4th Kyu

I got to class a few minutes early tonight and watched the juniors finish up their training. Judo is definitely a great Martial Art for kids to start with especially as there are no kicks or punches to contend with. It’s definitely something I would like Florence to try when she gets a little older.


Yet another poor turnout for the seniors with only Oli and myself making it along with Peter and Graeme, although Graeme’s son David joined us again.


After we were warmed up we paired up for some Newaza and we all sparred with each other. One of the techniques that I managed to pull off against both Oli and David was Turnover in to Tate-shiho-gatame, which was particularly satisfying as it was one of the techniques that I still needed to perform for my grading. Following the Newaza Peter and Graeme decided I should finish up what was left of my orange belt grading. As I did the bulk of my grading a couple of weeks ago there wasn’t much left to do this evening and within 15 minutes Peter had presented me with a nice new orange belt.


Only a couple more lessons left until the club closes for the summer months and Oli and I have already decided that we will be training at Westcroft Judo club over this period. Hopefully this means that when the club opens again in September I can hit the ground running and concentrate on my getting my green belt, the first of the darker coloured belts and considered by most as the start of the senior belts.

In to the valley

I was glad to see that Ryan was back tonight after a longish absence but again it was a poor turnout for the seniors. Graeme and Peter took the class and Graeme’s 15 year old son David, a brown belt, was also in attendance.

We warmed up with our partner by carrying them across the mat. First in a sort of fireman’s carry and then we took an O-goshi position, with uke on our back and walked across the mat.
On to the throws and Graeme said he would be showing us both Tani-otoshi (Valley Drop) and Yoko-otoshi (side drop)

As mentioned before I have had some success already with Tani-otoshi as it seems to suit the taller Judoka but I have not been shown this throw properly since I was first taught it at Westcroft Judo club many years ago. One of the things that I was doing wrong with this throw was that instead of planting my foot on the ground behind my Uke I was instead using it to try and sweep his leg, usually at the back of his knee. Although you can still be successful with the throw doing it this way it ends up being very similar to kani basami or Scissor throw, which is illegal in Judo competition and can therefore get you disqualified.

After Ryan and I had practiced this throw many times, Graeme then went on to show us Yoko-otoshi, which is very similar to Tano-otoshi but instead of getting round the back of Uke you merely go to the side.


Graeme and his son David left shortly after this which meant Peter took over the class. Peter said he was going to show us some elbow locks and proceeded to show us Ude-garami, Ude-gatame and finally waki-gatame.

Then with time quickly running out we finished with some Randori. As there were only 3 of us we would each take turns having two fights together for two minutes each. It doesn’t sound much but after a couple of rounds we were all breathing a little heavy.


I was first up against Ryan and continuing my philosophy of attacking Judo I went straight in for a Tai-otoshi but Ryan, having learned today’s lesson well countered with Tani-otoshi and proceeded to drop me accordingly. Peter also allowed the fight to continue on the ground, unless the throw was an Ippon or unless there was a stalemate on the ground. Following Ryan’s successful Tani-otoshi I managed to regain guard and was actively looking for a san-gaku-jime when Peter called time and made us stand again. This time I was a bit more hesitant to attack Ryan as he was clearly going to counter my Tai-otoshi all day long with Tani-otoshi. Ryan then attacked me and low and behold I threw him with Tani-otoshi. Ryan got guard and Peter called time whilst I was trying to pass his guard.


I got a rest now as Ryan and Oli battled it out but I was soon back in there, this time against Oli.
Now this is where the rest of the evening was a bit hazy but I do know that I was able to throw Oli for Ippon with O-uchi-gari. I was particularly pleased with this throw as I really drove forward, after I hooked his leg, until he eventually fell backwards.

I then managed to throw Ryan with O-uchi-gari and another throw in combination with something else but I have no idea what this was, only that Oli commented on it afterwards saying that he was impressed with my set up. Peter called matte shortly after this and we warmed down with the usual putting away of the mats.


Ryan and I were buzzing after our session tonight as we both really enjoy randori, both tachiwaza and newaza, especially in the format we trained in tonight. Hopefully with both of us moving up the gradings there will be more of these type of sessions in the future.


Overall I was pleased with my Randori tonight and was also impressed with Ryan’s standup especially considering he hadn’t been for a few weeks. I guess the real test will be when I go back to Westcroft in the summer for one of their Randori only nights.

Flower Sweep from guard

Just been looking at Youtube and found this sweep that I have used before in Judo. I;ve since found out that it's commonly referred to as "The Flower Sweep" by BJJ'ers.
Funny thing about this video is that I was actually present at this class when it was being filmed but am just out of shot on the right of the screen.

Uchi-Mata

Following last week’s poor turnout in the seniors we had two extra headcount (Oli & Ynes) joining us tonight. Unfortunately there was still no sign of Ryan or Jamie. I do hope Ryan, especially, hasn’t quit. Hopefully I will find out more following the text I just sent to him.


