The Open Mat

Get out of your comfort zone

As described previously the mat is the floor designed for ground fighting skills development. Mats are ideal for grappling, Judo, Jiu Jitsu, and Aikido. The?tatami texture surface is designed to prevent?mat?burns and is most suitable for bare feet.

For anyone who might not know, an open mat is an open training session at which there is no organized instruction.?This is unique to Jiu Jitsu. Many schools host open mats, and of those many allow students of other academies to attend, sometimes with a decreased (or waived) mat fee.?Given the way that BJJ evolves, and how information gets disseminated, open mats can be a crucial way to learn and field techniques.

Another element to open mats is that you never know who will show up.?I have been at open mats featuring multiple black belts and pro-MMA fighters who came to roll. I have also been to open mats with only a couple of people and worked on different situational rolling.?In regular classes you get a fairly predictable mix of activities. You never really know what to expect when you walk into an open mat, only that you will have plenty of time to roll.

Another aspect of open mat is that it allows you to go to places you wouldn’t normally go, and to train with people with whom you wouldn’t normally train.?You can always cross train by dropping into other schools, but open mats are specifically intended for what their name implies: to be open.

There is something anyone who goes to open mats should be aware of: not everyone plays by the same rules.?I have had people reap my knee and go for heel hooks (a banned technique) at open mats, or get mad at me for going for wrist locks.?In the back of your mind, expect the unexpected.?

Go to more open mats and you will be better prepared for what people may throw at you in competition.?If you step out of the comfort zone you have become used to at your school, you will begin to really know what techniques other people are studying, and gain a better understanding of the parts of your game that work and which ones you may want to consider discarding. Overall, you will really be gaining the full benefits of Jiu jitsu.?

In summary, open mats are designed to get you out of your comfort zone and routine. One should always strive to have some difficulty in life. It is the only way to grow, to make life interesting and meaningful.

Practical application:?

During my twenty-five-year career I have been purposefully changing fields in order to achieve knowledge of best business practices. I started out in the OTP (other tobacco products) business in Swedish Match where I had different assignments in different divisions and countries: mergers and acquisitions in Switzerland, commercial manager in Bulgaria, category manager in Richmond VA, commercial director in Rio de Janeiro Brazil, managing director in Mexico, area manager Russia & Cis in Moscow, Russia. After that I switched to commercial real estate as deputy director in Jones Lang LaSalle. After that I had a long career in industrial automation with COMAU in Russia, Mexico, China. I then moved back to the tobacco world running a joint venture for Russia between Swedish Match and Philip Morris International under Philip Morris. I then moved to education as an international business development director for a Russian University called Synergy, running projects in Syria, Dubai, Indonesia, Korea. Finally, I moved back to Mexico in 2015, again in the industrial automation, but more into the service side of it as managing director for ATS automation Mexico.?

I have never participated in any cross-position project, but I am aware that many international and smaller efficient companies have programs in which employees spend a week in a different position and department than their own. I believe this to be a very good “open mat” for an organization to gain knowledge and awareness of the company and ultimately to make it more efficient.

How can you implement an open mat mentality in your company, apart from cross-job experiences and expat assignments? Is your client and/or supplier-base close enough to you to allow cross-company “open mats” in order to gain knowledge and understanding of each other?