holiday training #2
The second training session was going to be at Alliance Jiu-Jitsu in the city of Sligo which in the northwest of the Republic of Ireland. This academy is run by Brown Belt Ryan Smyth. I had been here before on a previous trip to Ireland, but that time I didn't bring a Gi with me. During the day I hadn't done much physical activity so I felt a bit more rested for class plus I knew exactly where to go.
When I got there I said hello to the guys I recognized and quickly got my Gi on. We started with some light jogging then went into bear crawls, and a few push-ups. Next up were some pummeling drills, and a takedown drill before moving on to the MOTD. This was a mounted kimura and then we transitioned to side control with a bread cutter choke. Both are great techniques, the latter being extremely painful. After this we did situational sparring starting from half guard before doing some normal sparring. All the guys were just as tough as I remembered from last time. I had some back and forth battles with the ones I rolled with (Sam and John especially).
After two hours we were done and I got a chance to talk to some of the guys and get a few pics with them. Overall it was a great day of training and I'm sure I will see them all again.
Some general observations...I love the fact you can go anywhere in the world and train and be welcomed 99% of the time. Jiu-Jitsu is like family...One tip about traveling and training with a Gi when you can't wash it easily, invest in some Febreeze hahaha