Roger Gracie Academy, London

In my whole life I have only trained jiu jitsu in the US, and in that time only in 4 different states. I started at a traditional Japanese ju jutsu school in Oregon then discovered Brazilian jiu jitsu and started going to a Gracie Training Association up in Salem Oregon. From there I started training with some guys in a garage in Yuma Arizona who were affiliated with Fabio Santos. Once in a while I would also train at an off shoot from Pedro Sauer in Utah when visiting family. And now I train at Fabio's main academy near my home in San Diego California.

But I think like everyone who is in love with bjj I dream of training in Brazil for a month or two. Especially now that I am a purple belt and can appreciate all of what I would learn. I may be the crappiest purple belt in the world, but I would still like to get better at bjj and maybe be the second crappiest purple belt in the world.

So in preparing for this last vacation I got on the webz and looked around to see where there was training near the flats we rented in London and Rome. Well bjj is spreading around the world so I easily found schools within just minutes of looking.

The Rome school was a bust. Their hours posted on the website never matched what happened in real life and they never returned my emails. Forget them! Which sucks because I was all riled up that day and ready to throw down. Whereas in London I was a little intimidated and really not operating at my best.
Me walking along Via Aurelia after NOT getting to do bjj in Rome.

While staying in the Kennsington area of London the RGA was just a short cab ride away. The academy was easy to spot from the outside, unlike other places I have seen where it is a struggle to notice there is actually training. They have tons of mat space and a real locker room. The only thing that really threw me is they have NO drinking fountain. You have to bring your own or buy something from a vending machine. That of course only took pound coinage. In the US you always have a drinking fountain available everywhere so I didn't take any water with me. Big mistake. I ended up drinking out of the sink in the bathroom like some sort of homeless person.

In email communications with people in London I was warned of a steep drop in fee of 18 to 25 British pounds. That didn't seem that steep to me as a one day fee is almost always $15 to $25 USD here. Even though I am not in a Bara affiliated school they let me train for free! Woot! Which is cool. Fabio seems to have a good reputation through the community and dropping that I train with him has opened doors for me at many other schools.

The running in warm up was by belt ranking but the rolls and shrimps and such across the floor were all pell mell, which threw me for a loop. Then Roger showed us two techniques and we drilled them, starting out easy and progressively adding resistance.

I was totally the odd man out. I felt like the fat girl at the nude beach, no one wanted to look at me. So I ended up getting paired with someone totally not my size, which didn't really bother me. At our school we are super encouraged to engage people from other schools but here I felt like I was getting dodged or something. Though just in talking everyone was really nice. They just didn't want to roll with the new guy is all I guess.

After one of his black belts watched us doing the positions and answering questions it was time for an hour of rolling. Rolling was done from the knees and in 5 minute rounds. A difference here too seemed to be that who you rolled with was sort of determined by belt rank. Like it started with blacks picking who they would roll with, then browns and so on all down the order. Being a purple belt meant I was normally picked up by browns or other purples for the most part. This didn't bother me at all, just different.

The brown belts I rolled with had an open, dynamic technical game. So I rolled well with them. My last roll was with Oliver Geddes and was excellent. I would loe to have him as a constant training partner. The purples I rolled with were very aggressive and applied lots of pressure, so I got worked by them. Tap! One of them gave me the Roger special, by choking me from the mount. I felt like I was back at the Mundials! The blue belts I rolled with all ended in a draw. Which is nice because I am older than all of them and smaller than all of them. They also all seemed awed that I had a purple belt with barely 3 years of training in. Maybe I did get mine a little early, but it is forcing me to grow into it quickly.

Everyone was super nice. Roger was very nice and humble, but definitely a 'presence' in the room. His black belts there were very helpful and totally considerate. You can tell this is a quality school and is going to create excellent practitioners of bjj. If you are into BJJ and in London, I would totally recommend you stop by and do it!