In preparation for the theory side of my dan grading Graeme
said that we will be doing lots of dan grade techniques this term. We learnt
the first set of Nage waza under Renzoku waza on Thursday, which are combination
throws in the same direction as follows:
Seoi nage to Seoi otoshi
O Uchi gari to Ko Uchi Gari
Hiza guruma to Harai Goshi/Ashi-guruma
The last technique Graeme had us do Ashi-guruma as this is
what is listed in the BJA dan grade theory book as released by Roy Inman.
However the BJA’s website lists Harai-goshi so I did it with both and as there
isn’t a great deal of difference in the throws, apart from using the hip in the
Harai, it didn’t make too much of a difference. I was actually pleased with how
well I performed these techniques especially the likes of Seoi otoshi and
Ashi-guruma, which are not throws I ever use.
We also covered Kesa gatame and Kuzure Kesa gatame, the
holds and the escapes from, both of which are fairly rudimentary.
There are still an awful lot of techniques to cover from the
dan grade theory and a lot of revision will be necessary but it looks slightly
less daunting once you actually get in to the nuts and bolts of it.
I’ve just returned from two weeks sunning myself in the Dordogne,
France and have literally done no exercise whatsoever, I figured my body could
do with the break. Before I went on Holiday I managed to get a good session in
at Witley Judo club and I attended another excellent class there on Monday
night.
This was to be a “simple class” as Pete, the head instructor
put it, and by that he meant that we would only be learning a couple of
techniques., one a simple turnover against the turtle and the other a version
of kata-guruma where you do not touch the legs in anyway (so competition legal)
Apart from that the rest of the class was Newaza and tachiwaza randori.
It was nice to catch up with Tim from Guildford Police Judo
Club who is now sporting a blue belt. It transpires that Tim has been training
BJJ at Andy Roberts place three times a week for the last couple of months and
it showed when I picked Tim for my first round of Newaza randori. He was very
active off his back, throwing up plenty of Juji attempts however I managed to
defend well against them. The round ended after I had swept him to mount and
was just about to apply an Ude-garami. Still his newaza has improved a lot and
if he carries on the BJJ training he will no doubt be subbing me next time.
Following my roll with Tim I was able to pull off a number
of submissions including a couple of San-gaku-jime’s, however it still took me
quite a while to finish them and in doing so I really gassed my legs out, something
to consider if I attempt this in shiai.
I’ve written before how I’ve had trouble in randori when I
face guys who have superior gripping strategies. This is usually apparent when
I visit places like Yoshin Ryu where they have a number of larger and/or higher
ranked guys. For me there are three components to randori. Tachiwaza, Newaza
and Kumi kata (gipping) but maybe I am getting too hung up on it.
Last night Pete showed me a couple of things I was doing
wrong when I sparred with him. Now Pete is considerably shorter than me but it
still able to dominate me with his grips, should he so wish. He told me that I
was over reaching with my second hand when trying to get my sleeve grip, which
when facing a shorter person is like Christmas as they are able to use my
momentum to throw me. What he said I need to do is to pull them towards me and
then grip rather than to go looking for it. Quite simple but it makes perfect
sense. Another thing he pointed out is that I was a little too square against
the shorter guys which gives them the space to step in to when they inevitably
try there seoi nage’s against me. What I need to do is to have one leg slightly
forward which then reduces the space they can step in to. One last thing he
pointed out to me was that I need to fully commit to my throws rather than pull
out if I don’t immediately throw the other person, which I have been told
before but I am really making a conscious effort to do this now.
Dorking Judo Club is open again this Thursday so I’ll be
back at my home club but I’m going to keep training at Witley on Monday nights
and, when possible, Yoshin Ryu. I’m hoping this will be enough to see me
improve significantly so that I can start to collect some points towards my dan
grading although it might be a bit soon for this extra training to pay off with
my first dan grading event coming up on the 13th of September at
High Wycombe. I am, however, determined not to come away from it empty handed
and will be disappointed if I haven’t made some inroads in to the 100 points needed.
