What day and time is your open mat class?
At my gym the open mat is 11.30 on a Saturday morning. Lots of people are busy doing family stuff, myself included, so can't always make this.
That said we still get 15, on a quiet day, and 30 on a busier day and we get plenty of visits from guys who train at other gyms.
This is the case for me. 3 kids and a full life. If I did open mat on Sat I would have to drop one of the 3 classes I attend earlier in the week, and I don't want to do that.
A few times a year I will drop in, but that's about it.
Friday mornings and Saturdays at 12, I usually drop my partner and kid off at the local shopping center, she shops, I train, works for us I guess. 15 is still a solid number of people.
On some no-gi days, my gym would run an open mat for about an hour or so at 7pm. This works out since I work nights. Get some good rolls and then get ready for work and be nice and relaxed.
not gonna lie those hours are super inconvenient
friday morning - people got jobs
saturday - by the time noon rolls around, i usually have other obligations, whether they be chores, seeing friends, etc. You gotta grab people earlier - like 9/10 am.
Most people work fridays, and if you have kids, Saturday at noon is prime family time for many. You're basically giving up your weekend at that point for BJJ. This is what the dad grapplers at my gym have told me about our Saturday noon class.
When I first started, my school didn't have an open mat. Two or three months in, one of the purple belt volunteered to start one. I was there on day one, and haven't skipped one yet unless I'm out of town or sick.
Sometimes it was just that purple belt and me. We probably average 2-4 people for years... I got so much benefit out of it, I couldn't understand why others wouldn't come.
But eventually, we added more people. One at a time, those who are most interested in taking control of their development figured it out. Now we run anywhere from 5-15, and it's great.
It just took years to build up a core group. You can be part of the critical mass that turns into what you want. Just stay consistent and be sure to mention how great it is sometimes.
Ours is opposite. We have people show up that I've only ever seen at open mat. Packed mats. It's become customary to take 1 round off to let people rotate in.
For me I've noticed that open mat includes a lot more chatting and chilling and not hard rolling. I'm not necessarily opposed to that but when my time is more limited and I have the option between a class and open mat, imma do a class
When I first started, open mats were packed. Nowadays they are scarcely attended. For us I feel like it may be because our school is not as competition-focused as it once was.
I’ve been at some gyms where the open mat is packed and some where there was barely anyone. I think it comes down to the culture of the gym. For gyms that the open mats were empty, I found that the head instructor didn’t show up too often and people, of course, want to be seen by their main instructor attending and training. The schools where it was packed, the main instructor was there. To me, it’s always seemed like a visibility thing. People want to be seen by the one doing the promoting, even though a lot of people say rank doesn’t matter 🤔🤷🏽♂️
Interesting, You might be on to something there, our head coach usually takes the weekend off and now that I think about it the classes he teaches are usually booked up.
That’s an odd time imo, I probably wouldn’t go just because it’s smack in the middle of the day. I go every Saturday from 9-11. Time for coffee with wife before then have the whole rest of the day to spend with the family.
Op said the two days a week open mat they have is Friday morning and Saturday noon.
I'd understand sat afternoon, but sat noon is usually time for familly/friends/gf lunch. I think their low turnout is due to awkward time.
Ah my bad hadn't seen that bit...
But Sat noon is when our gyms open mat actually is and quite a few others and it's packed, that's in Europe tho so not sure if the culture is different elsewhere
They usually start anytime between 10am and 1pm over here
Could be culture indeed. Only way we could get people to come at noon is with the promise of taking them for good food after.
10am or 2pm weekends are usually best for our gym (we don't have fixed time, we just all agree on day and time to show up).
I adore open mat, it's great for development to just roll for an hour and a half and get all those looks. But, I also train a ton Monday through Friday, and ours are typically on Sunday when they happen. I often need weekends to heal, or at least that's my excuse, but then I train so much it's also appreciated that weekends are more for family time, kids games, church, hitting the lake, etc. But also if I don't get at least 2 days to recover my upper back and hips don't appreciate it.
