I wasn’t able to train last week due to personal reasons but last night’s session was my second of the week following a training session with one of my idols and a British Judo legend on Monday. I will write about that later on in the week, when hopefully I will also have some photos to go with it.
Back to last night and it was nice to see Dorking Judo Club legend, Graeme, back at the club and he was accompanied by his son David. Stewart took the class last night and after we had warmed up he got the crash mats out for us to practice O-guruma, which is a throw I haven’t done before. As this can be quite a big throw, we first practiced the breakfalling aspect of it. We each took turns holding our leg out and pulling Uke in towards the leg but instead of performing the throw, Uke was told to do a rolling break fall over Tori’s outstretched leg. This was a useful exercise particularly for us lower grades who still have a fear of falling.
We then progressed to performing the throw properly on to the crash mats and once we had all taken turns in throwing everyone we were told to pair up and practice the throw on the move. Stewart made sure that we all got to practice with each other which meant we had the opportunity to try this out with lots of different body types. The technique I used against Big Stuart differed from the one I was able to use against David as there is a substantial difference in weight and size. For this reason David made an excellent Uke.
Stewart then got the crash mats out again and this time we practiced O-soto-guruma following a failed O-guruma. We all took turns being Tori and therefore got lots of practice in. As this is another big throw I was thankful that we had the crash mats to fall on.
On to Newaza and Stewart showed us Gyaku-juji-jime which I was reminded by Graeme was part of the blue belt grading. To be honest, having only fairly recently been given my green belt, grading for blue seems a long way off but I have been putting in extra mat time by visiting Yoshin Ryu when I can so hopefully I’ll be there before the end of this year.
We started the technique from the knee on belly position sliding my left hand in as deep as possible. At this point Uke will normally try and tuck their chin down so Oli told me to slide my left hand under my right, which sort of crow bars Uke’s chin up and exposes his neck. Although the strangle can be finished from this position it actually works better if get the mount and then roll Uke over so that they are in your guard with you on the bottom. Then you simply perform a scissor like action with your arms and Uke will normally tap out fairly quickly. If they don’t submit straight away you can increase the pressure on their neck by pushing your foot against their hips and flattening them out.
There’s a real buzz around the club at the moment and everyone seems to be enjoying their Judo. I think this is largely due to the fact that both Oli and Stuart are actively pursuing their Black belts, I am doing the same with regards to getting blue and we have Ivan, a new starter, who is very enthusiastic to learn as much as possible. There are also some people from the Cadets who are 15-16 years old that are likely to join in with the seniors and apparently Ynez has started training again and was present last week, so good times ahead at Dorking Judo Club
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Judo in MMA
Following my recent post regarding Ronda Rousey and the fact that more MMA fighters are seeing the benefits of learning Judo for MMA, I thought I’d add a collection of cool Judo throws used inside the Octagon.
Enjoy
Enjoy
Friday, 11 May 2012
Gripping – Yoshin Ryu
I haven’t had time to write about the class at Dorking this week but just wanted to say that we had a new beginner start. His name is Ivan and from what I could see he was very enthusiastic. Let’s hope he becomes a regular.
I was back at Yoshin Ryu this week and was joined by Big Stuart. After warming up we were told to pair up for some Uchi-komi and I was paired with a black belt whom I had not seen here before.
The Sensei told us to first practice Hiza-guruma and we then followed that with Sasae-tsurikomi-ashi. As I have mentioned in my previous posts I’ve taken a liking to Sasae-tsurikomi-ashi and I think it showed in my Uchi-komi as I was able to unbalance my Uke and finally throw him, once the Sensei told us to do so.
Moving on we were told to use Te-guruma as a counter to a failed Harai-goshi. Te-guruma is not a throw I’ve ever practiced before and to be fair my Uke, at 16.5 stone, was rather difficult for me to pick up. Nonetheless I did finally manage one clean throw and was even able to be a good Tori by dropping my Uke gently to the floor.
Next up was Koshi-guruma, again a throw I have not practiced before but it didn’t take me too long to get some success with it. I found that the version where my arm went under Uke’s arm pit worked better than the version shown on the BJA website.
