My second ATT experience. (blog ish)

For NAGA this weekend, I discovered that while the rest of the crew was leaving at 11 am, my flight wasn't until 4 pm. Not one to miss an opportunity to train at ATT again (check HERE for last time), I made sure to catch Parrumpinha at NAGA and check to see if I could train.

I caught a cab over there for the 10 am training session, and my cab driver said every week he takes someone to ATT, although I didn't fit the normal profile. He didn't elaborate, but I'm going to assume because the whole girl thing. We warmed up with some good drills that however basic were essential, I'll be using them to warm up my guys for a while now. The class was 4 blue belts, a dozen or so white belts, and me. Because of this, Parrumpinha didn't teach a super secret awesome black belt move but he did teach some half guard passes with incredible detail. I did two six minute rolls after with a big and little blue belt. Almost every single person in the class introduced themselves to me and were incredibly respectful. I had a great time.

Between classes I saw Liborio walk in and very openly say good morning to even brand new white belts. I thought it was pretty cool to see him still keeping in touch with casual students despite his laundry list of pro fighters and extensive to-do list every day.

After class, the pros started to trickle in. Gleison Tibau was sat down near me as I was trying to get visual evidence of the training session. I didn't know his level of English so I asked in Portuguese for him to take a photo of me and Parrumpinha and I got the usual look of shock from being a little white girl and speaking his language. The three of us ended up shooting the shit a bit and Tibau invited me to do the pro training session: wrestling with Darrell Gollar.

Darrell is a great guy and a hard ass instructor. Regular warm-ups (running, rolls, lots of neck bridges, stretching) and we started trading takedowns between partners. His first takedown drill was odd, it involved just a low grip to pressure the guy over, but it worked. After that, we drilled 2 double leg defense; after 20 each you each spent a 30 seconds each doing it close to live drilling. We pummeled for underhooks/guillotines for 5-6 rounds for 30 seconds again. Immediately we went into takedowns, fighting intensely for 30 seconds, and switching partners. We switched partners every round for 10-15 rounds although I spent a lot of time with a small black belt, Saul. 20 double legs each (fast) and then water. We then did 10 rounds close to the wall (padded), fighting to get "cage" control on your partner and take them down for 30 seconds. Then one partner put their back on the wall and had to defend the other's takedown, done for a few rounds.

Keep in mind, I've been going for a while and Darrell allows almost no break. He's intense and a great coach. He says, "One more guys! Last one!" on the cage drill and I'm thinking "Oh sweet merciful Lord, we're done." Nope...it just meant last one before 20 more takedowns and water again. 10-15 more rounds of 30 seconds pummeling, after every two rounds giving your partner the double leg grip and fighting to defend it. He calls "shadow boxing!" and we start what I assume to be cool down. "SPRAWL SPRAWL SPRAWL SPRAWL!" erupts from Darrell and the Brazilians hit the floor. I follow suit and we do a minute straight of sprawling as quickly as possible before 30 seconds of shadow boxing again. Then another minute of sprawls. The only thing keeping me going is the energy from the guys there and not wanting to be the only one to quit. Darrell's voice is still booming over the echoing sound of thirty well-trained fighters hitting the floor, egging us on for the second set of sprawls--"TRAIN HARD FIGHT EASY."

We start to jog around and I'm struggling trying to keep up with the big dogs but I'm making it. I get a hand on my back pushing me forward and giving me encouragement so I picked up the pace with everyone else. Sprints across the mats for what seemed like forever, although it was probably only 10 sprints. I'm pretty sure I died at some point in time during that class, but was welcomed and the guys my size seemed to have no problem training with me.

Shot the shit for 30 minutes after, had everyone I worked with compliment me on both strength and technique. Coming from pretty big time pro fighters, I was really humbled by how little of an ego they had while training and how they (once again) extended more kindness to me than necessary.

ATT! (pronounced AYE CHEE CHEE!)