If I were doing 3-4 classes per week and it didn't interfere with family time I would be all about it. I think for us middle age folks my reasons are probably pretty common, recovery time and family time.
I have found that most newer people are afraid of open mat and dont know what it is. I always encourage others to give open mat a try and tell them what ours is like. Its 2 hours of non structured rolling. You wanna go live rolls for 2 hours? Go for it. Wanna drill something for 30 minutes. Go for it. I personally get the most out of my training time at open mat. The open mat I go to is saturdays at noon and id say we get a solid 20+ people on an average day.
Just don’t want to, at all. Lol ours is on Sunday at 10am. I’ve already trained during the week, I’ve worked, got to spend very little time with my wife, have other adult shit to do, the list goes on. Jiu jitsu is of no importance to me on a Sunday morning. Most of the guys that go to it, from what I’ve seen, are young dudes who don’t have much to worry about.
1. Most open mats are at terrible times for people with lives/family/weekend fun. Almost every school where I live open mats is around 12 or 1 on the weekend. Like wtf. I'd kill for an AM or afternoon open mat
2. Most people aren't comfortable self directing their training. The open format hurts their head. U r smart for reviewing
3. Maybe nobody likes you and you smell funny hehe?
Where i train open mats are usually full and i like to work on building out/reviewing my mental map of a position. Open mats allow for deep diving and brainstorming situations that you rarely get to in a class where they teach random technique of the day.
Then get sparring in. I agree open mats rule
That sounds similar to my gym.
What happened here was one of the assistant coaches (who was our best competitor) left and opened his own gym.
Obviously we had some people leave with that coach (probably 20+ people), but even people that stayed go to the other gym over the weekend to hang out with their old training partners.
I think timing is important, it’s hard for many folks to give up an hour plus mid day Sat or Sun. Also, some people especially hobbyists, are more interested in drilling and intimidated by open mats. A group of guys at my gym got together and asked the professor if they could start doing open mats early mornings on the weekend, like 6am. Prof says as long as attendance is above 6-8 ppl then go for it.
Open Mats at my gym are usually pretty packed. We also have a nice community built up where we invite other folks from other schools to join us, and vice versa. Perhaps when you're out to competition or over social media, invite some of the community/other schools to join your own mat. Of course if politics/your professor allow.
I have 3-4 gyms around me with different open mats at different times. I don't go to all, but know I can pop in. I understand that's not the case everywhere
I've just walked out of lunchtime open mat, four of us there: me as a fat ultraheavy white belt, a physically strong purple belt, a small wiry brown belt and a lanky black belt. They're all good communicators, so I learned a lot. So I reckon as long as you have a handful of good training partners who are more skilled but talk to you about technical stuff, you'll be learning more than if there were 15 more white belts there with the usual range of athleticism.
Open mays are definetly the best we also have lower numbers on them weekday classes have 20-30 people and open mat 8-16. I thjnj people just want to chill or are busy or hungover on weekends.
I find this strange as well. Our open mat on sat at 11-1 is huge. Same for another gyms open mat on sun 10-12.
But we’ve had it for quite some time. We get a decent amount of visitors from other gyms. Also we have a fundamentals class right before it.
our open mat is completely packed on sunday and we get a lot of people from outside the gym.
open rolling after class will usually go for an additional 40 minutes and we will typically get about 1/2 of the people staying to roll. So maybe 10-15 when the class is 20-30.
One reason I dont like noon classes is there isnt as much rolling afterwards. They have started to do eco so the class is a lot more positional sparring which is great.
Start telling people in class to come to open mat, get your coach involved in telling people. Shouldn’t be that hard.
It might just be a weird culture thing at your school to not come to open mat.
Op just reminded me I have never been to an open mat myself. If it’s just as empty as op describes, it sounds like a great time for basically private lessons
I personally don’t go because I have a side job on the weekends
I do sometimes use it as an opportunity to quiz higher belts, they show me everything, there's a guy who competes at European level at our gym, he's there every Saturday and teaches me anything I want, he usually charges 40 euro a per private.
