Roger and me: Last weekend the squad went to london to compete in Polaris grappling, winning all three matches. London is the base of one of my greatest friends in the sport, Roger Gracie, who, along with his great father, Mauricio Gomes, teaches jiu jitsu in England's greatest city. At Polaris, the squad met up with Mr Gracie and Mr Gomes in the warm up room as we got ready. I asked Mr Gomes if he would like to assist in cornering the squad – I have always found his insights very illuminating and instructive and he has a good calming presence about him in the hectic atmosphere before a match starts. Suddenly Mr Gracie excused himself and said he had to go. The staff of the show advised us that it was time for Oliver Taza to go out and begin his bout. Mr Taza was scheduled to fight the outstanding British black belt Ross Nicholls, who is widely considered the best British black belt and has won many British and European titles. Oliver is a brown belt (he should actually still be a purple Belt according to IBJJF Regulations) but trains very hard and has made great progress in a short time. Last time they met, Mr Taza won via heel hook. When we went down to the stage I was shocked to see Mr Gracie in Mr Nicholls corner – and Mr Gracie was equally shocked to see me in Mr Taza's corner!! Neither of us had any idea that the opponent was one of our students! We just laughed and wished each other luck. It was an unexpected honor to corner against the greatest jiu jitsu player of all time – the best part is that Mr Gracie's father was in our corner! It was a great match between two very impressive youngsters, arguably the best of the night. Mr Taza prevailed that night with positional play – he could not get a submission breakthrough against a much improved Mr Nicholls – but it gave me a wonderful coaching memory of cornering against one of my best friends with the help of his dad! Here we are laughing about the confusion afterwards and enjoying the rest of the show. In the near future I want to talk about Roger Gracie's online teaching platform – I sincerely believe it offers an unprecedented opportunity for students to learn the highest level jiu jitsu
