Week 13 at Gracie Barra Centennial, and the Launch of The Foundations Experience for Adults and Kids
Nobody chooses to end up on the bottom of Guard. Someone is on top of you, in your space, controlling the pace. Ego wants you to fight that fact instead of working with it.
That’s exactly the lesson this week’s curriculum is built to teach.
Word of the Week: HUMILITY
Humility isn’t weakness and it isn’t giving up. It’s the willingness to accept the position you’re actually in instead of the one your ego wishes you were in, and to work from there. Every program in the building is training some form of Guard Bottom this week, and Guard Bottom only works if you stop treating it as a place to escape from and start treating it as a place to operate from.
This Week’s Curriculum
Every program is training some version of Guard Bottom this week, and each one builds the same underlying idea at its own level.
GB1 Fundamentals (Adults) are working strike defense from Closed Guard Bottom, including clinch entries into the Triangle Choke and distance management with the knee shield and upkick. On the sport side, it’s the Sit Up Sweep and Kimura from Closed Guard, plus Spider Guard control against an opponent who is bullfighting or posturing. This week’s GB1 Talking Point: The Mission of Gracie Barra.
GB2 All Levels are drilling Transitions to the Guard, the moment a half guard pass is threatening and you have to recover full guard mid scramble. The read and react principle this week is what we call the Fulcrum, get your hips up and put the fulcrum beneath your opponent before you choose a branch. Posture up and it’s a sweep. Reach for your head and it’s a Guillotine. Overextend defending the choke and the room’s more experienced players are chaining into an Armbar or Triangle off the stack.
GB3 Advanced are building the Spider and Lasso Guard off the same sleeve grip taught in GB1, except now it’s grip and push instead of grip and pull, feet on the biceps instead of legs around the waist. Reads this week branch into the Spider Sweep, a transition to Lasso control, or an Omoplata off the lasso’d arm.
Little Champions 1 are drilling the Sit Up Sweep, then chaining it into Mount, Technical Mount, and a back take. Self defense work covers escaping a front bear hug over the arms. Game of the week: Dodgeball.
Little Champions 2 are working guard retention drills into the Arm Lock from the Pendulum Sweep and the Arm Lock straight from the guard while holding the leg. Game of the week: Dodgeball.
Tiny Champions are building squatting mechanics through Squat Tag and Giant and Mini, then applying that base to Kitten Guard. Game of the week: Witch Tag.
Juniors and Teens are on the feet with the Collar Drag and Single Leg takedown, defending round kicks, then finishing on the ground with the Balloon Sweep and symmetrical and asymmetrical collar chokes. Game of the week: Laser.
Why Humility Matters Here
The biggest obstacle for most new students isn’t a lack of athleticism. It’s ego. It’s the refusal to admit you’re in a bad spot, tap, reset, and go again. Jiu Jitsu strips that pretense away faster than almost anything else you can do, because the mat doesn’t care what you think you deserve.
Guard Bottom is where that gets taught most directly. A white belt who fights the position with pure strength gets stacked and passed. A white belt who accepts the position, gets the hips moving, and works the read in front of them starts sweeping people twice their size. The technique doesn’t change. The willingness to stop pretending changes everything.
That’s the whole game plan behind everything below.
Introducing The Foundations Experience
We just rebuilt the on ramp into Gracie Barra Centennial for both adults and kids, and we’re calling it The Foundations Experience.
If you’ve ever thought about starting Jiu Jitsu, or getting your child started, but weren’t sure what the first weeks actually look like, this is built for exactly that. It’s a structured path into the school, no guesswork, no standing in the corner hoping someone explains what’s happening.
For Adults: The Foundations Experience
For Kids: The Foundations Experience, Kids
Both programs exist for the same reason Guard Bottom works the way it does. Starting something new means admitting you don’t know it yet. That takes humility too, and a clear structure to walk into makes that first step a lot easier to take.
Come Try It
The best way to understand any of this is to feel it, not read about it. If you or your child want to see what a Foundations class actually looks like, grab a spot on the schedule below and come train with us.
See the Full Class Schedule and Reserve a Free Trial
See you on the mats.
The Gracie Barra Centennial Team