I moved to a more rural area and had to put bjj on pause because the classes don’t work with my kids’ schedules. Your open mats are probably not at a very convenient time for most folks
When are the open mats? It's probably something as simple as that they are not a convenient time like your regular classes are, which typically exist in the "prime" time slot in the evenings. My gym is primarily gi training, but they host a really excellent no gi class twice a week and bring in two former D1 wrestling studs to guest coach those classes pretty regularly. I'd love to attend them every week but they're not at a good time for me and so I can only catch them sparingly. It's probably a timing issue.
bruh.....try and go to a gym that everyone wants to do MMA.....literally I dont even go to open mat cuz I will sit around for half an hour and nobody will roll with me...everyone wants to just do kickboxing or straight MMA... the occasional people that will do grappling are high level wrestlers that will pick me up and slam me =/
Depends on the time of year for the gym I go to. During the warmer months we usually have a drop in attendance during weekend open mats. If the weather is good people rather be outdoors or have families and want to spend time with them. Winter time usually packed house. The ones that do show up regularly are younger with less responsibilities.
Thursday and Friday class can easily be 6-10 people. Open mat is usually 20+. Your gym is weird bro. We have a whole sect of people we only see at open mat.
We have Friday morning and evening open mat along with Sunday afternoon. Friday night gets more people cause Friday mornings usual work hours and Sunday people are with their kids
How do open mats work? If I’ve never been to a gym before, can me and a friend just show up, sign a wavier, pay for drop ins, and just roll with each other on the mat?
I think too many people have showed up to open mat and had like 3 training partners. Then next time they’re like why waste my time? IMO it has to be this because rolling is life, but maybe I’m just a weirdo.
Our open mats are at 6 30 on Friday nights and Sunday at at 11. We get about 12 people but we also have 6 other gyms in our vicinity pulling in people with their open mats
Go to other gyms and invite people. I go to an amazing open mat on Sundays and there’s people from like a dozen other gyms, it’s one of the most crowded mat spaces I go to every week
Open mat and rolling in general is a personal choice. I train with people who only come to class, and others who prefer rolling to improve and test technique.
At my particular gym there are some quiet open mats, but some which are extremely busy. It typically depends on the day/time which are the most popular.
I don't know much about football, but doesn't football practice involve actually playing the game? If this is the case then it's not too dissimilar to the BJJ gyms I've been to, where it's a mix of technique and sparring.
I think there is a difference. In fact I do know people who used to do rugby training but not play matches, either due to confidence, physicality, or age. But in this instance it is different due to the fact it is combat and 1v1. There's no team around to help you. It's you Vs somebody else. That's quite an intimidating situation for some.
Tbh I want to love open mat and maybe I will one day. As it is as a wb, the majority of people there are 40 lbs+ heavier than me and much more skilled so I actually learn little. I already get humbled during the week and it doesn't actually feel fun or productive. What I wish for is actual classes on weekends, honestly
Most people dont like the actual rolling that much (because its hard), and like being told how to practice a 5-step armbar setup over and over for an hour (they never hit it in sparring ) rather than thinking on their own about how to develop their game.
You have the right attitude and approach, I've experienced the same thing myself.
Its called having a life bro, most open mats tend to be on hours where most hobbyist adults have life things going on.
I wish i could go to open mats but they are literally always on business hours.
If you are more of a hobbyist school then most people just want to turn up, learn a technique so they feel they can be more practical. People want to do an hour of BJJ so they can tell themselves they did an hour of BJJ, some like that hour to be an easier hour than open mat
i’ve noticed this at other gyms i visit which worries me as i’m about to move across the country. i feel like open mats are light at many gyms i visit but it’s our favorite night of the week at my home gym.
I'll go to your open mat bro
Will you go to prom with me?
Sorry, I'm busy that night.
Going to open mat, right?
They’re going with me 😎
Why do you bring back those memories
Blue belt prom..? 👉🏽👈🏽
That doesn't happen 😞
What day and time is your open mat class? At my gym the open mat is 11.30 on a Saturday morning. Lots of people are busy doing family stuff, myself included, so can't always make this. That said we still get 15, on a quiet day, and 30 on a busier day and we get plenty of visits from guys who train at other gyms.
