Kosei Inoue - The King of Uchi-mata

Seeing as Uchi-mata is my tokui waza, there's no one better to watch than Kosei Inoue.

Enjoy

Sode guruma jime

Oli & Jadon joined me last night for another Newaza only session at Yoshin Ryu. This was the second week running that Oli had attended this class which, until last week, he hadn't been on the mats’, other than to assist teaching the kids class at Dorking, for almost 1 year. It was perhaps for this reason that I refused to tap when he caught me with a nice collar strangle last week. I was pretty close to going out but for some reason (ego perhaps) I decided I was not going to tap to him, due to his inactivity and how that would look for me tapping to someone who, by his own admission, was a little rusty. Luckily for me I was able to eventually escape his strangle and the rest of the roll was a good back and forth exchange although neither of us were able to get a submission or pin.

Last night Oli was the first person I sparred with and again we had a good back and forth tussle. Both of us actively going for subs and defending and reversing our positions. No subs were forthcoming again but it was a very enjoyable roll.

I had a nice roll with Jadon where I was able to pass his guard in to Yoko-shiho-gatame but in a moment of madness I looked away from him and he was able to trap my head with his leg and turn it in to a San-gaku-jime where he eventually got the tap. The rest of our roll was pretty close and I was actually able to return the favour when he passed my guard and got a Yoko-shiho-gatame on me as I used the same escape on him but matte was called before I could try for the submission.

An orange belt was next, who also trains BJJ at RGA in London and is a blue belt. He pulled guard and tried to play spider guard but I was able to shake off his grips, pass his guard and sink in Sode-guruma-jime for the tap. We started again and he continued with a very open guard, clearly trying to play spider guard. I grabbed his legs and spun him over where I attacked the turtle with a Juji turnover and finished him with a Juji-gatame.

Sensei  Dave was next and he played guard to start with. I attempted to use the techniques he had taught the class earlier on him (Sode-guruma-jime) but this obviously wasn’t going to work on him. It was when he decided he wasn't going to play on his back anymore that I started to get in trouble and he caught me with a couple of subs towards the end and a pin.

Something that I took from watching the Judo at the recent Commonwealth games was said by Neil Adams regarding attacking the neck and then the arm and vice versa. I noticed last night that when I attacked someone’s neck they invariably presented an armbar opportunity. The same thing happened when I looked for their arm, they left their neck unguarded. This may seem quite basic and I've probably been told this before but it really worked for me. I’m gonna have a play with this and see if my submission ratio improves. It certainly did last night.

Ups and downs

With the hot weather continuing in to its second week I decided to buy a cheap single weave lightweight gi. I was lucky enough to spot an Adidas 500gm single weave on eBay in my size which had been worn once, washed and had shrunk too much for its owner (we've all been there right?) I bought this for a measly £25 including postage, a bargain!

I wore the gi to training on Thursday night and I must say it felt weird wearing a single weave gi after only wearing doubles for so long. To be honest I’m not sure if I liked it enough to wear it again. What bothered me most was the ease in which my opponent was able to grip it although it could be said that wearing it could actually help improve my Judo because if I’m effective wearing it then imagine what I’ll be like when I wear a double and people are unable to grip it so easily.

Following last week’s classes at Yoshin Ryu in which I left feeling quite positive and was able to throw and submit people, this week was the opposite. I submitted no one in newaza randori and don’t remember a single successful throw in tachiwaza randori. Of course I need to take in to account that I sparred with different people than I did the previous week so I shouldn't beat myself up over it but it can be a little frustrating sometime when you feel like you are taking one step forward and then two steps back. However despite not throwing any resisting opponents we did do plenty of throw for throw practice which I find really beneficial.