Training in Albuquerque

Uh, I can distinguish between San Diego and Los Angeles. Whichever Anonymous said that Alberto Crane is living in Glendale happens to be correct, I believe. I have only met Alberto once or twice, but I'm pretty sure he's in Glendale now, teaching with Wander Braga. And Glendale is Los Angeles.

Anyway, I trained at his old academy today. Don Ortega, one of my Turkey teammates, and world champion in his weight class, runs the academy now. He has two black belts teaching there, including Barata (which means "cockroach"), who taught the class tonight. No gi.

It was great. He showed a slick transition from having your opponent in your guard to taking your opponent's back while s/he is turtled. It involves lots of momentum using your free leg and lots of getting up on one shoulder and back-dooring. I'm not so good at that stuff, but I want to practice it now. He also showed another slick move, a mounted triangle that you set up from side control.

And then I got to roll with him, as well as a student named Santino and also Tammy, whom I've competed against. It was a lot of fun! I asked Barata if he had any suggestions and he said no, that I did everything "perfectly." (I must have slipped him a twenty or something).

Turns out too that Ana Laura Cordeiro is his student. Ana Laura is the purple belt who triangled me at the Mundial. She is now a brown belt. Congrats to her! It's a small world.

Unfortunately, I did not get to meet Tussa, the other instructor. According to Barata, "tussa" means "big teeth." Well, "dentetussa" means "big teeth," but over time they shortened Tussa's nickname to Tussa. He is headed to Santa Cruz for the U.S. Open. A bunch of New Breed students are going there too. Knowing them and Johnny, they'll probably leave around 3 am and get there in the morning just before weigh-ins. I'll have to check in and see how they're doing.

Anyway, it's great to be in ABQ. Adamarie and I are going to go to 4th of July Canyon tomorrow for a hike. The weather's supposed to be spectacular. I'll TRY to remember to take pics. It's like I have a mental block against it now.

I forgot to take any pictures. I'm kind of out of that mode these days. I get all shy if I do remember, and more often than not, I don't remember. I think I'm just still working on posting all the Turkey pics. But if I go back tomorrow for the gi open mat in the morning, I'll be sure to take some pics.