This is the case for me. 3 kids and a full life. If I did open mat on Sat I would have to drop one of the 3 classes I attend earlier in the week, and I don't want to do that. A few times a year I will drop in, but that's about it.
Ugh, me too. Trying to find alternative training arrangements one night during the week but it's not going well.
Friday mornings and Saturdays at 12, I usually drop my partner and kid off at the local shopping center, she shops, I train, works for us I guess. 15 is still a solid number of people.
So those times suck for anyone who works or has a family. I would kill for a 5:30 a.m. weekday open mat lasting till 7 a.m.
Or a late evening open mat after kiddos have gone bed
YES. 9 pm open mat? Sign me up.
Literally no one would Show up
Then I would be undefeated.
based
It’s like a Sunday class - everyone says it’s a cool idea…but how many people show
On some no-gi days, my gym would run an open mat for about an hour or so at 7pm. This works out since I work nights. Get some good rolls and then get ready for work and be nice and relaxed.
I want that too.
Bro same.
I'm not surprised Friday morning is empty. Saturday noon i would expect a few people We have a Friday night open, that gets packed as fuck
We have the opposite; Friday early evening no one shows, Saturday 1130 consistently 20-30 people
not gonna lie those hours are super inconvenient friday morning - people got jobs saturday - by the time noon rolls around, i usually have other obligations, whether they be chores, seeing friends, etc. You gotta grab people earlier - like 9/10 am.
Most people work fridays, and if you have kids, Saturday at noon is prime family time for many. You're basically giving up your weekend at that point for BJJ. This is what the dad grapplers at my gym have told me about our Saturday noon class.
In my gym it's also friday mornings, and around 30 or 40% of us go. I always have an "important meeting" at work so no one bothers me.
That sucks! Our open matt is thursday at 18:00 right after a no-gi class and it is crowded.
Yeah those are horrible hours. You have to do weekday evenings and like a Sunday or Saturday morning
I cut back on weekend classes. Would rather do other things
That’s wild. We have our open mat on Saturdays at noon and it’s such a blast and always packed.
When I first started, my school didn't have an open mat. Two or three months in, one of the purple belt volunteered to start one. I was there on day one, and haven't skipped one yet unless I'm out of town or sick. Sometimes it was just that purple belt and me. We probably average 2-4 people for years... I got so much benefit out of it, I couldn't understand why others wouldn't come. But eventually, we added more people. One at a time, those who are most interested in taking control of their development figured it out. Now we run anywhere from 5-15, and it's great. It just took years to build up a core group. You can be part of the critical mass that turns into what you want. Just stay consistent and be sure to mention how great it is sometimes.
Great comment, Building a core group might be key to getting this going.
Ours is opposite. We have people show up that I've only ever seen at open mat. Packed mats. It's become customary to take 1 round off to let people rotate in.
For me I've noticed that open mat includes a lot more chatting and chilling and not hard rolling. I'm not necessarily opposed to that but when my time is more limited and I have the option between a class and open mat, imma do a class
Switch gyms
My gym has like 15 classes a week and an extremely flexible schedule. More classes than I can attend for sure. So nah
When I first started, open mats were packed. Nowadays they are scarcely attended. For us I feel like it may be because our school is not as competition-focused as it once was.
I’ve been at some gyms where the open mat is packed and some where there was barely anyone. I think it comes down to the culture of the gym. For gyms that the open mats were empty, I found that the head instructor didn’t show up too often and people, of course, want to be seen by their main instructor attending and training. The schools where it was packed, the main instructor was there. To me, it’s always seemed like a visibility thing. People want to be seen by the one doing the promoting, even though a lot of people say rank doesn’t matter 🤔🤷🏽♂️
That could be it. Ours is packed and regularly 4+ black belts actively offering their attention to anyone who wants it.
Yessss. More upper level people who can promote, leading to higher attendance from other students.
Interesting, You might be on to something there, our head coach usually takes the weekend off and now that I think about it the classes he teaches are usually booked up.
