I came to open mat today to have a few rolls since I’ve rarely practiced this week and also to watch Coach Alan compete in the national competition with the guys (Coach won bronze in both Gi and No-Gi—great performances).

I rolled for 5-6 rounds and got smashed in most of them, realizing I could be better from the bottom, especially in closed guard. My goal in closed guard is to first break their posture and move to a sweep or a shoulder lock to threaten a submission. A kimura is also in my bag of tricks, both for submission and as a sweep once I get a butterfly hook in. I can stall in closed guard for quite a long time if my bag of tricks runs out, but if my partner has good posture, timing, or technique to pass my guard (or if I decide to switch to another guard), they can pass quite easily if they time it right. I need to workshop and research other games from closed guard. I almost got the omoplata today, but I forgot to bring my leg higher to push their shoulder down. I will research more sweeps and other moves to do from closed guard and try them in future rolls.

I successfully neutralized an octopus sweep today by flattening them out, courtesy of Alan’s instruction that the archenemy of octopus guard is to flatten them out and not let them build their base with their head higher than yours.

There’s a cheeky way to break closed guard that eventually leads to a kimura that I got caught with today. They bring one of your hands behind your back and feed it to their other hand, creating a sort of gift-wrap situation behind your back. From there, they can continue to break their closed guard since they’ve limited your mobility or even roll over to gain more range for the kimura. I definitely will try that next time I’m in closed guard.

I also need to try more o-goshi since my other familiar takedowns are kind of predictable.

Overall, it was a great open mat today—always a good time meeting up with familiar faces and cheering on our coach together.