I get used to feeling like a chewtoy at the lunch open mat twice a week. Usually there's a handful of purples and browns roaming around, and usually when they want a rest from more challenging rolls, they'll come find me if I haven't approached them yet. I don't mind; I see my place in the foodchain, and I'm happy to serve my function, because I'm finally getting to the place where someone, anyone is below me. This means I have some people I can try... well, okay, I'm supposed to be trying new stuff on them; really, I'm just happy to be working on old stuff with them so I can get it to work reliably. Maybe that's what would be new about it ;-)
Anyway, today was a little different.. a virtual plethora of blues, all friends, and I got to roll with Jason who doesn't usually come to open mat. It was fun because I was both toy and teethed-one. Yay.
Busting out the chocolate love tomorrow.. that's right, the chocolate gi will be out and about.
No bites, please.
2 comments:
Hi Georgette,
You mentioned open mat a few times. How does that work? Is it open to people from just your club, or does open mat mean you invite people over?
Couple ways to answer your question, Andres. We are open to students from anywhere and the first class is free-- to welcome new people, people who have been training a long time, or anything in between. So to that extent, new potential students are always welcome... so that's one angle.
Another is, at the end of every class, there is open mat time.. time for sparring, for drilling, for observing others doing the same. Depending on the class, this is usually at least 30 min, sometimes an hour's worth of time. That's another angle.
Then there are "open mats" such as Mon and Fri at lunch... these are specifically designated as purely open mat. That's what I was referring to most likely. No official class, no lesson plan, no "instructor" although we always have at least one or two upper belts (browns/blacks) around. Thus, at "open mat" we don't allow new students-- there's no supervision etc. So... new students welcome at regular classes, but not to just drop in for only open mat, until they have been around a little while. Make sense?
What about you-- where do you train, for how long, etc etc?
Post a Comment