Newaza was next and another very tiring 30 odd minutes without rest ensued. I managed one submission only against the blue belt whom I had a good tussle with the other week. This week he managed 1 pin on me and I submitted him once whilst he was pinning me with Mune-gatame by pushing my elbow in to his neck and grabbing the material on my trousers with the same arm and crushing his neck for a choke. He told me afterwards that I was actually crushing his jaw and, having had that happen to me before in class I could sympathise with his pain.
All of the rest of my rolls were against dan grades and thus I was largely subbed and pinned on multiple occasions.
On to Randori where a lot of grip fighting was involved and I didn’t manage a single throw. Again everyone I faced was a dan grade so it’s to be expected. One of the sensei’s, Tim, took me aside after the class had finished to help me with my Uchi-mata as he felt I had all the right components apart from one thing, and that was essentially the part where I set Uke up for the throw. He told me to pull him towards me using my sleeve arm, which then meant his back leg had no weight on it. This is then the perfect time to turn in with the Uchi-mata as my reaping leg wouldn’t feel any resistance. It worked a treat too as I was then able to perform one of those throws where you don’t feel like you have put any effort or strength in to it, he just flew through the air and landed hard and fast. Its bit like hitting a golf ball. Sometimes you hit the perfect drive which flies 300 yards down the fairway and don’t even feel like you have hit the ball. Other times you use all your strength and you get feedback from the club and the ball doesn’t travel half the distance. It’s also the same as kicking a football in that “sweet spot” or that perfect serve in Tennis. It’s all down to timing and technique and for one throw last night I had both.
One observation from last night’s training was that my arms felt totally gassed. Thursday is normally the day I train Biceps and Triceps at the gym but maybe I need to have a rethink on this as I had absolutely no strength left in my arms at the end of the class.
Another tough, good lesson at Yoshin Ryu which was made particularly good by the extra tuition I received at the end.
I was back at Yoshin Ryu this week and was joined by Big Stuart. After warming up we were told to pair up for some Uchi-komi and I was paired with a black belt whom I had not seen here before.
The Sensei told us to first practice Hiza-guruma and we then followed that with Sasae-tsurikomi-ashi. As I have mentioned in my previous posts I’ve taken a liking to Sasae-tsurikomi-ashi and I think it showed in my Uchi-komi as I was able to unbalance my Uke and finally throw him, once the Sensei told us to do so.
Moving on we were told to use Te-guruma as a counter to a failed Harai-goshi. Te-guruma is not a throw I’ve ever practiced before and to be fair my Uke, at 16.5 stone, was rather difficult for me to pick up. Nonetheless I did finally manage one clean throw and was even able to be a good Tori by dropping my Uke gently to the floor.
Next up was Koshi-guruma, again a throw I have not practiced before but it didn’t take me too long to get some success with it. I found that the version where my arm went under Uke’s arm pit worked better than the version shown on the BJA website.
Newaza was next and another very tiring 30 odd minutes without rest ensued. I managed one submission only against the blue belt whom I had a good tussle with the other week. This week he managed 1 pin on me and I submitted him once whilst he was pinning me with Mune-gatame by pushing my elbow in to his neck and grabbing the material on my trousers with the same arm and crushing his neck for a choke. He told me afterwards that I was actually crushing his jaw and, having had that happen to me before in class I could sympathise with his pain.
All of the rest of my rolls were against dan grades and thus I was largely subbed and pinned on multiple occasions.
On to Randori where a lot of grip fighting was involved and I didn’t manage a single throw. Again everyone I faced was a dan grade so it’s to be expected. One of the sensei’s, Tim, took me aside after the class had finished to help me with my Uchi-mata as he felt I had all the right components apart from one thing, and that was essentially the part where I set Uke up for the throw. He told me to pull him towards me using my sleeve arm, which then meant his back leg had no weight on it. This is then the perfect time to turn in with the Uchi-mata as my reaping leg wouldn’t feel any resistance. It worked a treat too as I was then able to perform one of those throws where you don’t feel like you have put any effort or strength in to it, he just flew through the air and landed hard and fast. Its bit like hitting a golf ball. Sometimes you hit the perfect drive which flies 300 yards down the fairway and don’t even feel like you have hit the ball. Other times you use all your strength and you get feedback from the club and the ball doesn’t travel half the distance. It’s also the same as kicking a football in that “sweet spot” or that perfect serve in Tennis. It’s all down to timing and technique and for one throw last night I had both.
