My Experience at 10P Gulf Shores
Sean Applegate invited me to come and train at his gym a few weeks ago when I posted about places to train near Fort Walton Beach Florida (where I am currently spending a week for vacation). This past Saturday Sean did a seminar at the hot box in Cookeville Tennessee where I train, and I got to iron out some of the details on when the best time to come visit the gym would be (day classes vs night classes, etc.).
I sent Sean a text yesterday morning to see if it would be a good day for me to make the drive to Gulf Shores, and his response, “Yea man, come on in!”. I confirmed that I would be there. Shortly after that, I noticed a post on the Gulf Shores Facebook page, “One of the guys from the school I just did a seminar at in Tennessee is gonna come by and train tonight. Everybody try to make it in and get some rolls with our brother from out of town!” It is important to note that I am a white belt, and certainly nobody special, but Sean was rolling out the red carpet anyway (at least that’s what it felt like to me).
When I got to the gym, the first thing I noticed was that there was plenty of mat space. As I walked in, Tori immediately recognized me, had me come up and take care of my waiver, told me where I could change, etc. Shortly after that, we got to work. We went through the warm-ups, and then went right into technique. What I found really awesome about the experience was that each technique was drilled numerous time…my partner and I would just swap back and fourth, drilling the same technique over and over and over…Sean would come by and correct any shortcomings, and then we would drill some more. I know for a fact I will be able to apply these techniques directly into my game because we practiced them (correctly) so many times, and according to Sean, “Practice doesn’t make perfect…practice makes permanent….but perfect practice make perfect”…I agree.
When the technique session was done, we went right into rolling. It’s always a pleasure rolling with people I’ve never rolled with before, especially when they have the gas tanks to just keep on rolling. These guys (and gals) were all about staying busy…roll after roll…which for a guy who just drove 2 hours from Fort Walton Beach, was exactly what I was hoping for. I’m sore a shit today from rolling last night…which is awesome…I really feel like I was able to get some work in. Everyone was very 10P personality wise…you know what I mean…just really chill and easy to get along with. Got to roll with Sean as well…nothing like getting berimbolo’d and hearing “berimbolo” in your ear as it’s happening…epic!
So…would I go back? You betcha. My experience at 10th Planet Gulf Shores was the most fun I’ve had on vacation in as long as I can remember. Thank you Sean and Tori and the rest of the team for treating me so well. I hope I can repay the favor someday.
