Hon Bu

First up, some exciting news. Our BJJ club, Mill Hill Roger Gracie BJJ, will be moving to a brand new, purpose built location in a few weeks time. The builders are currently busy working round the clock to refurbish it. Nick tells us it is 2,000 square feet, will be permanently matted, open 7 days a week and hold classes in BJJ, subgrap, MMA, Thai boxing, judo and conditioning.

I've seen glimpses of the place and it looks amazing. It kind of looks like an old style warehouse but with a tallish roof and skylights. Actually, a bit like a mini version of the main RGA dojo. Everyone is getting really excited. And best of all - it is still in Mill Hill, thus avoiding the embarrassing situation where you are called one name, but located in another.
Hopefully we'll have a proper opening night and get some big BJJ names down to celebrate with us. Goodbye old scouts hall, hello cool new dojo.

Training
Since Roger Gracie told me my sparring ability looked a little lost, I've been really focusing on rolling with a purpose. It means I'm playing a much slower game as I set my grips and try to make them work harder and waiting for the appropriate moment to attack, rather than my usual continuous and frankly random switching around all the time. I also took a private with Nick to go over my last competition video. His conclusion was that I needed to recognise when a certain guard was not working and progress from there to another guard position. Mainly, that my de la riva guard was ineffectively applied but there were moments I could have moved to sitting up guard.
So, with those two facets in mind, I have noticed my sparring has definitely changed. It's too early to say if I've made improvements to my game, but I'll reassess it in a few weeks time.

Oh nearly forgot to mention. I rolled with my new Brute Shockwave Earguards the other night. Man, did I get grief from some of the guys mocking me in jest, but I'll be laughing when they're syringing their gunk out of their fat cauli ears, Ha! Seriously, I found the earguard to be no impediment when rolling and after a ten minutes or so, forgot I was wearing them so £30 wisely spent I think.

Meerkatsu's Academy Tour
I'm annoucing my UK tour. Ha, sounds like I'm a rock band doesn't it?
The plan is to visit a few BJJ academies regardless of affiliation, and write about my experience there, maybe interview the instructor, learn some new stuff, meet cool new people etc. It's not a new idea - Jadon is currently doing the same thing with his BJJ Pilgrimage - and others have written about their worldwide versions. But it's something I'd like to do too, so we'll see how it goes. I already have a few invites from various instructors, who have read my blog and BJJ reports, so that's a good start.