It was an interesting lesson on Tuesday as my partner for most of the class was Andrew who has only just begun his Judo journey. What was interesting was that a lot of what he was doing was how I used to do things a few years ago. For instance, in randori he only really tried Osoto-otoshi , the first throw most of us are shown, but he never stepped in far enough with his left leg and never unbalanced me enough to be successful with this throw. Instead I was able to simply stiffen my leg and make him slowly fall to the ground with an Osoto-otoshi of my own. I can see why this is one of the first throws they teach to beginners as it encourages the thrower to use movement and kuzushi. Done static it’s fairly simple, however the throw becomes a lot more complex when trying to throw someone who doesn’t want to be thrown and normally ends up with the thrower being countered with the same throw. In fact in all my time doing Judo I can’t remember ever successfully pulling off this throw as a direct attack. Any success I’ve had with it is usually as a counter or combination.
Friday, 15 March 2013
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
Aneta Szczepanska Seminar – Yoshin Ryu
I was informed a couple of weeks by Przemek that Aneta Szczepanska, 1996 Olympic Silver Medallist, would be taking two classes at Croydon Judo club on the 2nd and 3rd of March and also an additional class at Yoshin Ryu on Monday the 4th. Luckily I was able to attend the Monday night class at Yoshin Ryu. Upon arrival I counted 40 people on the mats, which is as many as I have ever seen.
Aneta was accompanied by her Coach, Roman Stawisinski and Przemek acted as translator due to her limited English. Following the warm up we were told that she would be focussing on Uchi-mata, which was one of her favourite competition throws, and all the little details surrounding this technique. Uchi-mata just so happens to be one of my favoured techniques due to my long legs but I am fully aware that I do a rather lazy version of this throw and usually end up having to hop a few times to complete it. We started with the entry to the throw which resembled the following video:
We progressed on to the San-gaku turn over which despite favouring San-gaku-jime off my back I’ve never really practised it from this position. Again I got some excellent instruction from Roman and by the end I was making my Uke tap fairly quickly.
A very enjoyable class tonight and a special thank you to Przemek for translating and helping put together all three of the seminars.
Aneta was accompanied by her Coach, Roman Stawisinski and Przemek acted as translator due to her limited English. Following the warm up we were told that she would be focussing on Uchi-mata, which was one of her favourite competition throws, and all the little details surrounding this technique. Uchi-mata just so happens to be one of my favoured techniques due to my long legs but I am fully aware that I do a rather lazy version of this throw and usually end up having to hop a few times to complete it. We started with the entry to the throw which resembled the following video:
We really got to drill this entry for quite a while, which was good as it felt natural when we then progressed on to the full throw. Something which Roman Stawisinski picked up on was that I was to close with my entry. What I needed to do was pull uke on to me and drive up with my right or collar hand. This made uke a lot more off balance and helped with getting uke airborne unlike how I normally do it:
Not the cleanest looking Uchi-mata, although I did get the ippon.
We then managed a few rounds of randori each but as there were 40 of us we were restricted to 3 x 1 minute rounds. For my last fight I paired up with Przemek and I almost threw him with O-uchi-gari but as we were near the wall, finishing the throw would mean dumping him against it so I pulled out of it and let him off. He repaid my kindness by dumping me with a big Uchi-mata right at the end to a chorus of boos from the rest of the club who were watching and disproving of him beating up a lowly green belt.
Before the class finished Aneta called out one of our GB squad members as Uke so that she could show us some nice counters to throws. Despite the best efforts of Uke to throw her she was able to counter really quickly everything that was thrown at her. I found this video which shows her countering with her favoured Uchi-mata in competition, which gives you an idea of just how good she is.
And here is her final match in the 1996 Olympic games which to be fair I think she was unluckily not to have won with a other brilliant Ko-uchi-gari counter at 35 seconds
From left to right: Sensei Neil, Stuart, Aneta, Sensei Errol, Roman
Thursday, 28 February 2013
Ronda Rousey - UFC 157
Regular readers will know that I’m a big fan of MMA. Well last weekend saw the first ever women’s MMA fight in the UFC featuring Ronda Rousey, a former Olympic Judo bronze medallist, whom I have championed on my blog a couple of times in the past.
What’s so nice about watching Ronda fight is that she uses her Judo skills a lot. Her opponent on Saturday night was Liz Carmouche, a tough ex US Marine who put up a really good fight, taking Ronda’s back at one point and putting on a horrible looking face crank which caused me to tap from the comfort of my sofa!
It’ll be interesting to see what Ronda does in her next fight and whether she continues to use Kesa-gatame. Whether she does or not I’m sure we’ll continue to see other aspects of her Judo like the throws and of course her trademark Juji-gatame.
