Anyway I made it to Judo last night, albeit with my phone positioned at the side of the mats. On Monday I was informed that Brian Jacks was taking a class at Yoshin Ryu but with the club being almost an hour’s drive away and no real place to park my phone I decided against it. Missing out on training with one of your childhood idols sucks but something’s are more important.
So back to last night and following our warm up we went straight in to newaza randori. I managed to not be subbed by Jadon, which I was pleased with and even got him in my guard at one point. Although I was largely fighting him off and being defensive I was still pleased with this roll. After all if you can make it difficult for the other person to submit you you’re half way there.
We went on to practise Yoko-shiho-gatame and some of the escape from it. The below video providing some good examples although I don’t like the second to last one where you roll over on to your stomach and give up your back. I know from a Judo Shiai perspective this is fine but it’s not something I would chose to do.
The throw we focussed on was Ippon Seoi nage, another throw that’s never really suited me. We started off practising the entry in to the throw and progressed on to uchi-komi before finally getting the crash mats out and having a go at throwing everyone in the club. As I’ve stated before, I really like this way of training as throwing lots of different sized people continuously is better than sticking with the same partner who may be someone who is very light which could therefore hide any imperfections with your technique. Duncan pointed out that I was not leaving enough space between myself and uke, which is something I keep doing. I am making a conscious effort to leave a bit of space now, but I guess practice makes perfect.
The class finished up with plenty of randori. Rather frustratingly my attempts at Tai-otoshi were pretty poor despite last week’s class on nothing but this throw. Assuming I’m not able to train at the club for the next couple of weeks I’m going to practice my foot positioning for both Tai-otoshi and the seoi nage’s so that when I return I won’t be too rusty.
