Open Mat – De La Riva Style!

Friday’s class was a nice one. After a short hiatus I was worried how my cardio would stack up, but I did fine. Seems like the Fitocracy kick I am on is keeping me fighting fit. However, nothing beats grappling in class so I was a little winded near the end.

We rolled for an 1hr 20 min for open mat so I will just provide highlights:

I wrestled with one of the newer guys (Dillon) who was promoted to Blue belt last Tuesday. He’s a former wrestler and he has cat like reflexes so I usually just pin him down a lot. I went a little bit harder with him this time since he’s a Blue belt now, but he still weighs at least 80 pounds less than me so I didn’t go gorilla on him.

I also rolled with Jerry, one of the veteran guys, who is also a Blue Belt. I started out with Spider Guard and then I remembered a video I had been watching on Youtube last week and I switched to the De La Riva Guard. I was amazed at how quickly I was able to latch it on. I followed it up with a sweep and then gained side control. From there I went North/South then pulled him up and jumped to his back. He fought me on the Bow and Arrow Choke so I went for an arm-bar from behind and got the tap. —  I surprised myself with that one. First, Jerry is usually super hard to deal with. Second, I don’t know what possessed me to try the De La Riva. Third, I am usually a choke or Kimura type of guy, I hardly ever attempt arm bars.

On another note, we had a Brown Belt (Jason) from one of our affiliates visit. He showed us a cool choke when you are seated and have back control and a bicep crusher for the omoplata and from a guard pass.

Excellent practice!

Check out my grappling books on Amazon: Tapmonster: Ideas about Grappling for BJJ and Submission Wrestlers, Grappling for Newbies, 20 Ways to Increase Grappling Skills off the Mat, The Lazy Man’s Guide to Grappling and much more.