I had Friday off due to the holiday weekend. I wasn’t going to be able to make it to Open Mat on Saturday, so I went to the morning class. It seemed like everyone else had the day off too, because it was crowded, about 40 of us! It was tricky warming up with that many, there wasn’t enough room to run.

Damian led a quick lesson, attacking from mount. We got a collar grip, then baited a bump and roll, and switched to knee pillow. From there, we got a grip with our other hand, looped it over, and cross choked. We also transitioned to an armlock, and an arm triangle variant with an Ezekiel choke.

For rounds, we split up into groups. 14 minutes in, 7 out. I had Dr. Tim, Arya, Pat, and John. I did good with Dr. Tim, struggled a bit with Arya.

With Pat, I hit the half guard sweep combo Big Tom taught this week, but got caught in his guard. He attacked me with one of my own go-to combos, where he looped my own lapel over my back to keep me broken down. I kept blocking the cross choke, and (unlike some) he knew the other options, so I had to worry about the triangle and the Barbo choke too. I couldn’t posture up, I couldn’t break his grip, and he kept attacking attacking attacking. It took him 6 minutes, but he did get the Barbo right near the buzzer. Props to him for grinding it out and keeping at it.

John is a 2 stripe white belt that I haven’t rolled with before. We had a good round. I got the same half guard sweep to end up on top. Used the kimura pass to pass, but failed in switching to the armlock/back take, and ended up in a quasi-omoplata position. I ended up bailing on it, and ended up on the bottom again. A lot of work for no gain.