Big Stuart took the class and following a quick warm up we moved on to our first technique of the night which was Uki-goshi, whilst Stewart took the two new guys to one side so he could teach them breakfalling.
I’m not sure if it was a conscious effort by Stuart but he gave us plenty of time to practise Uki-goshi. Oli and I managed multiple throws to both right and left sides and at the end I was probably performing the throw better than I ever have in the past.
Next up was a throw I had never practised before and that was Soto-makikomi. Makikomi throws are notorious for being hard on Uke as tori follows Uke to the floor and basically lands on top of them. We were instructed to use caution when throwing and not to slam in to Uke.
Again we were given plenty of time to practise this throw on both sides. Stuart then showed us Ko-uchi-gake-mata-maki-komi, which is a bit of a mouthful. Thankfully it was to perform than say. I’ve seen this throw used a lot by the smaller guys at Yoshin-ryu who attempt an Ippon or drop seoi-nage and then turn in to this throw. Due to my height the seoi-nage’s are not throws I have ever used but maybe if Teddy Riner ever visits Dorking I will try one on him. However Ko-uchi-gake-mata-maki-komi seems like a throw you could use on its own and after several attempts I got it working ok.
We moved away from tachi-waza on to some Newaza and Okuri-eri-jime was shown to us. Although I’ve been shown this a number of times in the past Peter pointed out that my hand position was slightly wrong. When I grip the collar around the neck I need to get my hand in further, just behind the ear of Uke. This meant I was able to use little to no strength when pulling on the gi jacket with my other hand as the collar hand was pressed right up against the carotid artery.
We then took turns on our back with the other person in our guard. The person on the bottom had two feet on the hips of the person on top where basically the person on top had to try and keep good posture. With my long legs I was able to keep Oli from posturing up and was able to flatten him out. It’s a position I use quite a lot in Newaza anyway but it was good to drill it in class.
We didn’t get to do any randori tonight, which was a shame but as I explained to Jaden afterwards, with only one lesson a week it’s important to get the technique right before you start sparing and seeing as we had two complete beginners tonight we might have to be patient. I am however eager to roll with Jaden, if only to show him how good I am at tapping.
