Training at ArtSuave

Yesterday I trained for the first time at ArtSuave - located at Bom Sucesso Health Club, Boavista (Porto) to be more precise - and I loved it.

There are morning classes at Monday, Wednesday and Friday while night classes are at Tuesday and Thursday. Saturday there's what some have described to me as a monster class with people from both schedules and fitting training which I can't wait to experience, eheh.



I went with three more guys who used to train in Ovar and everyone made us feel welcomed with Paulinho meeting us there to train with us even preferring the morning classes :)
I was paired with a blue belt for technique drilling who was a great guy and we (i.e.: he showed me how) made sure every detail was properly covered. First a warm-up sweep drill, then on to more serious things with a half-guard sweep into back mount, followed by a more elaborate half-guard pass into mount ending with a kind of omoplata.

Then we kept the same pairs for the first round of rolling. Again, my partner was absolutely great. He gave me pointers, showed me where and what to do to better seize a given opportunity (kimura from bottom side-control/half-guard? I had no idea it could be done so easily.) and even completing submissions I locked him into. This is what I call learning.
Then another blue belt, this time a heavier guy who was a bit gassed out (who wasn't?). He gave me a hard time and being that this was the third of Marcão's blue belts I've met, I could tell there are no doubts about the quality of his students. No favors there.
To finish, Marcão himself rolled with me. I'm in even more awe as I was when he rolled with me here in Ovar. Jebus _ fuckin' _ Christ... if being a black belt means that kind of control and having the skills to be three steps ahead of every single reaction your "opponent" might have, then I definitely want to be a black belt.

After training and talking with my friends I've got a feeling this move might be permanent :D