Update: For those not quite familiar with the sport of grappling– Despite what it looks like, Bray and Jeff, in the above picture, are actually participating in the act of combat. There is absolutely nothing romantic going on there, and Bray is not trying to pull Jeff’s pants up just a little bit higher.

Well, it’s the holiday season, and that means trying to balance training with travel and Christmas activities. Your humble author is presently in the US, in the middle of an absolute eat-a-thon. And being in the US, that means training at my home-away-from-home, the Gracie-Barra gym of Paul Creighton Mixed Martial Arts, in Duluth, Georgia.

I met Paul about three and a half years ago, when his gym had an enrollment of about four students. Last night, we had a hard time finding room for the nearly 20 people! (And that was the “advanced” class, which takes place after the “beginners” class at 5:45 pm.) The place is definitely growing, and that’s great for Paul and the sport in the northern Atlanta area.

Training in Duluth also means getting see my old buddies like Bray, Josh and whirlwind Mark. It’s been a lot of fun. Last night we did a guard pass (no-gi, passing the butterfly guard) and a leg bar submission.

The news from Marbella (via Mike) is that Edson’s received a great offer, and we’re now training at the brand new Platinum Gym, in downtown Puerto Banus (five minutes from Marbella.) Mike reported that the first night of training was great, although Jose Antonio submitted him about three times. Jose, we better see you at the Europeans!

(Speaking of the Europeans, how in the world am I going make weight by 30 January, given my commitment to have at least one Starbucks Mocca Frappuccino per day???)

This entry was posted on Friday, December 30th, 2005 at 6:09 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.