What’s so nice about watching Ronda fight is that she uses her Judo skills a lot. Her opponent on Saturday night was Liz Carmouche, a tough ex US Marine who put up a really good fight, taking Ronda’s back at one point and putting on a horrible looking face crank which caused me to tap from the comfort of my sofa!
Ouch, that's gotta hurt
Luckily Ronda is made of tougher stuff than me, eventually escaping and then throwing Carmouche to the canvas using Koshi-guruma. Now what was odd, for MMA anyway was that Ronda then proceeded to hold Carmouche in Kesa-gatame and peppered her with short punches to the face before finally submitting Carmouche with her trademark Juji-gatame. The reason I say that the use of Kesa-gatame is odd is that in MMA and no-gi submission grappling, the person on the bottom can often escape from the kesa and end up taking the back of the person on top. This is a very dangerous position to be in in MMA and no-gi grappling but less dangerous in Judo where one can simply turtle up, although the ref normally calls matte before then.
Kesa gatame
Juji gatame, Ronda's trademark submission.
Opinions were divided on Ronda’s use of Kesa-gatame. On the new Judo forum (E-Judo) many of the guys (and girls) on there simply said that as Ronda is such a high level Judoka that it’s very unlikely that anyone would ever escape. Others on there said that Ronda will lose one day when someone escapes and takes her back and chokes her out. It’s interesting to note that on the same card Urijah Faber was being held in Kesa-gatame by his opponent Ivan Menjivar. Urijah was able to simply pull Menjivar across his body and ended up in side control, where he eventually took Menjivar’s back and choked him out. That said, Menjivar does not possess anywhere near the same level of Judo as Ronda does but I think it’s worth noting anyway.It’ll be interesting to see what Ronda does in her next fight and whether she continues to use Kesa-gatame. Whether she does or not I’m sure we’ll continue to see other aspects of her Judo like the throws and of course her trademark Juji-gatame.
Blue Belt Grading
I got an email during the week from Graeme to say that he would concentrate on grading everyone in the coming weeks which meant more blue belt syllabus for yours truly.
It was good to see Andrew return after Injuring his shoulder and Jadon was back sporting his new green belt.
After the warm up we did a couple of quick rounds of newaza randori and then I was asked to show the rest of the class various techniques from the blue belt syllabus which went like this:
Okuri-eri-jime –Wasn’t text book but it worked. There are a number of collar chokes/strangles in the blue belt syllabus, which is good for me. I’ve actively tried to use them more as it is a weakness in my submission game as I tend to favour no-gi chokes such as one would typically see in MMA like the rear naked. In newaza randori I’m often able to grab the collar around the neck but then have to stop and think how I apply the choke, by which time Uke has escaped. However, with the addition of Nami-juji-jime, Gyaku-juji-jime, Okuri-eri-jime and Koshi-jime, I at least have some options now.
Koshi-jime – I’ve used this recently in randori to good success so was ok performing this.
Soto-kibitsu-gaeshi, Uchi-kibitsu-gaeshi & Kata-uchi-ashi-dori are all techniques that I’m never likely to use in randori. In fact I think we’ve only practised them once in the class before, so taking all of this in to account I think I did ok.
Kata-guruma – My mind went totally blank with this one and I didn’t know how to enter in to the throw. I eventually performed probably the worst version of this I have ever done. Before Graeme could come and correct me I insisted on doing it again, which was barely passable. I’d like to blame my poor technique on Oli’s (my uke) expanding waistline but I was just having one of those days, at least where this throw was concerned.
With only 10 minutes of the class left we finished off with a couple of rounds of randori where I managed a nice Sasae-tsurikomi-ashi on Oli. I then paired up against Jadon, who I found really difficult to throw. He was particularly quick and able to counter me a couple of times, throwing me nicely with a Yoko-guruma or was it Uki-waza? (It’s very difficult to tell these throws apart in the heat of battle and without the benefit of television replays). Although it only lasted a couple of minutes I can definitely see the improvement in his tachiwaza since we last sparred.
I’m more than half way through the blue belt grading now so hopefully I can finish it off next week. I just have a couple more throws to perform and then it’s on to the performance part of the grading which includes things like showing counters and combinations of a certain technique followed by randori. If I do get my blue belt next week it will be just over 1 year since I got my green belt (2nd March 2012). I wonder how long it will take me to get to brown!
It was good to see Andrew return after Injuring his shoulder and Jadon was back sporting his new green belt.
