My return from Injury was delayed somewhat as last week’s first class of the new term had to be cancelled due to the recent floods we have experienced in Surrey over the past couple of weeks. So I was back on the tatami after a number of injuries, the last of which was the large mysterious swelling that I had on my lower left leg. Almost 7 weeks on and the large swelling is now just a tiny lump, hardly noticeable to the eye and is no longer painful to touch but I am still taking things slowly at the moment. Another injury I seem to have picked up is tendinitis in my left arm and I was quickly reminded of this when we warmed up with commando crawls across the mats.
There was a new addition to the seniors tonight, a guy called Ray who had done some Judo as a child and was returning after a very long hiatus. He was paired with myself and Jadon at one point and he certainly didn’t look like a beginner as he was quickly able to pick up the throws we were practising.
Most of tonight’s class was geared towards me finishing off my brown belt grading. I must admit that I didn’t expect to go straight in to my grading tonight, especially as this was my first class in almost 2 months, and as such I felt like I muddled my way through rather than galloped.
The class finished with a couple of rounds of Newaza randori and I got to roll with Ray first. He was quite strong but was maybe trying to muscle his way through the techniques a bit too much, however I’m sure he’ll adjust once he get used to it again.
At the end of the class I had completed all my grading apart from the kata which I will need to finish next week. I will be studying the below video vigorously until next week to make sure I gallop through this last part of my grading.
Graeme approached me after the class to reassure me that he felt I was ready to be a brown belt and that it didn’t matter if I had muddled through the grading tonight. He wants me to start competing at dan grading competitions ASAP so that I can at least see how I stack up against other brown belts. I can then work out what areas I need to improve in and work on them accordingly.
