he and I always seem pretty well matched, even though he ends up winning. Since Neil attends the 6:00am class I never have gotten to attend a class with him so it was great to be able to train with him too.

We had a good session. I was able to show Neil some sweeps I know and that helped me to understand them better myself. We worked a little from every position and just sharpened skills in general. The Dr. showed us an armbar transition for when the scissor sweep fails that was pretty nifty.
Saturdays just feel very different than normal days. Much more relaxed. I feel like I learn more in a setting like that than I do in a normal class in some ways.

This Saturday the guys from Unbreakable Mouthpieces were at the gym taking dental impressions for their professional mouthguards. They were offering a discount for all of the students at KnuckleUp. Since I've already had a minor tooth chip and gone through the hassle of getting it fixed I figured that it might be a good idea. The only downside was that it took away from some of my open mat time.
On the extremely cool side, these are custom, pro-grade mouthguards which means they can put any kind of design on them. Of course I chose the Fleur-de-lis and my last name to celebrate my heritage! When I was trying to tell the guys what I wanted, they were confused and one of them finally said "oh...the St. Pierre symbol".....um yeah, that's it.
Here's their website:
Here is my draft design:


1 comment:

Sir. Fobos said...

How cool was Saturday?! It was the first time I got to meet Dr. Evil and actually get a chance to workout with you. Going to BJJ at 0600 sucks because I never get to train with my buds, but it leaves me more time to spend with my family after work. Anyway, you and Dr. Evil helped me out so much! I've only been doing this for two months now, and any new technique that I can get my hands on is awesome. For a while there, you disappeared to get fitted for your sweet mouthpiece. During that time, I rolled with Tom for a bit. He's a blue belt, I'm a sad excuse for a no striped white belt... and he kicked my ass all over the mat. Seriously, it was armbar after armbar from him. I did my best to defend, but got gassed pretty quickly and he put me away. He's a pretty cool guy, so I didn't mind getting my ass handed to me by him. By the time you were done getting fitted, it was time for me to go home. I hope we can get together on a regular basis on those open mat Saturdays... I learned a heck of a lot from you and the Doc.