Blue

My second visit to Mill Hill JJ club last night and Nick worked on guard passing. Now if there is any technique in the myriad of BJJ techniques that reveals the differences between clubs and styles, guard passing is it. At RGDA, one of the passes we learned was the Gracie trademark one arm under one leg and stacking guard pass. Done correctly, it should work a treat, but many people, like me, don’t do it so well and get easily triangled or it falls apart. At Mill Hill, they follow the Roger Gracie ethic and consider placing one arm under as a definite no-no. Instead, they work on opening the guard and pass by walking or hopping over the legs, or the really cool both arms under the uke’s legs and flipping them to the side or the really flash flipping them upside down. I really liked these guard passes, they worked easily and were hard to counter.
Then came sparring. I must admit, I am finding it hard to adjust to the more full-on sparring style here. Many of these guys are just too good (and big) for me and I got swept and subbed by the blue belts with consummate ease. One guy, 85Kilo blue belt Ollie, just ripped me apart with endless subs. I think the most I lasted was about 20 seconds at one point. He finished me off with the evil knee on belly where you use the knee to force down into the gut and he pulls up with both grips so you get squeezed to hell. Then I sparred with a couple of white belts with four stripes (so blue belts in all but name) and they were very tough to break guard and swept me easily, but I avoided the humiliating tapouts of before. The drive home was a bit sombre for me. The new club is a bit of a step up for me and I struggled to cope. I hope I can improve over the coming weeks and months.