Go to any BJJ or MMA event and other than the usual cauliflower ear and “Jiu Jitsu Saves” tattoos, you will come across a sea of multi-coloured tops and bottoms with logos of various fight wear brands and team logos. Whether it’s a Carlson Gracie dog, a Checkmat chess board, a Gracie Barra or ATOS patch, one cannot help but notice that team members stick with each other and only cheer for their own. In a martial art that is meant to have evolved from Judo and teachings of Jigoro Kano, where humility, discipline, self-improvement and camaraderie are cornerstones, this concept of self-segregation seems counter-intuitive.

Then came a group of Londoners, who met on the competition scene and decided the way to improve was to share knowledge and train together in a savage fashion several times a week:

Meet the London Open Mat Squad.

What started as a once a week no gi open mat, soon became a 5 day a week affair with regular training partners who happen to call different academies home: Mondays at Inglorious Grapplers, Tuesdays at Legion for wrestling and Inglorious Grapplers, Wednesdays at Urban Warriors, Thursdays at Pure Jiu Jitsu and Fridays at New School. Max Bickerton, Silviu Nastasa, Eoghan O’Flanaghan, Jackson Sousa, Arya Esfandmaz, Sebastian Nadal, Freddie Vosgröne, Jed Hue, Ross Nicholls, Nick Forrer, Sandro Tevzadze and Soroush Nejad are but some of the key members of the Open Mat Squad who regularly try to leg lock one another or choke each other in the name of friendship.

Athletes hail from RGA, Grand Union, Inglorious Grapplers, Checkmat, Carlson Gracie, Gracie Barra, 10th Planet to name a few.There are representatives of big academies with world champions and small academies. All are welcome to roll.

Since the Open Mat started a couple of years ago, members of the Squad have achieved a number of accolades in the sport: medaling in the ADCC trials, winning IBJJF tournaments, medaling at IBJJF no gi worlds, Polaris victories and the list goes on.

Every week, the core group is joined by a number of coloured belts as well as visiting athletes. Craig Jones and Frank Rosenthal are among the athletes that have graced the Open mat. Whether a new white belt or a high-level competitor, regardless of gym affiliation, all are welcome to the sessions.

You will not see any advertisements or recruitment for any academies. There is no warm up, no drilling, no stalling, no clock watching…just rolling, oftentimes without stopping during the change-over. The sessions last an hour and a half on average but they feel like an eternity. There are those who privilege leg locks, and those who attack the neck…everyone finds their fix on the Open Mat.

The end of the sessions is always marked by 3 things:

1/ The inevitable group picture – smiles and sweat. If you’re not in the picture, you didn’t train, or so goes the saying. The picture serves to show those who are stuck at work or too lazy that there’s always a way to train.
2/ The sharing of new techniques- this almost invariably occurs when a visitor is in town or a member of the Open Mat Squad is experimenting with something new.

3/ A rush to the showers. With most Open mats taking place during the day, there is a mad rush for hot water. This can be mitigated by avoiding the picture and rushing to the shower instead. But then how will you prove that you trained?

Whether a total newbie or an experienced grappler, the Open Mat Squad which started as a small group 2 years ago, now regularly sees 20-30 people on the mats. Knowledge is shared, and friendships are forged beyond the academies.

Jiu Jitsu really does go full circle, with the circle ever widening. Let’s hope that Open Mats develop in different cities and the sharing of knowledge continues to spread.

Written by JJ