Oli & Jadon joined me last night for another Newaza only
session at Yoshin Ryu. This was the second week running that Oli had attended
this class which, until last week, he hadn't been on the mats’, other than to
assist teaching the kids class at Dorking, for almost 1 year. It was perhaps
for this reason that I refused to tap when he caught me with a nice collar
strangle last week. I was pretty close to going out but for some reason (ego
perhaps) I decided I was not going to tap to him, due to his inactivity and how
that would look for me tapping to someone who, by his own admission, was a
little rusty. Luckily for me I was able to eventually escape his strangle and
the rest of the roll was a good back and forth exchange although neither of us
were able to get a submission or pin.
Last night Oli was the first person I sparred with and again
we had a good back and forth tussle. Both of us actively going for subs and
defending and reversing our positions. No subs were forthcoming again but it
was a very enjoyable roll.
I had a nice roll with Jadon where I was able to pass his
guard in to Yoko-shiho-gatame but in a moment of madness I looked away from him
and he was able to trap my head with his leg and turn it in to a San-gaku-jime
where he eventually got the tap. The rest of our roll was pretty close and I
was actually able to return the favour when he passed my guard and got a
Yoko-shiho-gatame on me as I used the same escape on him but matte was called
before I could try for the submission.
An orange belt was next, who also trains BJJ at RGA in
London and is a blue belt. He pulled guard and tried to play spider guard but I
was able to shake off his grips, pass his guard and sink in Sode-guruma-jime
for the tap. We started again and he continued with a very open guard, clearly trying
to play spider guard. I grabbed his legs and spun him over where I attacked the
turtle with a Juji turnover and finished him with a Juji-gatame.
Sensei Dave was next
and he played guard to start with. I attempted to use the techniques he had
taught the class earlier on him (Sode-guruma-jime) but this obviously wasn’t going
to work on him. It was when he decided he wasn't going to play on his back anymore
that I started to get in trouble and he caught me with a couple of subs towards
the end and a pin.
Something that I took from watching the Judo at the recent Commonwealth
games was said by Neil Adams regarding attacking the neck and then the arm and
vice versa. I noticed last night that when I attacked someone’s neck they invariably
presented an armbar opportunity. The same thing happened when I looked for
their arm, they left their neck unguarded. This may seem quite basic and I've
probably been told this before but it really worked for me. I’m gonna have a
play with this and see if my submission ratio improves. It certainly did last
night.
With the hot weather continuing in to its second week I
decided to buy a cheap single weave lightweight gi. I was lucky enough to spot
an Adidas 500gm single weave on eBay in my size which had been worn once,
washed and had shrunk too much for its owner (we've all been there right?) I
bought this for a measly £25 including postage, a bargain!
I wore the gi to training on Thursday night and I must say
it felt weird wearing a single weave gi after only wearing doubles for so long.
To be honest I’m not sure if I liked it enough to wear it again. What bothered
me most was the ease in which my opponent was able to grip it although it could
be said that wearing it could actually help improve my Judo because if I’m
effective wearing it then imagine what I’ll be like when I wear a double and
people are unable to grip it so easily.
Following last week’s classes at Yoshin Ryu in which I left
feeling quite positive and was able to throw and submit people, this week was
the opposite. I submitted no one in newaza randori and don’t remember a single
successful throw in tachiwaza randori. Of course I need to take in to account
that I sparred with different people than I did the previous week so I
shouldn't beat myself up over it but it can be a little frustrating sometime
when you feel like you are taking one step forward and then two steps back.
However despite not throwing any resisting opponents we did do plenty of throw
for throw practice which I find really beneficial.
I'm selling my Shuurai Lite Gi jacket on eBay at the moment, the add can be found here.
It's a size 185 and i'm throwing in some Black Eagle Heavyweight Trousers size 200, although these have shrunk enough so that they are closer to a 185 in length. My reason for sale is that this gi has never really been long enough in the arms for me and i'm trying to make a bit of space in my wardrobe for a new, soon to be announced, gi purchase.
If you want to make me a "buy it now offer" outside of eBay then let me know.
Happy bidding
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 1st
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)