I had been very much looking forward to tonight’s lesson as I was sure I would be finishing my Orange belt grading that I started last week. Trying to learn, parrot fashion, all the English translations for the Japanese techniques when you have a four month old crying baby in your arms isn’t easy but I had sufficiently learnt them, with the help of my Wife, to be confident that I would be able to remember them when asked.



Following a quick warm up we were told to partner up for some Newaza, starting with one of us on all fours. I paired up with Ynes and volunteered to be first in the all fours position. Ynes attempted to roll me over but somehow I managed to end up in her guard where on passing she turtled up. I took her back and tried in vain to sink in a choke before matte was called.

Now it was her turn to start on all fours and I tried a basic turnover but she wasn’t having it. Again I took her back but she managed to turn around until she was in my guard. I pushed her arm out and started applying San-gaku-jime slowly but was picked up on this by both Peter and Ynes herself. I had the right arm of Ynes in the triangle and was about to move to my right to get the right angle to choke her but she insisted I move to her left, which was odd. Peter agreed with me, that I should move to my right but his criticism was more about the length of time Ynes was in the choke without tapping. I’m not sure why I didn’t slap on the choke full pelt as I would normally. Maybe it’s because Ynes usually comments about me using too much strength against her or maybe subconsciously I was aware that she is a female, albeit a 2nd Dan international female, but still someone who is about a foot smaller than me and did not want to hurt her.


We changed after this and I was paired with big Stuart. This time we started in the guard and Stuart, after several attempts managed to pass to half guard where I basically hung on for dear life. Stuart started applying a collar choke but I managed to sweep unfortunately ending up in his guard. As he applied more pressure to the collar choke I was preparing to tap but wanted to see if I could hold out and luckily Graeme called matte just in time. We changed positions again shortly after with both of us starting, lying on our stomachs. The first time Stuart was able to pin me and the second time, after Stuart turtled up I attempted a turnover in to Juji-gatame, but Stuart hung on to his arm long enough until matte was called.



Peter then went on to show us both San-gaku-jime and San-gaku-gatame. As Stuart isn’t the most flexible of people his San-gaku-jime wasn’t having the desired effect on me. I told him that I had seen a slight variation on this move from a Youtube video that Tony, a regular reader of this blog, provided me with a little while ago whereby you under hook on your right side and are basically side on to your opponent. This means that instead of squeezing your thighs together, which requires a certain amount of flexibility, you are doing a sort of leg press movement with your right leg, which is easier to perform. Stuart then tried this on me and got me to tap quickly, which he seemed pleased about.



Going on to tachiwaza and tonight’s focus would be on Uchi-Mata. After being showed the correct entry to this throw I again paired up with Stuart. After a couple of attempts I was able to feel quite comfortable with this throw. Whist writing this post I noticed that I had previously remarked on the 20th November 2010 that I wasn’t able to perform this throw very well, but tonight couldn’t be further from the truth as I was even able to throw Stuart who due to his size is quite often difficult to throw. Does this prove a distinct improvement of my understanding of Judo? I hope so.



Once we had both practiced this throw a dozen or so times Graeme asked us to think of a combination to this throw. I suggested to Stuart that Ko-Uchi-gari would be a good combination and he concurred. We then continued to practice this combination until Graeme finally called matte. Being asked to think of combinations of techniques and putting them together reminded me a little of my Wing Chun days when we would often be told to come up with combinations from a punch blocked with a Bong-sau or a Tan-sau. Learning in this way really helps a student to understand the flow of a technique and the Ko-Uchi-gari to Uchi-mate combination is one that I will try next time we do Randori.



Realising that I would need at least 10-15 minutes to finish my grading I glanced up at the clock and was disappointed to see that it was already 10.00pm. Peter remarked that we would finish my grading before the end of the term but I couldn’t help but feel a little deflated as I expected to be leaving here tonight with a shiny new Orange belt. Oh well, as Mr Miyagi would say, patient’s Stuart-san.

BJJ Brown Belt Demonstration

We had a discussion at Judo the other night about how in BJJ there is no formal grading, well Roy Dean's Academy seems to be an exception to this rule. This may be in part due to his many years of formal training in various Japanese Martial Arts as he holds a 1st Dan in Judo and Aikido as well as a 3rd Dan in Japanese Jujutsu. Of course he is also a Black in BJJ.Anyway I stumbled across this on Youtube, which is a BJJ Brown Belt grading and was really impressed with how smooth the transitions are between each technique and thought it was worth putting on here for reference.

Orange is close

If I’m walking around with a certain spring in my step today it’s because at last night’s Judo I surprisingly did a big chunk of my Orange belt (4th kyu) grading. This was made possible because oddly I was the only senior student who turned up last night, which meant I had Peter, Graeme and Big Stuart all to myself.