One observation from last night’s training was that my arms felt totally gassed. Thursday is normally the day I train Biceps and Triceps at the gym but maybe I need to have a rethink on this as I had absolutely no strength left in my arms at the end of the class.
Another tough, good lesson at Yoshin Ryu which was made particularly good by the extra tuition I received at the end.
Friday, 4 May 2012
Ronda Rousey
Let me just start by saying that Ronda Rousey was not a guest at Dorking Judo club last week and neither is she likely to be anytime in the future, although I’m sure the instructors would welcome her if she happened to be in the area. Anyway, I’ll come back to Ronda later.
Stewart took the class tonight, that’s black belt Stewart not Big Stewart. After warming us up I paired with Oli and was told to practice Hiza-guruma which is quite similar to Sasae-tsurikomi-ashi, a throw I’ve had some success with lately. Stewart then had us practice Harai-goshi, which is a bit of a hit or miss throw with me. I very rarely try this in randori as I favour Uchi-mata instead but Stewart told me to get in closer and really reap my leg and this made it very effective.
We then practiced Hiza-guruma and Harai-goshi as a combination which worked pretty well although I need to practice my footwork so that I can close the space quickly to get in for the Harai.
Anyway back to Ronda Rousey. She was a Judo bronze medalist in the 2008 Olympics who turned her hand to MMA and recently won the Strikeforce Bantamweight world title. She’s caused quite a stir in the MMA world as she doesn’t look like your archetypal female cage fighter instead she is a rather statuesque blond haired, blue eyed California blond who just so happens to be able to hurl anyone through the air and on to the ground where she will submit you with a perfectly executed Juji-gatame. She recently made an appearance on The Ultimate Fighter as a guest coach and it was quite nice watching her throw these MMA fighters using O-soto-gari, which is well known in Judo circles as being a hard throw and she certainly did not hold back any when she was showing the fighters on the show how to do this without a gi.
I just wondered whether the likes of Ronda and Hector Lombard (a Cuban Judo Olympian), who was recently signed by the UFC to fight Brian Stann, might bring some well deserved interest in learning the art of Judo. Up until now most MMA fighters favour Wrestling and BJJ as their form of grappling but there are now enough top level Judoka’s having success that I’m sure at least some fighters might start to look at Judo as a viable alternative. I’ve heard rumors that the likes of Ilias Iliadis might turn to MMA after the London Olympics, which would be a real loss to Judo but you can understand why he might be tempted as the money now on offer to the top level MMA fighters, especially in the UFC, is quite substantial.
Of course your average local Judo club would probably miss out on any increased interest in Judo through MMA as a lot of MMA gyms are bringing in Judo coaches to teach classes. Also, there are a number of BJJ instructors who also hold black belts in Judo who may now start to incorporate more throws in to their BJJ class or add in a Judo only class to their schedule. So although more people might become aware of Judo or trained in Judo techniques it’s unlikely that your average 18-35 year old male that typically frequents BJJ or MMA gyms will find their way in to their local Judo club which is a shame.
Stewart took the class tonight, that’s black belt Stewart not Big Stewart. After warming us up I paired with Oli and was told to practice Hiza-guruma which is quite similar to Sasae-tsurikomi-ashi, a throw I’ve had some success with lately. Stewart then had us practice Harai-goshi, which is a bit of a hit or miss throw with me. I very rarely try this in randori as I favour Uchi-mata instead but Stewart told me to get in closer and really reap my leg and this made it very effective.
We then practiced Hiza-guruma and Harai-goshi as a combination which worked pretty well although I need to practice my footwork so that I can close the space quickly to get in for the Harai.
