The Mat Is Still Open

Open mat tonight was very sparsely attended.  It was me, Matty (one stripe white), Bob (blue), Neal (aka Jack Russell), some guy whose name I don't remember (three stripe white), and Enrique (purple).  Gina was there, but she wasn't training.  It's going to be great for Neal to have her around; they're roughly the same size, and her technical game will enhance his in no time.  Plus, he keeps showing up.  Almost only good can come of that.

The good thing with such small attendance is that I got to work with everyone, some more than others but everyone got a turn.  I had sporadic success (still need to find my ass from my elbow when trying to pass guard), and I'm finding that my go to move is an armbar (both from guard and top).  I would rather have chokes as my standard, so that'll have to be a conscious effort.  Maybe I'll be able to use the threat of armbars and kimuras to open up choking opportunities.  I'm still struggling staying off my back and recognizing when to abandon trying to keep guard and get to my knees.  I haven't been able to roll with strangers for a few weeks---since Thanksgiving, I guess---so I think my reflexes have dulled the slightest bit.

I was, though, able to pull off the rolling back take against Neal.  Yeah, I know that being able to hit a move on a 125 lb-er is not usually something worth writing about, but I felt pretty good about it.  Especially considering that last week I couldn't even figure out how it was supposed to work.

Tomorrow, Damian is holding a charity seminar, teaching about smashing the guard with weight and pressure.  Suggested donation is $25, and all proceeds go to St. Luke's Hospital, something about helping kids with heart problems.  Since it's supposed to snow some ungodly amount tonight, I'll have to leave early to make it on time. And then the rest of tomorrow night will be finishing some law work.

UPDATE:
So when they said it was going to snow a lot, they weren't joking around.  I feel like I live on Hoth.  Again.  So Brenna wouldn't let me go to jiu jitsu---well, that's not entirely fair.  She strongly advised against driving anywhere today.  That, and Klint's school called and told me that they were canceling class.  So I'll have to give Damian a donation next week.  That'll alleviate my guilt a little bit.  Also, I think he's onto a great idea, and I want to support it.  So I'm at school (where they were going to have the LSAT today, but the weather made them reconsider that this morning), hunkered down in a classroom writing a brief.