September 23rd - Open Mat

According to my post count I have stepped into the dojo somewhere around 50 times since I started Jiu-Jitsu.  It seems hard to believe but thinking about how much I've learned and how much better I've become in this short amount of time it helps me look forward to the next 50, 100, 1000 classes.

Yesterday at open mat turned out to be a good session.  I actually made a few people tap for once.  I've been contemplating still if I want to talk about my matches in open mat on this blog.  While I want to keep a good record of my Jiu-Jitsu journey I'm not interested in making anyone feel bad because I submitted them and then wrote about it.  However, if the roles were reversed and someone was writing about submitting me, I wouldn't mind (depending on how it was written of course). 

I rolled with Fuji first.  I succeeded in my goal to stay off of my back with him in the first match.  I was able to keep him in side control and mount.  I tried quite a few submissions but I was never able to get anything.  Eventually I got a head and arm choke.  When we went again after that he got me with a neck crank that was pretty slick holding my bicep with the arm that was behind my head from half guard.  I think I'm starting to play a little smarter with him as usual I always try to go for certain things when the opportunity presents itself.  In this case a darce choke.  Whenever I would try to get Fuji in it he would get to his knees and be able to scramble and regain a top position.  Yesterday when I saw that happening I'd abandon the choke and push his shoulders back to the mat.

Next I rolled with Andy.  We hadn't rolled before except for practicing techniques in class, so I really didn't know what to expect.  It seemed like every time I did something right he would have his legs up trying to trap my head in them.  It was something a little extra that I wasn't expecting.  However, I was eventually able to submit him once with a rear naked choke and the other time with a kimura although I think he was gassed at that point.

I then spent a lot of time with Mike.  He was able to submit me with a guillotine choke which I might have been able to roll out of, but I decided to play it safe and tap.  We then worked a while on guard retention and passing which was very informative and something I'm lacking skill in.

Finally I got a taste of the Bauer power.  Like usual we were pretty evenly matched, but I was able to keep the top position for the majority of our bout.  I was having a hard time isolating one of his arms but eventually I started going for wristlocks and I got him to move enough for me to put on an armbar.  I really enjoy rolling with the guys that I rolled with today.  Because even though I can lose to them on any given day at least I know there is a chance that I can win.