Anyway back to Ronda Rousey. She was a Judo bronze medalist in the 2008 Olympics who turned her hand to MMA and recently won the Strikeforce Bantamweight world title. She’s caused quite a stir in the MMA world as she doesn’t look like your archetypal female cage fighter instead she is a rather statuesque blond haired, blue eyed California blond who just so happens to be able to hurl anyone through the air and on to the ground where she will submit you with a perfectly executed Juji-gatame. She recently made an appearance on The Ultimate Fighter as a guest coach and it was quite nice watching her throw these MMA fighters using O-soto-gari, which is well known in Judo circles as being a hard throw and she certainly did not hold back any when she was showing the fighters on the show how to do this without a gi.
I just wondered whether the likes of Ronda and Hector Lombard (a Cuban Judo Olympian), who was recently signed by the UFC to fight Brian Stann, might bring some well deserved interest in learning the art of Judo. Up until now most MMA fighters favour Wrestling and BJJ as their form of grappling but there are now enough top level Judoka’s having success that I’m sure at least some fighters might start to look at Judo as a viable alternative. I’ve heard rumors that the likes of Ilias Iliadis might turn to MMA after the London Olympics, which would be a real loss to Judo but you can understand why he might be tempted as the money now on offer to the top level MMA fighters, especially in the UFC, is quite substantial.
Of course your average local Judo club would probably miss out on any increased interest in Judo through MMA as a lot of MMA gyms are bringing in Judo coaches to teach classes. Also, there are a number of BJJ instructors who also hold black belts in Judo who may now start to incorporate more throws in to their BJJ class or add in a Judo only class to their schedule. So although more people might become aware of Judo or trained in Judo techniques it’s unlikely that your average 18-35 year old male that typically frequents BJJ or MMA gyms will find their way in to their local Judo club which is a shame.
Friday, 27 April 2012
Sasae-tsurikomi-ashi – Yoshin Ryu
Although my club is now open again, with the change of our training night from a Thursday to a Tuesday it means I am able to make the Randori evening at Yoshin Ryu whenever I want to. Unfortunately my usual sidekick, Oli, is unable to make it on Thursdays at present but Big Stewart is now attending on a regular basis so I met him there.
After we were warmed up we were told to practice do some uchi-komi with Ko-soto-gari. I paired up with a blue belt and we did 20 on each side before the sensei told us to change to Tai-otoshi, which was the technique we focused on on Tuesday at Dorking. After another 40 reps Sensei showed us a Tai-otoshi faint to set up Ko-soto-gari. The point of the faint is to make Uke move backwards as they attempt to avoid being thrown forward with Tai-otoshi. When they make the move backwards you immediately switch to Ko-soto-gari. We practiced this a number of times before sensei then had us replace Ko-soto-gari with Tani-otoshi, which worked just as well. As there are so many Dan grades present at this club it’s very easy to ask one of them for further help if the technique isn’t feeling quite right.
We finished up by practicing Tai-otoshi on its own but oddly enough all the work I had put in to trying to perfect this throw on Tuesday seemed to have been forgotten as I found it hard to get my footwork right.
On to Newaza and I stayed with the blue belt I was already with who incidentally I had written about when I trained here in October last year. Back then he dominated me in Newaza with cross collar chokes and various pins and then proceeded to throw me around in randori. Tonight however I was able to submit him twice, first with a nice San-gaku-jime and then a downward facing Juji-gatame. I was particularly pleased with the San-gaku-jime as I had been having a bit of trouble finishing these lately. Black belt Stewart at Dorking told me on Tuesday that I should attempt to roll them over to my left when I secured this and it seemed to work a treat.
My next two rolls were with a couple of Dan grades and they were able to handle me pretty easily. One of them had ENG on the back of his gi and he must have subbed me or pinned me about eight times in 5 minutes. Doing Newaza against him was very similar to how I felt when I rolled with Ricardo at Nova Forca, I.e. totally helpless but I never gave up and oddly enough I enjoyed the beating.