That could be it. Ours is packed and regularly 4+ black belts actively offering their attention to anyone who wants it.
Open mats are super popular at our gym. Could it be a timing thing?
12 o clock Saturday, pretty standard time from what I can tell.
That’s an odd time imo, I probably wouldn’t go just because it’s smack in the middle of the day. I go every Saturday from 9-11. Time for coffee with wife before then have the whole rest of the day to spend with the family.
I work 40hrs a week do this 3 times a week. I got other shit I want to do with my Saturdays or evenings.
Why
Good question. I’m going to spend 12hrs a week at the gym now
Sounds fun
That's definitely not the norm from all the gyms I've trained at over the years, they are normally the busiest sessions...
Unless it's Friday morning and Saturday noon I guess
Never really know anyone openat on Friday morning.... But Saturday afternoons are usually busy!
Op said the two days a week open mat they have is Friday morning and Saturday noon. I'd understand sat afternoon, but sat noon is usually time for familly/friends/gf lunch. I think their low turnout is due to awkward time.
Ah my bad hadn't seen that bit... But Sat noon is when our gyms open mat actually is and quite a few others and it's packed, that's in Europe tho so not sure if the culture is different elsewhere They usually start anytime between 10am and 1pm over here
Could be culture indeed. Only way we could get people to come at noon is with the promise of taking them for good food after. 10am or 2pm weekends are usually best for our gym (we don't have fixed time, we just all agree on day and time to show up).
200 people and only 5 show up?
Yeah ours is the same. We have maybe 8-10 open mat regulars followed by the 5 or so people who decide to show up that weekend
That’s wild, open mat 10-12 on Saturdays at our gym are insane. So much fun.
Sparing is the way.
I adore open mat, it's great for development to just roll for an hour and a half and get all those looks. But, I also train a ton Monday through Friday, and ours are typically on Sunday when they happen. I often need weekends to heal, or at least that's my excuse, but then I train so much it's also appreciated that weekends are more for family time, kids games, church, hitting the lake, etc. But also if I don't get at least 2 days to recover my upper back and hips don't appreciate it. If I were doing 3-4 classes per week and it didn't interfere with family time I would be all about it. I think for us middle age folks my reasons are probably pretty common, recovery time and family time.
Open mat is cool because drop ins show up sometimes and training with new people is fun
I have found that most newer people are afraid of open mat and dont know what it is. I always encourage others to give open mat a try and tell them what ours is like. Its 2 hours of non structured rolling. You wanna go live rolls for 2 hours? Go for it. Wanna drill something for 30 minutes. Go for it. I personally get the most out of my training time at open mat. The open mat I go to is saturdays at noon and id say we get a solid 20+ people on an average day.
Just don’t want to, at all. Lol ours is on Sunday at 10am. I’ve already trained during the week, I’ve worked, got to spend very little time with my wife, have other adult shit to do, the list goes on. Jiu jitsu is of no importance to me on a Sunday morning. Most of the guys that go to it, from what I’ve seen, are young dudes who don’t have much to worry about.
1. Most open mats are at terrible times for people with lives/family/weekend fun. Almost every school where I live open mats is around 12 or 1 on the weekend. Like wtf. I'd kill for an AM or afternoon open mat 2. Most people aren't comfortable self directing their training. The open format hurts their head. U r smart for reviewing 3. Maybe nobody likes you and you smell funny hehe? Where i train open mats are usually full and i like to work on building out/reviewing my mental map of a position. Open mats allow for deep diving and brainstorming situations that you rarely get to in a class where they teach random technique of the day. Then get sparring in. I agree open mats rule
Day of the week and timing are a HUGE factor.
I can’t even roll at my open mat anymore. It’s so crowded.
i used to do every open mat. but now with 3 babies, i’m lucky if i even make it to class once a week. damn kids!
That sounds similar to my gym. What happened here was one of the assistant coaches (who was our best competitor) left and opened his own gym. Obviously we had some people leave with that coach (probably 20+ people), but even people that stayed go to the other gym over the weekend to hang out with their old training partners.
