Open Mats

I sound like a broken record, but it’s true. Life gets in the way. This time, my traveling. I would love to be more consistent with training, but sometimes (most of the time?) it just isn’t going to happen. In any case, two open mats are better than no mat time at all.

Friday night it was warm outside, but not so bad in the gym. Had a good turn out and some good rolls with a few different people. JP notably caught me a couple of times with his baseball choke.

Saturday, it was cooler outside, but a sauna indoors. I started off with Chris and managed to fend him off for a little while. He’s planning on going to the submission only tournament next weekend. Felt like he was moving well and his transitions were tough to deal with.

Rolled with a few other people, but the only one that really stood out was with Wade. I was playing open guard with him, trying things, and making him work. He stood up once, and pressured into me, and then came back down. I thought to myself that if he did that again, I had him. And a minute later he did it again. This time, I was ready. I had a grip on his sleeves, so I elevated my hips, scooted in just a bit, then dropped them and raised him up for a helicopter sweep. As I was coming up into mount, he stiff armed me, so I attacked that right away. Didn’t get the armlock, but he postured up and I switched to a triangle. Didn’t get that either, but I did kimura his trapped arm.

I recall the first time I learned that sweep. I found a great picture of it and included it in my blog post for that class. I also forwarded it to my family, saying “If I ever do manage to pull this off, someone better be around with a camera” Well, it’s rare, but I do hit it once in a while. It certainly made my morning!