A roll with a white belt proceeded this and so did another San-gaku-jime and another Juji-gatame but I was feeling totally gassed at this point. My last roll was against one of the sensei’s, a 3rd dan. His style of newaza against me was very methodical. He did one thing at a time and moved slowly and yet I could do nothing to stop him. When he moved he left no gaps, nothing for me to exploit. It felt like I had two bags of cement on top of me, crushing my ribs and squeezing the air out of my lungs. Even when I started on top he just tied me up and slowly rolled me over before moving in to a pin where he would stay until he let me try and escape and then would submit me with whatever technique he fancied. Again, as demoralising as some people might find this I actually find it inspiring. It gives me something to aim for. If, a few years down the line, I am able to hold my own against him then I’ll know I’ve made progress, just like I felt when rolling with the blue belt earlier who only 5 months previously had easily bested me.
Following a water break we did a couple of rounds of randori. My first was against a black belt, who I found out later was celebrating his 60th birthday. He certainly doesn’t move like a normal 60 year old though as he threw me a couple o f times before I managed to throw him with Sasae-tsurikomi-ashi.
Next up was the blue belt who I was partnered with earlier and we had a pretty good tussle. He’s a similar height to me so we both favored high grips and kind of neutralised each other out. One of my favourite throws is Uchi-mata but every time I came in for this he tried to counter with Te-guruma and nearly caught me a couple of times. This put me off trying this throw again so I tried the Tai-otoshi/O-uchi-gari combination but he was wise to this. With about 30 seconds left I managed another Sasae-tsurikomi-ashi, not quite as clean as the one I got earlier but nonetheless it worked. I’m having some success with this throw so will look at better ways of setting this up although both of my successes with this throw were as a first attack so maybe I don’t need to at the moment.
When matte was finally called on the class I was totally knackered but I felt really good about myself, especially as I could see a measured improvement since last November. My intention is to train here as often as possible from now on but that will probably be every other week for now
After we were warmed up we were told to practice do some uchi-komi with Ko-soto-gari. I paired up with a blue belt and we did 20 on each side before the sensei told us to change to Tai-otoshi, which was the technique we focused on on Tuesday at Dorking. After another 40 reps Sensei showed us a Tai-otoshi faint to set up Ko-soto-gari. The point of the faint is to make Uke move backwards as they attempt to avoid being thrown forward with Tai-otoshi. When they make the move backwards you immediately switch to Ko-soto-gari. We practiced this a number of times before sensei then had us replace Ko-soto-gari with Tani-otoshi, which worked just as well. As there are so many Dan grades present at this club it’s very easy to ask one of them for further help if the technique isn’t feeling quite right.
We finished up by practicing Tai-otoshi on its own but oddly enough all the work I had put in to trying to perfect this throw on Tuesday seemed to have been forgotten as I found it hard to get my footwork right.
On to Newaza and I stayed with the blue belt I was already with who incidentally I had written about when I trained here in October last year. Back then he dominated me in Newaza with cross collar chokes and various pins and then proceeded to throw me around in randori. Tonight however I was able to submit him twice, first with a nice San-gaku-jime and then a downward facing Juji-gatame. I was particularly pleased with the San-gaku-jime as I had been having a bit of trouble finishing these lately. Black belt Stewart at Dorking told me on Tuesday that I should attempt to roll them over to my left when I secured this and it seemed to work a treat.
My next two rolls were with a couple of Dan grades and they were able to handle me pretty easily. One of them had ENG on the back of his gi and he must have subbed me or pinned me about eight times in 5 minutes. Doing Newaza against him was very similar to how I felt when I rolled with Ricardo at Nova Forca, I.e. totally helpless but I never gave up and oddly enough I enjoyed the beating.
A roll with a white belt proceeded this and so did another San-gaku-jime and another Juji-gatame but I was feeling totally gassed at this point. My last roll was against one of the sensei’s, a 3rd dan. His style of newaza against me was very methodical. He did one thing at a time and moved slowly and yet I could do nothing to stop him. When he moved he left no gaps, nothing for me to exploit. It felt like I had two bags of cement on top of me, crushing my ribs and squeezing the air out of my lungs. Even when I started on top he just tied me up and slowly rolled me over before moving in to a pin where he would stay until he let me try and escape and then would submit me with whatever technique he fancied. Again, as demoralising as some people might find this I actually find it inspiring. It gives me something to aim for. If, a few years down the line, I am able to hold my own against him then I’ll know I’ve made progress, just like I felt when rolling with the blue belt earlier who only 5 months previously had easily bested me.
