Hannette Staack Seminar

Friday Night

Uneventful drive over. Arrived at the gym in time, which was fortunate b/c they changed the schedule so that rolling was first and Q&A was after. 

I got to roll with Hannette for two consecutive rounds and daaaaaaaamn! She's only a few pounds heavier than I am but could she ever apply top pressure. She felt 50lb heavier. It was very, very impressive. I tried to do some DLR work but she was having none of it. Shut it down so quickly. Passed and got to mount. Proceeded to crush the bejesus out of me from mount. That cycle repeated itself several times. It was awesome though.

Can't remember who else I rolled with on Friday night.

Saturday

 Yoga to start the day. I liked the shoulder stretches quite a bit. I got some "help" when we were doing downward dog which irked me a bit at the time but turned out to be fine. 

Hannette did a two hour session on two lasso sweeps and an omoplata from the lasso. She did several drills leading up to the sweeps (lasso'ing in and out of spider, omoplata side to side and inverting). It wasn't very much information over that span of time, but it was enough drilling time that I felt like I was really able to nail the techniques. I felt comfortable showing them to James at class on Monday and the next time I'm tapped to teach a class (other than Fundamentals) I'm going to teach them. 

She kept it simple but showed a great level of detail. I was able to pick her brain a bit about a few things and I was able to understand her explanations. She was very nice, funny and great to learn from. Would definitely attend another of her seminars.

I think we went right to lunch after Hannette's session. Then it was Michelle Wagner. I honestly don't remember what she went over except for a baseball bat type choke from side control. I was pretty tired by then. 

After Michelle's session it was time for rolling. I perked up a bit and got to roll with Leah several times, another purple belt, blue belts and white belts. 

Exhausted.

Sunday

Woke up feeling not exactly refreshed but pretty decent.

Yoga to start the day again. Ended the yoga session with a headstand.

Leah taught the morning and afternoon session. Morning session was different entries for standing passes. Push/pull to an x-pass, "barrel roll" to a sortof leg drag, and pin the legs to the mat or against their hammies. Then we worked into an arm weave through the legs and doing a smash pass. I've tried this before and have had minimal success. I think the details helped, but I was still having a terrible time of it when we drilled it with resistance.

Rolling before lunch. Another roll with Hannette. She wanted to see my passing game, so I started up. My passing game went as expected, as she swept me in a hot minute and back to mount. Also got to roll with Miriam C. who came down for the day. She let me work quite a bit which was really nice. Rolled with more blue and white belts.

After lunch was Leah's second session on passing. 

I was toast after lunch. Completely spent. I wasn't doing the technique well. Everything seemed to be tired and hurt. We finished with back-control work (mercifully). We beat feet out after the last session b/c it was a long car ride home.