Thanksgiving Guard Passes

Here are a few excerpts from a guard passing class I taught over Thanksgiving weekend.

One thing I want to clarify: when I make comments in this video about how things were done when I was a white belt, I don’t want this to be misinterpreted as a criticism of the coaching I received. I’m merely describing mistakes that were common for my white belt cohort (myself included) and that our coaches eventually corrected. If learning Jiu-jitsu is understood through the metaphor of walking down a road, the coach’s job is often to say to students, “See that hole in the ground? I fell in there and it took me a while to climb out. If you walk around that hole, you’ll get down the road faster.” I try to have a good memory when it comes to my own mistakes.