Following a water break we did a couple of rounds of randori. My first was against a black belt, who I found out later was celebrating his 60th birthday. He certainly doesn’t move like a normal 60 year old though as he threw me a couple o f times before I managed to throw him with Sasae-tsurikomi-ashi.
Next up was the blue belt who I was partnered with earlier and we had a pretty good tussle. He’s a similar height to me so we both favored high grips and kind of neutralised each other out. One of my favourite throws is Uchi-mata but every time I came in for this he tried to counter with Te-guruma and nearly caught me a couple of times. This put me off trying this throw again so I tried the Tai-otoshi/O-uchi-gari combination but he was wise to this. With about 30 seconds left I managed another Sasae-tsurikomi-ashi, not quite as clean as the one I got earlier but nonetheless it worked. I’m having some success with this throw so will look at better ways of setting this up although both of my successes with this throw were as a first attack so maybe I don’t need to at the moment.
When matte was finally called on the class I was totally knackered but I felt really good about myself, especially as I could see a measured improvement since last November. My intention is to train here as often as possible from now on but that will probably be every other week for now
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Tai-otoshi Masterclass
Generally speaking my daughter Florence is a good sleeper; however on Monday night I was awakened by a blood curdling scream. Now this wasn’t the normal “baby crying at night” noise, this was more akin to a “help there is a monster in my wardrobe” scream. Now midway through her blood curdling scream she started making these “mama” noises, which I knew would mean my wife would go and attend to the wardrobe monster, which she duly did. Unfortunately when, an hour later, she let out a similar scream I knew I would have to rise from my nice warm bed and the elbow in to the ribs from my wife confirmed that it was indeed my turn. Now why am I writing about my sleeping habits, well all the above meant that come Tuesday evening I was feeling pretty tired and lethargic and not really up for Judo. In addition to feeling tired my beloved Chelsea were playing Barcelona in the Champions League semi final, second leg. Now, even though they had a one goal lead no one really gave them a chance, including me. Fearing the worse I decided I would rather not watch them get annihilated so rather begrudgingly I trudged off to Judo.
On arrival I noticed there were not many people present, in fact only Big Stewart and Black belt Stewart were in attendance. Peter had to leave early due to work commitments which meant there were only 3 of us. At this point I wished I had stayed at home, with my feet up and watched some footie. Then, rather unexpectedly Oli turned up. The reason this was unexpected was because Oli has work commitments on a Tuesday evening but, as he soon explained, he will be free for the next couple of Tuesdays at least.
Once we were warmed up Big Stewart showed us a nice turnover in to Juji-gatame. With Uke in turtle and tori on his left side, tori grabs the nearside collar with his left hand and gets his left leg hook in. The Tori rolls over Uke, towards his right shoulder, and as Uke is turned over Tori hooks his left leg under Uke’s chin. Then, whilst keeping hold of Uke’s collar, Tori uses his other arm to secure the juji-gatame.
I liked this turnover, it was a lot quicker than the other Juji-gatame turnovers that I know and because you keep hold of Uke’s collar you are kept really close and therefore the armbar is really tight.
We did 3 rounds of Newaza after this, all taking turns against each other and the rounds were quite long as well which meant we were able to secure submissions or pins a couple of times in each round. I managed two Juji-gatame’s, both whilst attacking from the bottom. I also, after a couple of weeks of head scratching, secured a San-gaku-jime, although Oli did manage to escape the first one that I put on him.
In response to a question asked by Boris on whether I was pulling down on Uke’s head when doing the San-gaku, I asked Big Stewart if this was legal in Judo and he confirmed it was, providing that I didn’t put too much pressure on Uke’s neck as the ref might consider this to be a spine lock, which is illegal in Judo but not in BJJ competition.