After the warm up we did a couple of quick rounds of newaza randori and then I was asked to show the rest of the class various techniques from the blue belt syllabus which went like this:
Okuri-eri-jime –Wasn’t text book but it worked. There are a number of collar chokes/strangles in the blue belt syllabus, which is good for me. I’ve actively tried to use them more as it is a weakness in my submission game as I tend to favour no-gi chokes such as one would typically see in MMA like the rear naked. In newaza randori I’m often able to grab the collar around the neck but then have to stop and think how I apply the choke, by which time Uke has escaped. However, with the addition of Nami-juji-jime, Gyaku-juji-jime, Okuri-eri-jime and Koshi-jime, I at least have some options now.
Koshi-jime – I’ve used this recently in randori to good success so was ok performing this.
Soto-kibitsu-gaeshi, Uchi-kibitsu-gaeshi & Kata-uchi-ashi-dori are all techniques that I’m never likely to use in randori. In fact I think we’ve only practised them once in the class before, so taking all of this in to account I think I did ok.
Kata-guruma – My mind went totally blank with this one and I didn’t know how to enter in to the throw. I eventually performed probably the worst version of this I have ever done. Before Graeme could come and correct me I insisted on doing it again, which was barely passable. I’d like to blame my poor technique on Oli’s (my uke) expanding waistline but I was just having one of those days, at least where this throw was concerned.
With only 10 minutes of the class left we finished off with a couple of rounds of randori where I managed a nice Sasae-tsurikomi-ashi on Oli. I then paired up against Jadon, who I found really difficult to throw. He was particularly quick and able to counter me a couple of times, throwing me nicely with a Yoko-guruma or was it Uki-waza? (It’s very difficult to tell these throws apart in the heat of battle and without the benefit of television replays). Although it only lasted a couple of minutes I can definitely see the improvement in his tachiwaza since we last sparred.
I’m more than half way through the blue belt grading now so hopefully I can finish it off next week. I just have a couple more throws to perform and then it’s on to the performance part of the grading which includes things like showing counters and combinations of a certain technique followed by randori. If I do get my blue belt next week it will be just over 1 year since I got my green belt (2nd March 2012). I wonder how long it will take me to get to brown!
Thursday, 21 February 2013
Witley Judo Club - Randori night
As reported in my last post, the competition I was due to compete in on Sunday was cancelled and with DJC being closed for the school holidays I was left feeling slightly frustrated. However I received a text on Monday inviting me and a couple of other Dorking club members to Witley Judo Club for their Monday night Randori class, which kind of made up for it.
This was my second visit to Witley Judo club, having trained here once before almost a year ago to the day. Last year I trained here in preparation for the Redhill competition. This year I trained here as a substitute for the Redhill competition.
The instructor got us warmed up and then we progressed to some uchi-komi using Tai-otoshi, Ippon-seoi-nage, uchi-mata and harai-goshi, all with movements.
Following this we practised some turnovers from the turtle position for about 5 minutes before we started the Newaza randori which consisted of four rounds, each round lasting 3 minutes.
I tried to make a conscious effort to play a more aggressive top game but after struggling to get anything going against my first opponent, a blue belt, we ended up knee wrestling for most of the three minutes. Realising this was a waste of time I went to my back and attacked from there, quickly securing a san-gaku-jime and getting the tap. I pulled guard again and this time finished him quickly with a face down Juji-gatame.
I went on to roll with a couple of brown belts, and an Orange belt, and managed to secure another San-gaku-jime and Juji-gatame as well as an ude-garami, all the while managing to avoid being tapped or pinned in the process.
We had a quick water break before the standing randori started. We each took turns staying on the mat for two consecutive fights before standing out of one. I must have had about 10 rounds by the time the class ended and on the whole I was quite successful with my throws. Uchi-mata and Ko-uchi-gari were my favourite throws as usual and I also had some success with Sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi and Tani-otoshi. I desperately wanted to land a Harai or a Tai-otoshi but never quite managed it.
I really enjoyed the session as did the other DJC club members, so i'm sure I won't leave it so long next time before returning.
This was my second visit to Witley Judo club, having trained here once before almost a year ago to the day. Last year I trained here in preparation for the Redhill competition. This year I trained here as a substitute for the Redhill competition.
The instructor got us warmed up and then we progressed to some uchi-komi using Tai-otoshi, Ippon-seoi-nage, uchi-mata and harai-goshi, all with movements.
Following this we practised some turnovers from the turtle position for about 5 minutes before we started the Newaza randori which consisted of four rounds, each round lasting 3 minutes.
