OK, so I'm in L.A. on business and have a private lesson scheduled with Romulo Barral at 8 p.m. tonight. I'm pretty familiar with his game, and really like his open guard work.
For someone who may be more familiar with him than me, what would you suggest I ask him to work with me on (ie, what's he most known for in the BJJ world)? Someone help me out with some good ideas.
Awesome stuff- I dont have much to add, except he seems like a super cool guy.
I'm sure you will have a blast!
How much did he charge you by the way? 
In addition to his sick open guard Romulo has one of the best knee through the middle passes ever. He puts a ton of pressure when he passes, and he combines it really well with the cross choke. I would pick his brains on that.
his open guard is great, his spider guard is awesome, he showed some of the easiest but most effective ways to top double underhook passes at a seminar which was something I'd always wanted to know, and his knee through the middle style passing is some of the best, he cuts through half guard, dlr, spider, anything with it so id ask about that.
Romulo is super cool. He's probably the most straight forward BJJ person i've met. If he has an opinion on something, he won't shy away from telling you.
Work the coller-bicep spider guard with him. The transitions he does into x guard from that position are great and always result in easy sweeps.
I like his guard passing stuff too.
Need an update. Shawn Williams told me he was a stud, beyond his competition achievements.
CJJScout - Need an update. Shawn Williams told me he was a stud, beyond his competition achievements.
Funny that you mention Shawn. He was one of my first instructors at Renzo's back in NYC, and I'm still a huge fan. I actually sent him a message asking if I could schedule a private lesson, but he didn't respond so I reached out to Romulo Barral.
As far as the the lesson, we started by working the spider guard/De La Riva guard stuff, and worked in some grip work. Afterwards, we worked on proper positioning when you're underneath side control. Next was some work on the knee through (calf cutter) guard pass, which was excellent. We ended up rolling for about ten minutes afterwards, which was a great experience. He was so fluid that it was scary, and I don't think his pulse ever got over 60 the entire time (meanwhile I had about five, full-scale heart attacks).
Because of misjudging L.A. traffic, I arrived for the lesson over a half hour late. He was totally gracious and super cool to me the whole time. We ended up going over the one hour time frame by a little bit, and he was cool about that too. It was a great experience, and I'll definitely go back for another lesson when I'm back in L.A. If you get a chance, you should do one.
Good stuff, thanks for the update.