Following the Newaza Big Stuart had us practice Tai-otoshi from a kneeling position. This was basically so we could practice the hand movement only and means you can practice the throw multiple times without having to continually take a fall.
We then proceeded to practice this throw against someone with a high stiff grip. So if they are gripping you with their right hand high on your left collar, you grip them with your left hand under their armpit and your right hand under their elbow on their left arm. Then you bump their right hand up and turn in for a left sided Tai-otoshi. It was very effective and there was really nothing you could do once the person doing the throw had turned in.
We then went on to practice a couple of Tai-otoshi combinations, first as a set up for O-uchi-gari and then we used Ko-soto-gari to set up the Tai-otoshi..
The class finished with about 10 minutes of Randori and I left buzzing with excitement and was really glad that I had decided to turn up despite my tiredness and my desire to watch the football. On the drive home I found out that, against all odds, my beloved Chelsea had, despite having a man sent off, managed to get a 2-2 draw against Barcelona and thus secure a place in the Champions League final.
On arrival I noticed there were not many people present, in fact only Big Stewart and Black belt Stewart were in attendance. Peter had to leave early due to work commitments which meant there were only 3 of us. At this point I wished I had stayed at home, with my feet up and watched some footie. Then, rather unexpectedly Oli turned up. The reason this was unexpected was because Oli has work commitments on a Tuesday evening but, as he soon explained, he will be free for the next couple of Tuesdays at least.
Once we were warmed up Big Stewart showed us a nice turnover in to Juji-gatame. With Uke in turtle and tori on his left side, tori grabs the nearside collar with his left hand and gets his left leg hook in. The Tori rolls over Uke, towards his right shoulder, and as Uke is turned over Tori hooks his left leg under Uke’s chin. Then, whilst keeping hold of Uke’s collar, Tori uses his other arm to secure the juji-gatame.
I liked this turnover, it was a lot quicker than the other Juji-gatame turnovers that I know and because you keep hold of Uke’s collar you are kept really close and therefore the armbar is really tight.
We did 3 rounds of Newaza after this, all taking turns against each other and the rounds were quite long as well which meant we were able to secure submissions or pins a couple of times in each round. I managed two Juji-gatame’s, both whilst attacking from the bottom. I also, after a couple of weeks of head scratching, secured a San-gaku-jime, although Oli did manage to escape the first one that I put on him.
In response to a question asked by Boris on whether I was pulling down on Uke’s head when doing the San-gaku, I asked Big Stewart if this was legal in Judo and he confirmed it was, providing that I didn’t put too much pressure on Uke’s neck as the ref might consider this to be a spine lock, which is illegal in Judo but not in BJJ competition.
Following the Newaza Big Stuart had us practice Tai-otoshi from a kneeling position. This was basically so we could practice the hand movement only and means you can practice the throw multiple times without having to continually take a fall.
We then proceeded to practice this throw against someone with a high stiff grip. So if they are gripping you with their right hand high on your left collar, you grip them with your left hand under their armpit and your right hand under their elbow on their left arm. Then you bump their right hand up and turn in for a left sided Tai-otoshi. It was very effective and there was really nothing you could do once the person doing the throw had turned in.
We then went on to practice a couple of Tai-otoshi combinations, first as a set up for O-uchi-gari and then we used Ko-soto-gari to set up the Tai-otoshi..
The class finished with about 10 minutes of Randori and I left buzzing with excitement and was really glad that I had decided to turn up despite my tiredness and my desire to watch the football. On the drive home I found out that, against all odds, my beloved Chelsea had, despite having a man sent off, managed to get a 2-2 draw against Barcelona and thus secure a place in the Champions League final.
Friday, 20 April 2012
1st class at New Venue
Tuesday saw the return to Dorking Judo club after the Easter break and it also saw our first class in our new venue. Our previous venue was a little long and narrow and also the lighting wasn’t great. Added to that was the problem of some rather low beams which meant randori could only be performed on certain parts of the matted area. Our new venue however has none of these problems. We have more mat space, which is plenty wide enough and the ceiling and lighting is perfect. Spectators are also easily able to see all the action on the mats as there is amble seating available.
