Randori and more Randori @ Yoshin Ryu

I started writing this post a week ago but I’ve only just managed to finish it. This means I have forgotten a lot of what actually happened so the below is a condensed version of events.

I managed to train on consecutive nights last week at Yoshin Ryu. First I did the Newaza randori night on the Wednesday and then I also managed the randori night on the Thursday evening. It felt nice being able to train hard on consecutive days as I’ve had so many injuries this year that I really haven’t put in enough sessions to improve. I must admit though that getting out of bed on Friday morning was a struggle as I felt like I had been in a train wreck.

Sensei Dave took the Wednesday night Newaza class and despite it being rather hot (by UK standards) he still had us warm up properly doing pyramids. This entails running up and down the mat doing first one sit, one squat thrust and one press up then you run up and down the mat again but this time you do two of each and so on until you get to ten of each. Anyway my double weave gi was at this point saturated in sweat and ready for the next part of the class which focused on a couple of options when you are unable to finish a juji-gatame from the top position, so basically the below position.

I guess you could use this if your opponent had a very strong grip that you were unable to break. Anyway from the position above you slide your right leg in-between uke’s arms so that it is over their right arm but under their left. At this point you remove your left leg from over their head and lay it on the floor behind them. Uke’s normal response to this is to seize the moment to escape and sit up thus giving you the opportunity to slide your left leg behind their head. You then simply link your right with your left leg and get the san-gaku-jime.

We got to drill this technique a number of times, enough so that I think it will stick with me, which is a good thing.

I sparred with a number of guys at the end wearing various coloured belts so that I was able to practice my submissions one minute and my escapes the next. My roll with Sensei Dave was particularly good as he manages to operate at a level just above the person he is sparring with.

Thursday nights randori night was equally as hot as Wednesday’s, added to that I had the ache and bruises from the previous night’s class but I managed to have a very productive lesson nonetheless and took away a few things.

1)      I did randori with a newly promoted 1^st dan and wasn’t far off the pace. I was able to successfully throw him with uchi-mata and tani-otoshi.

2)      Sasae-tsuri komi ashi is one of my favoured techniques and usually I use a normal right handed grip and throw using my left leg to block ukes right foot. An opportunity arose, admittedly against a yellow belt, to throw using the same right handed grip but this time using my right leg to bloke ukes left foot. The result was an airborne uke and a technique I will be trying to improve on. The below video shows both entries in to this throw as well as a nice set up using O-uchi-gari.

3)      As I’m not good enough to throw people using unconventional grips I need to improve on my grip fighting and work on some strategies. This becomes apparent when I spar with higher grades (Brown and Black Belts)

Judo - Mortal Combat Style

This made me laugh.

Ronda Rousey - UFC 175

Sometimes actions speak louder than words so i'll keep mine to a minimum so you can enjoy the above gif from Ronda's latest championship fight.The whole fight lasted 16 seconds so apart from the bit where they touched gloves this gif shows all of the fight.
So ladies, you wanna be a UFC fighter, go to your local Judo club and start training today!

Dorking Judo Club - Senior Session

Two posts in quick succession as I trained two nights consecutively this week.

The title may seem a little odd considering I always attend the senior session at Dorking Judo club, however just recently the numbers have started to swell so thought it was worth a particular mention. When I look back at my first ever post I was actually the only student present, with two instructors. Since then people have come and gone but really it’s since some of the under 16’s have joined the senior class that the number of actual seniors has slowly started to increase. Last night there were four dan grades on the mat, one of whom was a 3^rd dan who was returning to Judo. Then among us kyu grades there were 2 brown belts, 2 blue, 3 green, 4 yellow and two white belts, which is encouraging and gives us all lots of different people to practice with. For my own personal development it’s nice to have a couple of bigger guys train at the club now. One thing that takes me a while to get used to when I train at Yoshin Ryu is being out gripped, especially with a high collar grip as there just aren’t any big guys at Dorking who can do this to me. This has changed with Russ starting to train here, from Witley Judo Club and also 3^rd Dan Neil.

Something else I wanted to mention was that Jadon had received his brown belt from Guidlford Police Judo club which means I might have some company next time I attend a dan grading event. Well done Jadon, it’s well deserved.

Newaza night @ Yoshin Ryu

When I last trained here I found out that they had added an extra days training to their existing three, so that’s four in total now. However Wednesday night is newaza only, which is my favourite part of Judo, mainly because it hurts less than being thrown on your back. The format of this class is similar to their Thursday night randori session in that there is a long warm up/work out of about 30 minutes, followed by a couple of techniques and then about 30 minutes of continuous sparring. There were about 20 people on the mats, half of whom were dan grades, so I was in for a tough night. Sensei Dave (3^rd dan) took the class but Neil and Tim (also both 3^rd dans) were also present and gave extra coaching where needed.

My first roll was against a stocky yellow belt so I decided to try and work on my strangles, a week point in my game in my opinion. I was pleased that amongst the submissions I got were two Sode-guruma-jime’s. One off my back and the other when I was top, in the mount position.

This proved to be my easiest roll of the evening as my next three were against Sensei Tim, Sensei Dave and Prezmek, all of whom crushed and submitted me in various ways. In the three minute roll with Prezmek I counted 6 submissions, surely some kind of record!

After rolling with these three I mustered up enough strength to submit a black belt with Okuri-eri-jime before my last roll with another yellow belt who I suspect had some BJJ training, due to the way he pulled guard was very active on the bottom, way more so than any Judo yellow should be. However I was so gassed at this point that all I could do was play defence and not let him sweep me. I just didn’t have the strength to open his guard and mount any attacks and I apologised to him afterwards for being so negative.

At the end of the class sensei Neil took me aside to show me how I could have got Juji-gatame against Sensei Dave from a certain position off my back. Despite not being a regular at Yoshin ryu the instructors still have time show you little things like this to improve your game even after the class has finished. It’s for reasons like this that I’m prepared to travel that little bit further to train at Yoshin Ryu.

Leg in Triangle

I thought I had invented a new submission last week when I was training with Jadon. We were rolling, doing newaza randori, and I was doing well in that he hadn’t been able to submit or pin me yet. In fact he was playing guard and was having trouble trying to sweep me, which is a victory as far as my battles with Jadon are concerned.

Anyway Jadon used a deep half guard sweep that he told me he hasn’t used in a while; according to Jadon I can see the standard ones coming a mile away now, and whilst the sweep worked, Jadon was obviously a little complacent and didn't expect the triangle to be able to close with his leg still in! From here I squeezed as hard as I could but with his leg in it was putting extra pressure on my crown jewels. Although I've already fathered two Children and don’t plan on fathering anymore, I still wanted to retain the ability to piss standing up, so much to my annoyance I had to let go before I got the tap, which BTW would have been the first time I have tapped Jadon arggghhh. I guess if I had got the tap I could have claimed it as a new submission especially as I've not been able to find many examples of a “leg in Triangle” even amongst BJJers. However it appears I am not alone as someone posted these pictures on Facebook the other day.

So have you ever caught someone in a “leg in Triangle”?

Do you have a funky name for this submission or can I perhaps claim it for myself?

More Ronda

Just though i'd share this short video of Ronda doing some nogi Judo for no other reason that it's cool.
Enjoy.