Open mat on Saturday quickly filled up. I warmed up with Paul right at the start, and after our round, it was shoulder to shoulder, wall to wall. Tons of people.

I did a lot of rounds, with Charlie, Eric, Judo Alex, White Belt Josh, and others. Had some good moments too: hit a balloon sweep with both Charlie and Josh, which probably wasn’t the greatest idea with it being so crowded. Had some failures too: I really tried to work the s-mount wrist lock/arm lock position, but had people escape it three times. I think I allowed too much space when leaning to swing my leg over.

I also had some time on the sidelines to watch others. I watched Eric and Damian for a while, and then Tim and Caleb. There were some interesting similarities. Damian and Tim could both have crushed their partners, but were both clearly working on getting into a specific situation, either to test something new, or test their partners.

It made me think about my own rolling. Going back to the s-mount technique from earlier this week. Drilling that, it felt super smooth and easy. But in the messy chaos of live rolling, nothing is smooth and easy. It’s having your technique be perfect to fight through that froth that really matters. An inch off in drilling doesn’t matter. An inch off in sparring means the whole game.