I arrived a little early for class and sat and watched the juniors finish their session with some randori. I was very impressed with the technique some of these juniors were showing and silently wished that I had continued with the Judo that I started when I was only 7 years old. If these juniors continue with Judo in to their late teens/early twenties, they will be become almost unplayable for older seniors like myself. You can usually spot a senior that has done Judo as a junior. They don’t seem to have the fear that normal seniors have when they first practice Judo. Even now, two years in to Judo, I don’t feel 100% comfortable with being thrown and this is usually reflected when two seniors practice randori and then proceed to avoid being thrown at all costs whereas these juniors that I were watching were trying lots of different throws and had no fear of taking that fall if their throws failed.
After we warmed up we proceeded on to some Newaza Randori. I tried to attack a lot more than I normally do as I wanted to practice my “top” game rather than what I normally do which is to attack from my back. Big Stewart and I had quite a good tussle and we exchanged positions a few times as we both struggled to get a dominant position. The other Stewart, the one with the Black belt, pulled guard against me and controlled me with his legs as he had a butterfly guard and controlled my posture by pulling on the collar of my gi. I struggled to break free from this position as I was conscious that he was able to attack my neck every time I used my arms to try and break free of the butterfly guard he had on me. I did eventually manage to escape his legs by kicking my legs backwards whilst holding on to his gi bottoms.
Moving on to tachiwaza and we practiced O-uchi-gari. This throw has been getting a lot of air time in the last couple of months. We have practiced it many times at Dorking as well as practicing it at Witley Yamabishi and Yoshin Ryu only last week. I have no issue with going over this throw a lot though as I am starting to have some success with it in randori and it’s a great throw to do in combination with Uchi-mata.
Another good thing about this new venue was the time it took to put the mats away at the end of the class. In our old venue we had to have lots of mats strapped to the walls for safety reasons and the mat cupboard was a fair distance away. There is no such issue now and the putting away of the mats took half the time. I think I’m going to enjoy my Judo here just that little bit more.
I arrived a little early for class and sat and watched the juniors finish their session with some randori. I was very impressed with the technique some of these juniors were showing and silently wished that I had continued with the Judo that I started when I was only 7 years old. If these juniors continue with Judo in to their late teens/early twenties, they will be become almost unplayable for older seniors like myself. You can usually spot a senior that has done Judo as a junior. They don’t seem to have the fear that normal seniors have when they first practice Judo. Even now, two years in to Judo, I don’t feel 100% comfortable with being thrown and this is usually reflected when two seniors practice randori and then proceed to avoid being thrown at all costs whereas these juniors that I were watching were trying lots of different throws and had no fear of taking that fall if their throws failed.
After we warmed up we proceeded on to some Newaza Randori. I tried to attack a lot more than I normally do as I wanted to practice my “top” game rather than what I normally do which is to attack from my back. Big Stewart and I had quite a good tussle and we exchanged positions a few times as we both struggled to get a dominant position. The other Stewart, the one with the Black belt, pulled guard against me and controlled me with his legs as he had a butterfly guard and controlled my posture by pulling on the collar of my gi. I struggled to break free from this position as I was conscious that he was able to attack my neck every time I used my arms to try and break free of the butterfly guard he had on me. I did eventually manage to escape his legs by kicking my legs backwards whilst holding on to his gi bottoms.
Moving on to tachiwaza and we practiced O-uchi-gari. This throw has been getting a lot of air time in the last couple of months. We have practiced it many times at Dorking as well as practicing it at Witley Yamabishi and Yoshin Ryu only last week. I have no issue with going over this throw a lot though as I am starting to have some success with it in randori and it’s a great throw to do in combination with Uchi-mata.
Another good thing about this new venue was the time it took to put the mats away at the end of the class. In our old venue we had to have lots of mats strapped to the walls for safety reasons and the mat cupboard was a fair distance away. There is no such issue now and the putting away of the mats took half the time. I think I’m going to enjoy my Judo here just that little bit more.
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