I tried to make a conscious effort to play a more aggressive top game but after struggling to get anything going against my first opponent, a blue belt, we ended up knee wrestling for most of the three minutes. Realising this was a waste of time I went to my back and attacked from there, quickly securing a san-gaku-jime and getting the tap. I pulled guard again and this time finished him quickly with a face down Juji-gatame.
I went on to roll with a couple of brown belts, and an Orange belt, and managed to secure another San-gaku-jime and Juji-gatame as well as an ude-garami, all the while managing to avoid being tapped or pinned in the process.
We had a quick water break before the standing randori started. We each took turns staying on the mat for two consecutive fights before standing out of one. I must have had about 10 rounds by the time the class ended and on the whole I was quite successful with my throws. Uchi-mata and Ko-uchi-gari were my favourite throws as usual and I also had some success with Sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi and Tani-otoshi. I desperately wanted to land a Harai or a Tai-otoshi but never quite managed it.
I really enjoyed the session as did the other DJC club members, so i'm sure I won't leave it so long next time before returning.
Friday, 15 February 2013
Shiai
I started writing this post as I was supposed to be competing on Sunday. Unfortunately I received a phone call last night from one of the organisers who informed that due to low numbers the senior’s event would be cancelled. This is very frustrating as I am in good shape and injury free. I had also managed to keep below 90kg and was looking forward to competing for the first time in the -90kg division, especially as I am currently 89kg and therefore likely to be the biggest in my class. My gym work has gone up a notch for the last couple of months with me doing 4 sessions a week of weighted circuits. Add to that one boxing class and two judo sessions and the result is probably the fittest I have been in quite a while.
Of course there is a flip side to not competing on Sunday and that was the takeaway curry that I ordered almost immediately after my phone call with the tournament organisers and the half tub of Ben & Jerry’s Fish food that I forced down afterwards. Not surprisingly I weighed in at 90.5kg the following morning.
Anyway back to the original point of my post which was more to do with why one should compete. I read the below on the Judo forum recently and thought it was spot on, so I thought I’d share it.
“Shiai cannot be stressed enough as a key and vital element of judo. It can also not be stressed enough that shiai is not the whole subject of judo but one of its tiniest parts. Shiai is where we take our practice and put that theory to the test. Not only is ones technique tested in shiai it’s the place where the greatest character changing opportunities are offered by the practice of kodokan Judo. Ultimately in facing a partner in shiai we are facing up to our own fears, insecurities and self doubts. It’s a time to test our character and providing we enter shiai with the correct mindset shiai is the fire where we forge the character that makes a judoka what he can be.”
Of course there is a flip side to not competing on Sunday and that was the takeaway curry that I ordered almost immediately after my phone call with the tournament organisers and the half tub of Ben & Jerry’s Fish food that I forced down afterwards. Not surprisingly I weighed in at 90.5kg the following morning.
Anyway back to the original point of my post which was more to do with why one should compete. I read the below on the Judo forum recently and thought it was spot on, so I thought I’d share it.
“Shiai cannot be stressed enough as a key and vital element of judo. It can also not be stressed enough that shiai is not the whole subject of judo but one of its tiniest parts. Shiai is where we take our practice and put that theory to the test. Not only is ones technique tested in shiai it’s the place where the greatest character changing opportunities are offered by the practice of kodokan Judo. Ultimately in facing a partner in shiai we are facing up to our own fears, insecurities and self doubts. It’s a time to test our character and providing we enter shiai with the correct mindset shiai is the fire where we forge the character that makes a judoka what he can be.”
Daniel Larusso certainly faced up to his fears and insecurities and in the process earned the respect of John Lawrence of the Cobra Kai's. (yes I know it's Karate and not Judo btw)
The British public will never forget this touching moment when Gemma Gibbons guaranteed her place in the Olympic final
Tuesday, 12 February 2013
Breaking Grips - Yoshin Ryu
Still buzzing from Tuesday’s class at DJC I was able to visit Yoshin Ryu for their Thursday night randori session. Despite a smaller turnout than usual we still ended up with about seven dan grades and another seven kyu grades so 14 in total, which isn’t bad.
We probably spent around 15 minutes drilling these before we were told to get ready for Newaza.
Staying with the same partner I pulled guard to gauge his skill level. He immediately grabbed my legs and tried to pass to my right but I managed to get my knee in and returned to full guard. He then tried to cross collar choke me but at this point I had both my feet on his hips, so was never in danger. He was strong so I decided to stay in this position as I tried to conserve some energy whilst at the same time hoping that he would eventually burn himself out. After what must have been a minute or two I was able to secure a San-gaku-jime, pulling my right leg in really tight to ensure he tapped. We started again and he attacked straight away so I went to my back and looked for sweeps. I eventually swept him using the one I had been shown by Graeme on Tuesday and from there I got one hand in for a cross collar choke but matte was called before I could finish.
