February 17th Open Mat & 19th No-Gi

Went to no-gi open mat right after work Friday. I was a little concerned that everyone would leave and I'd have no one to roll with but I had a full dance card once I was there. I rolled with Adam, Ray (several times), Mike, and David. I didn't do too well against anyone. I spent a lot of time in the bottom in half guard like I'm used to. It was still good training and I'm glad I showed up. Just got to keep putting in the mat time. Ray gave me some pointers. Mostly about me giving up on things too easily. I need to cause more scrambles and fight for positions instead of accepting that I've lost one. In my head I'm thinking that I want to use more technique over strength.

Saturday I worked out with Craig and Mike at the Taekwondo school. The focus of what I taught them was the butterfly guard sweep and then eventually x-guard techniques. It was good to get some extra reps in. My progress really shows when I roll with them. While Mike is very strong and agressive I am more relaxed with him and know that I will eventually get in a good position and submit him. Craig is the more technical but we outweigh him by a bit. I know our ground fighting sessions have gotten a lot more organized and productive since I've started taking Jiu-Jitsu. So hopefully they're gaining from my experience as well as me getting some extra reps.

Sunday, Conan came in and opened the door for us cause he was sick. As we were warming up we noticed several blood spots on the floor and soon reallized they were spread across the entire mat. After we cleaned that up Mike took on the teaching role with some guard passes. Then we worked from turtle and finally a de la rivas sweep.

For open mat I took on Adam first. We had quite a roll but ultimately I was on the bottom the whole time. He finished me with a north-south choke. He gave me pointers on how to make my half guard better by putting my head lower into his chest and getting lower in general. I rolled with Ken next and he put it to me. I had some good positions and sort of took his back for a while but he eventually worked me into a triangle. So he got me with something different than the usual americana.