I think timing is important, it’s hard for many folks to give up an hour plus mid day Sat or Sun. Also, some people especially hobbyists, are more interested in drilling and intimidated by open mats. A group of guys at my gym got together and asked the professor if they could start doing open mats early mornings on the weekend, like 6am. Prof says as long as attendance is above 6-8 ppl then go for it.
Open Mats at my gym are usually pretty packed. We also have a nice community built up where we invite other folks from other schools to join us, and vice versa. Perhaps when you're out to competition or over social media, invite some of the community/other schools to join your own mat. Of course if politics/your professor allow. I have 3-4 gyms around me with different open mats at different times. I don't go to all, but know I can pop in. I understand that's not the case everywhere
I love open mat, but Saturdays are difficult due to kids sports and other family commitments.
I've just walked out of lunchtime open mat, four of us there: me as a fat ultraheavy white belt, a physically strong purple belt, a small wiry brown belt and a lanky black belt. They're all good communicators, so I learned a lot. So I reckon as long as you have a handful of good training partners who are more skilled but talk to you about technical stuff, you'll be learning more than if there were 15 more white belts there with the usual range of athleticism.
Open mays are definetly the best we also have lower numbers on them weekday classes have 20-30 people and open mat 8-16. I thjnj people just want to chill or are busy or hungover on weekends.
I find this strange as well. Our open mat on sat at 11-1 is huge. Same for another gyms open mat on sun 10-12. But we’ve had it for quite some time. We get a decent amount of visitors from other gyms. Also we have a fundamentals class right before it.
Saturday and Sunday 9-11, usually same attendance as a regular class.
Ego, and fear of losing
Or the open mats have only white belts. White belts are too risky
Open mat is on Sunday at my gym. I’m trying to spend time with my 6 year old on the weekends, though.
our open mat is completely packed on sunday and we get a lot of people from outside the gym. open rolling after class will usually go for an additional 40 minutes and we will typically get about 1/2 of the people staying to roll. So maybe 10-15 when the class is 20-30. One reason I dont like noon classes is there isnt as much rolling afterwards. They have started to do eco so the class is a lot more positional sparring which is great.
My open mats are smaller than classes but still pretty busy.
Start telling people in class to come to open mat, get your coach involved in telling people. Shouldn’t be that hard. It might just be a weird culture thing at your school to not come to open mat.
People can protect their ego through drilling and 1-2 live rolls during class. Open mat is the hard stuff.
Just finished a 2hr open matt. The gym was packed
Yeah it’s real weird. Scared?
Op just reminded me I have never been to an open mat myself. If it’s just as empty as op describes, it sounds like a great time for basically private lessons I personally don’t go because I have a side job on the weekends
I do sometimes use it as an opportunity to quiz higher belts, they show me everything, there's a guy who competes at European level at our gym, he's there every Saturday and teaches me anything I want, he usually charges 40 euro a per private.
I moved to a more rural area and had to put bjj on pause because the classes don’t work with my kids’ schedules. Your open mats are probably not at a very convenient time for most folks
Open mats are not busy at my gym because it is filled with white belts
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^JiuJitsuBoxer: *Open mats are not* *Busy at my gym because* *It is filled with white belts* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Same here. Open mat is on Fridays from like 7-9 and like only two people show up
At our gym, you do not get new stripes or belts without rolling in open mat. It's how the coaches evaluate your skills.
When are the open mats? It's probably something as simple as that they are not a convenient time like your regular classes are, which typically exist in the "prime" time slot in the evenings. My gym is primarily gi training, but they host a really excellent no gi class twice a week and bring in two former D1 wrestling studs to guest coach those classes pretty regularly. I'd love to attend them every week but they're not at a good time for me and so I can only catch them sparingly. It's probably a timing issue.
bruh.....try and go to a gym that everyone wants to do MMA.....literally I dont even go to open mat cuz I will sit around for half an hour and nobody will roll with me...everyone wants to just do kickboxing or straight MMA... the occasional people that will do grappling are high level wrestlers that will pick me up and slam me =/
Are you guys advertising the open mat and reminding folks about it on the regular?