Przemek beckoned me over for my next roll which turned in to total annihilation. It didn’t matter what I did, every roll ended quickly with me being crushed underneath him. If I pulled guard he simply brushed my legs aside and pinned me. If decided to play top game he quickly swept me and pinned me. If he started in turtle he reversed me and pinned me. Of course sometimes he didn’t pin me, instead preferring to submit me with an armlock or choke. I think Przemek must have set some sort of record for the most subs in one roll. He commented afterwards that he had been practising his Newaza a lot with Sensei Tim and it really showed. The last time I rolled with Przemek he was good but last night he was on another level altogether.
After Przemek I was relived to get someone considerably smaller, a brown belt and proceeded to have an excellent tussle. None of us managed any subs or pins but there were plenty of sweeps, reversals armlock and choke attempts, with both of us at sometime having our back taken but managing to spin out of it.
My last roll was with Sean and we also had a good tussle, with both of us managing to submit the other. I was particularly pleased as I managed to submit him with Koshi-jime, a technique from the blue belt syllabus and one that I hadn’t been successful with in the past.
With Newaza finished we had a quick water break before a couple of rounds of randori. I lined up against a brown belt who got the better of me. But despite not being able to throw him, I was close on a number of occasions and never felt dominated by his grips.
My last opponent was Sensei Tim who, after throwing me a couple of times with ease stopped to discuss the grips he was using on me. I had a similar discussion with Peter regarding grips on Tuesday and what Tim said reinforced what I had been told as well as offering me some alternatives. Although I often use a high shoulder grip myself, due to my height advantage, I feel very vulnerable when someone uses the same grip against me especially if they pull me in close and start controlling my posture. It’s definitely something I need to work on but no more so than the rest of my Judo.
After we were warmed up I was paired with Jamie, a white belt who displayed skills higher than one would expect from a white belt. We first drilled Juji-gatame from the bottom and were then shown various different methods of breaking Uke’s grip should he try to clasp his hands together to resist the armlock. Some of these are shown on the following Kashiwazaki Video:
We probably spent around 15 minutes drilling these before we were told to get ready for Newaza.
Staying with the same partner I pulled guard to gauge his skill level. He immediately grabbed my legs and tried to pass to my right but I managed to get my knee in and returned to full guard. He then tried to cross collar choke me but at this point I had both my feet on his hips, so was never in danger. He was strong so I decided to stay in this position as I tried to conserve some energy whilst at the same time hoping that he would eventually burn himself out. After what must have been a minute or two I was able to secure a San-gaku-jime, pulling my right leg in really tight to ensure he tapped. We started again and he attacked straight away so I went to my back and looked for sweeps. I eventually swept him using the one I had been shown by Graeme on Tuesday and from there I got one hand in for a cross collar choke but matte was called before I could finish.
Przemek beckoned me over for my next roll which turned in to total annihilation. It didn’t matter what I did, every roll ended quickly with me being crushed underneath him. If I pulled guard he simply brushed my legs aside and pinned me. If decided to play top game he quickly swept me and pinned me. If he started in turtle he reversed me and pinned me. Of course sometimes he didn’t pin me, instead preferring to submit me with an armlock or choke. I think Przemek must have set some sort of record for the most subs in one roll. He commented afterwards that he had been practising his Newaza a lot with Sensei Tim and it really showed. The last time I rolled with Przemek he was good but last night he was on another level altogether.
After Przemek I was relived to get someone considerably smaller, a brown belt and proceeded to have an excellent tussle. None of us managed any subs or pins but there were plenty of sweeps, reversals armlock and choke attempts, with both of us at sometime having our back taken but managing to spin out of it.
My last roll was with Sean and we also had a good tussle, with both of us managing to submit the other. I was particularly pleased as I managed to submit him with Koshi-jime, a technique from the blue belt syllabus and one that I hadn’t been successful with in the past.
With Newaza finished we had a quick water break before a couple of rounds of randori. I lined up against a brown belt who got the better of me. But despite not being able to throw him, I was close on a number of occasions and never felt dominated by his grips.
My last opponent was Sensei Tim who, after throwing me a couple of times with ease stopped to discuss the grips he was using on me. I had a similar discussion with Peter regarding grips on Tuesday and what Tim said reinforced what I had been told as well as offering me some alternatives. Although I often use a high shoulder grip myself, due to my height advantage, I feel very vulnerable when someone uses the same grip against me especially if they pull me in close and start controlling my posture. It’s definitely something I need to work on but no more so than the rest of my Judo.
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