Guest Coach



This was another session taken by excellent coach Pete Swettenham (3rd Dan). He told us the focus was going to be more on physical training than technique. We went through quite a few techniques, which is something I am normally critical of. However they all flowed well and were using complimentary skills and the emphasis was on sustaining a good work rate while being effective.


It was nice to see more faces tonight. Some adults returning from injury and my friend Tim, who trains at Guildford and Witley, also made it to Dorking for what was his first training session there.

Randori was light and relaxed with all partners trading throws and trying things out. Newaza was particularly good as we did some pressure drills from a variety of positions as well as having an additional four minute roll which allowed us to experiment a little.

Myself and Stuart had a good tussle where I spent a lot of time playing guard. I particularly was trying to set something up from spider guard (feet on biceps rather than closed behind opponent) rather than my usual closed guard. Trying to either lock up a san gaku or a sweep. Stuart, however, wasn’t having any of it and was wise to most things I did.

I had a short roll with Pete which was great. He has a very tight strong top game, and uses the lower gi lapels very effectively in reducing my hip movement. So playing off my back just wasn’t going to work. At one point I am attacking his turtle and I feel a popping grinding sound in my ribs and let out a “Aaaaaaaarg”. It wasn’t particularly painful, but it just felt horrible, like the ribs had moved in a way they were not meant to. I checked to feel if I had broken one and was reasonably sure I hadn’t, probably a inter costal injury or cartilage. So I carried on! Went for a suicide single lapel choke against his turtle which felt tight but unfortunately he had tucked his chin and I was just crushing his face instead.

A lot of good stuff from the youngsters who are showing good aptitude on the ground and are just absorbing everything. Pete had a lot of complimentary things to say about the Dorking youngsters which is good to hear as he works with some high level players.