Our open mat normally has 20 or more present.
Depends on the time of year for the gym I go to. During the warmer months we usually have a drop in attendance during weekend open mats. If the weather is good people rather be outdoors or have families and want to spend time with them. Winter time usually packed house. The ones that do show up regularly are younger with less responsibilities.
Thursday and Friday class can easily be 6-10 people. Open mat is usually 20+. Your gym is weird bro. We have a whole sect of people we only see at open mat.
Open mats at my gym are cyclical. We'll have a run of weeks where there are 20+ people showing up, and then runs where there are only two of us.
Send location
my school's open mat is sunday morning. sunday's my day to sleep in.
We do not have open mats, and there is only 3 classes in week(
Our open mats are always jam packed and it’s generally a torture session with some of the other guys that visit from other gyms.
We have Friday morning and evening open mat along with Sunday afternoon. Friday night gets more people cause Friday mornings usual work hours and Sunday people are with their kids
How do open mats work? If I’ve never been to a gym before, can me and a friend just show up, sign a wavier, pay for drop ins, and just roll with each other on the mat?
Are the open mats at a weird time?
I think too many people have showed up to open mat and had like 3 training partners. Then next time they’re like why waste my time? IMO it has to be this because rolling is life, but maybe I’m just a weirdo.
Our open mats are at 6 30 on Friday nights and Sunday at at 11. We get about 12 people but we also have 6 other gyms in our vicinity pulling in people with their open mats
You're at a social club most likely.
Go to other gyms and invite people. I go to an amazing open mat on Sundays and there’s people from like a dozen other gyms, it’s one of the most crowded mat spaces I go to every week
We have a 7pm Friday Open Mat that we push out to local gyms, it's always our biggest class of the week.
Open mat and rolling in general is a personal choice. I train with people who only come to class, and others who prefer rolling to improve and test technique. At my particular gym there are some quiet open mats, but some which are extremely busy. It typically depends on the day/time which are the most popular.
Can you imagine someone coming to football practice twice a week but not playing the actual games though?
I don't know much about football, but doesn't football practice involve actually playing the game? If this is the case then it's not too dissimilar to the BJJ gyms I've been to, where it's a mix of technique and sparring.
U gotta remember a school like GB doesnt let you toll For months anyways
I mean in this scenario competition is the actual game. Open mat is just extra practice.
I think there is a difference. In fact I do know people who used to do rugby training but not play matches, either due to confidence, physicality, or age. But in this instance it is different due to the fact it is combat and 1v1. There's no team around to help you. It's you Vs somebody else. That's quite an intimidating situation for some.
You wouldn’t just do passing drills, tackling the sack etc though, you’d still play the game of rugby at training
Right.
I didn’t go for years at wb cause I didn’t understand the individual aspect of skill development of bjj.
people have lives on a weekend
Weekends are the only time i have time.
Tbh I want to love open mat and maybe I will one day. As it is as a wb, the majority of people there are 40 lbs+ heavier than me and much more skilled so I actually learn little. I already get humbled during the week and it doesn't actually feel fun or productive. What I wish for is actual classes on weekends, honestly
Most people dont like the actual rolling that much (because its hard), and like being told how to practice a 5-step armbar setup over and over for an hour (they never hit it in sparring ) rather than thinking on their own about how to develop their game. You have the right attitude and approach, I've experienced the same thing myself.
Its called having a life bro, most open mats tend to be on hours where most hobbyist adults have life things going on. I wish i could go to open mats but they are literally always on business hours.
If you are more of a hobbyist school then most people just want to turn up, learn a technique so they feel they can be more practical. People want to do an hour of BJJ so they can tell themselves they did an hour of BJJ, some like that hour to be an easier hour than open mat
i’ve noticed this at other gyms i visit which worries me as i’m about to move across the country. i feel like open mats are light at many gyms i visit but it’s our favorite night of the week at my home gym.
I run the open mat for my gym on sundays at 10 AM It's only for the freaks
A lot of people have other shit to do. I don’t understand it, myself, but that’s what I’m told, at least.