open mat fun

Thurday night open mat was a small affair with only four of us turning up.

There were two heavyish/strong guys and a young fast one, so I was pretty much expecting to get steamrolled the whole time.

I think I can't claim a single sub for the whole evening, but I succeeded in lots of escapes, I had good positions several times and I certainly attempted numerous submissions. I came close with several of my chokes. I didn't spend the whole evening mounted or turtled, which made a nice change. Sure, I still got manhandled, and I had to endure the indignity of the famous turtle turnover maneuver. But I repaid him by escaping out the back door and while he scambled away, I went after him and then snapped him down to turtle. So all in all I enjoyed myself and came away with a few new ideas on how to give the boys a hard time next time.

I tried to get the armbar setup from guard a few times. With the big boys I find it hard to pin them down to me, but I'm getting closer to getting it right. Once I actually succeeded, only to have the guy power out of it right at the end (I made a mistake). But that was success in a way as I usually find it harder to get myself in position and maintain pressure all the way than the actual technique.

I also frustrated the hell out of the young guy by keeping elbows and knees in and giving him nothing. He's a young and explosive and very competitive, but out of condition (had time off due to injury..), and half way through the second roll, when I wore him down in guard, he quit. Well, he had spent a ton of energy earlier trying to pass my closed guard by standing up and yanking and pulling. I see that loads of times with the less experienced guys, they try to power out of everything. Sometimes they get away with it, but until they learn to used technique instead of brute force, it's a hit and miss affair.

Yeah, interesting evening :-)