Attn: SweepEm!

[Mako]

Sweep,

I will be in Cincinnati in a couple of days for a wedding, and have

arranged to train with Junior while i'm there. I know you've had

the op to train w/him in the past. Should I ask him about

anything in particular (i.e. his specialties)?

Thanks!

Mako

[SweepEm]

Hey Mako:

Cool that you can hook up with Jr.

Ask him about the time he got stuck out in the lake and had to swim to shore.

HA!

Speciaities?
Hmmm, being the son of Carlson, the guy knows quite a bit.
I would just ask what areas you have weaknesses or concerns with.
Jr. can show you so many cool moves but I would just concentrate on what you need to imrove your game. Whether it's half guard, attacks, defending the choke, defense from the mount, side mount...etc.
I would recommend that you spar with him for a few minutes to see what areas you need work on and then go from there.
I've sparred with him and he always had that smile the whole time and I felt like a 5 year old trying to do anything against him.
He's pretty laid back so you need to do most of the question asking.

Let me know how it goes.

Rey really screwed up his back sparring with a Machado black belt, some bad muscle spasms, but at least last night he was able to walk around with not much pain.
We did have class last night but it was more therapy than training.
Instead of a regular class, we sat around, stretched then went into sparring. It was good to get out and train and at the end, we did some meditation and said a prayer for those that lost loved ones.

[Mako]

Yeah, I'm definitely stoked to get the chance to work out w/Junior. Although you L.A. guys bump into black belts in the supermarket, some of us have to really work to get to one!

I know what you mean about that grin that some guys get when you roll with them. I was trying to pass Rey's guard, and he would move his hips and just touch my colar and grin like... colar choke! It was sad enough that he kept sweeping me, but he would sweep me, and then roll us both back to where I was in guard again... before I knew what was going on. The only person I can do that to is my daughter, but only once or twice before she gets bored and wants to go watch Barney.

Sorry to hear about Rey. I'm sure he'll jump back into the mix soon. Forget about sparring; can you imagine chasing "Rafa" around with a bad back! LOL!

My blessings to everyone at the Academy.

Mako

[SweepEm]

Hey Mako:

I know ALL about Rey's sweeps.

He loves sweeps and he sweeps you like you are a child.
He's taught us his favorite sweeps that he always gets us.
One of these days, I'll get to a point, I'll be able to use this sweep at a level a fraction of how he does it.

As you said, you bump into dudes all over the place here in LA.
I was recently at the post office and recognized one dude that is with Rickson and I think a brown belt. We chatted a while and it was cool.

I was at an electronics store a while back and the line was long and so I went browsing and left my wife in line (heh heh, yeah she's cool) and upon coming back, I see Rickson in line, buying some stuff. I thought to myself all these people have NO idea who this muscular, stocky guy is.
The master........

hanging on this forum made me realize that many people just don't have the luxury of being able to pick and choose just what black belt you want to train with.

There's one guy training with us for a month that is from Australia, and he has to drive an hour one way to go to a big city and train with a black belt.

[Mako]

Just bumping into those guys must be cool. The only guy i've ever met outside of a seminar or class was Tank Abbot (I was flying out of the John Wayne/Orange County Airport.)

I'm leaving this afternoon for vacation... i'll let you know how the training w/Junior goes!