I decided to save money on a hotel room by driving to Seattle for the seminar and returning on the same day. That seemed like a wise and efficient solution right up until 4am on Saturday morning. After a very full cup of coffee, I had breakfast, got my bags together and was on the road by 5am. The drive over was largely uneventful. Early sun on the Wild Horse monument and a couple of hawks along the way were the highlights. I reached the outskirts of Seattle at 9am, and was surprised that there were already traffic problems, although none in the direction that I was going. I thought that 9am on a Saturday morning would be a safe time to travel the highways, but...no. The gym was a couple of turns off the highway and easy to find, and after getting gas for the trip back I was on the mat at 10am, which was an hour early. I was very happy to have an hour to unwind and let the road buzz fade.
Predictably, Buchecha (or the guys that were driving him around) was on Brazilian time, so we didn't get started until a quarter after. There were ~40 ppl in attendance, and there was just enough mat space to accommodate everyone. He tried to start the warm-up with jogging, but people went in different directions which was an amusing cluster. He bagged the running after shaking everyone's hand, and then we did three lines of forward rolls, backward rolls, triple jump to handstand (or whatever sad variation I put on it), sit-outs, shrimp, etc.
When he first walked into the room, I was in awe. I had seen him in person at Pans, but this was an entirely different experience. He was there to teach me (and 39 other people) technique. The sense of awe dissipated quickly though, b/c I had to put all my brain power on the techniques.
I was happy that he chose several different positions of focus. Spiderguard pass, half guard pass, x guard pass, half guard sweep, omoplata to mount, omoplata to crucifix. He showed relatively large chains of movement, which is why I had to focus so much on the technique instead of oogling him. For example, the spiderguard pass was relatively simple in and of itself, but it was three-step grip break, plus a couple of variations of the actual pass, plus different transitions into side-control. He explained everything well and gave reasoning behind his philosophy of movement. He would also often drop that he used a particular technique because Rodolfo would do this or Bruno would do that.
Since I was the outsider at the gym (I think there were only a couple of non-Checkmat ppl), I paired up with a white belt. He said he'd only been doing BJJ since January, but he seemed better than that. He was understanding the techniques and executing them fairly well. We helped each other along and all in all he was a good partner. Buchecha came along and corrected our technique a couple of times over the 3hrs. At one point he was helping my partner under the head and arm triangle mechanics, and used me to demonstrate. I'm not going to lie, I popped back into fan-boy mode and thought that getting choked by Buchecha was pretty awesome.
We got a lot of reps in on each of the techniques. It allowed us to work out the kinks ourselves, as we didn't get much individualized attention. It also helped me to remember everything we did, as I only had time to write down the names of the position/submissions. There were no breaks, so after class I sat and fleshed out the details of each movement. It's the first seminar I've attended where I've been able to capture the vast majority of the material in good detail.
At the end he did pictures with participants, and of course I took advantage.
The experience was interesting on many levels, but the most fascinating to me was how the seminar put it into perspective to me that he is just another BJJ practitioner. Albeit a really, really good one. He was humanized for me, made into a real person instead of a highlight superhero.
All in all, it was a great experience. It was a bucket list type item to train with him and/or Rodolfo. I'd recommend his seminars, especially for advanced blues and ups. I think white belts would get something out of the experience, but with the long series of movements that he does, I don't think newer white belts would be able to follow very along well. The NSBJJ guys were very chill and welcoming, and said I was welcome to come back for the Buchecha and Cavaca seminars.
The drive back went faster than the 4.5hrs. There was a backup on south 405, but once I got back on the 90 it was easy. I did voice notes that were similar to my written notes, but figured it was good to go over it again while it was fresh.
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