In my post dated 1st June 2011 I commented that there were still several techniques which I had never performed in the class and therefore I was unsure whether I would grade before the club closed for Summer but I somehow managed to perform these techniques adequately enough to pass, although both Graeme and Peter kindly allowed me a couple of goes to get the techniques right.
I literally only have a couple of techniques left to perform next week, along with Randori and a verbal test on the translation of each technique, so with any luck I’ll get my Orange belt next lesson.

With the combinations one has to learn for Orange belt I can see that this level is where one begins to understand the concepts of Judo. The techniques I learnt for Red and Yellow belt were just throws, with some emphasis on Kuzushi (breaking Uke’s balance). Now I can start to see how one throw leads to opportunities for another. Additionally I am also beginning to see counters to the throws that my opponents are trying on me.


After attending the Randori night at Westcroft Judo Club I was immediately aware that I had little idea of how to set up the throws that I knew, unless my opponent was making an obvious mistake. As the lowest grade at Westcroft (apart from myself) was a Green belt, I was dominated in the stand up and could not find any opportunities to throw my opponent and was often countered every time I went for a throw myself. Since then Oli has helped me with a couple of combinations, one of which is Tai-Otoshi – O-uchi-gari and Big Stuart has helped me with my grips.


So for the rest of this term my plan will be to always think 1 throw ahead when I do Randori, i.e. never try a single technique without thinking about another technique that may become available on the back of it. I’ll work out maybe 3-4 combinations that I will try and drill until they become second nature and then as I get more experienced I can add to them.


I really appreciated the lesson tonight and the opportunity that Peter, Graeme and Stuart gave me to grade, so a big thanks to all of them. Although tonight the lack of seniors worked out in my favour I do hope this is only temporary and that those seniors who have been absent recently soon return.


Looking forward to next week now and hopefully I’ll be changing my belt colour.

Stiff Arming and Grips

Another fairly small turnout last night, along with Peter & Inez there was only 3 seniors including myself. I’m hoping the absence of the likes of Ryan & Jamie is only temporary.


For the second week running I was sporting a new pair of Gi Bottoms which I had purchased from Black Eagle, due to my old pair shrinking a little too much. Now the reason I was wearing my second new pair in a week was because the pair I received last week shrunk about 6 inches after one 30 degrees wash, which is totally unacceptable. To their credit Black Eagle agreed to send me a replacement pair straight away, which I think is excellent customer service. I haven’t however washed the new pair yet so I will wait before I pass judgment on the quality.


As part of our warm up Peter had us pair up and practice pulling our partners up and down the mats. We then progressed to a double collar grip and we pulled our partners in to position for Morote-eri-seoi-nage. I had trouble getting used to the entry for this throw as I couldn’t get my feet in the right position or get my grips and wrist in the correct position either. Now I was expecting that we would then go on to practice this throw but instead Peter told us to go in to some Newaza and practice going from Pin to Pin, with our partner offering resistance.


As usual the groundwork is where I feel most comfortable. Just moving from Pin to Pin I felt in control and everything flowed well between the moves.

Peter then showed us Hiza-gatame, first from a kneeling position, which is how it’s taught in Kata and then from our backs with uke in our guard. I liked this technique especially how the pressure is immediately on the elbow and a tap is usually forthcoming very quickly. Another good aspect of this submission is that by hooking your leg under uke’s chin and pulling their gi across their neck you also have a nice choke.


We then stood up for some light throw for throw randori. I was paired with big Stuart and it was whilst sparring with him that he showed me a nice entry in to Osoto-otoshi, which is especially useful if your opponent is “Stiff arming” you. Basically, assuming you are attempting a right handed throw and your opponent is stiff arming using their right arm, you take a grip on their gi under their right elbow with your left hand and pull down quickly, thus bending their arm. At the same time as you do this you come in for Osoto-otoshi. Even if your opponent is not “stiff arming” you, it’s still a useful entry as quite often your opponent will block your entry in to Osoto-otoshi with their right arm.


Following this Peter then showed us an alternative technique to do if someone “stiff Arms” you and makes you fail an Osoto-otoshi and this was a Yoko-guruma. It’s an interesting throw and I’m not sure how easy it would be to pull off in competition but I was able to perform this fairly well after only a couple of attempts.


We then progressed in to some more competitive randori where I tried and succeeded with a Tai-otoshi /O-uchi-gari combination and also a successful Tani-otoshi, after Peter told me to not attack the legs but rather the floor behind their legs. This made a difference and hopefully I will have further success with this throw going forward.

After we had all spared with each other Peter had one of us stand in the middle of the floor and the rest of us would take turns attacking for about 1 minute at a time. Once the person in the middle had fought everyone it was someone else’s turn. Following on from my observations last week where I noticed that I was being dominated by grips, this happened again against Oli and Big Stuart. Inez commented that I was using too much strength in fighting for my grips and I admit I could feel my arms getting heavier as the randori went on. Still both Oli and Big Stuart have years more Judo experience than me and it’s only fair that I should expect to be dominated by both these guys. What will be interesting is how I fair against the likes of Ryan and Jamie, assuming they come back that is.


An excellent lesson from Peter and I left in good spirits.