Judo 2/28/09

We started today with the "footsweep to control" exercise as usual. We practiced it with both deashi and kouchi sweeps.

We worked a lot today on kouchigari (small inner reap). Pat explained that the problem with this sweep, if it is a problem, is that it generally puts you in uke's guard. A few things for me to remember about this one: 1) sweep by stepping out to the side in the direction of the sweep, not just across the front of my body as in deashi. 2) Don't forget to "cut" in and give a little push just before the swept foot steps down. 3) Use the left hand as a feeler to tell me when uke is stepping down with that foot.

The brand new throw for today was seoinage (shoulder throw), with two variations: ippon-seoinage (one armed shoulder throw) and morote-seoinage (two armed shoulder throw). This is my first hand throw in the curriculum. One thing I noticed: My seoinage seems to throw uke around my body rather than over my shoulder like I see in most videos on the internet. If that's a problem, I guess it will get worked out eventually. Things for me to remember about this one: 1) The throw is more to the side (along uke's line of weakness) than right in front of him. 2) I need to let go of uke's lapel with my right hand before throwing. If things don't go just right, I could hurt my arm. 3) Pull IN with the right hand, don't try to "cartwheel" him. He should end up in a position that looks like he's ready to do a forward roll. 4) Once it's set up, just do a crunch (bend slightly) and turn slightly, looking away from uke.

For groundwork, we went over 6 "short takedowns" (3 pairs that work together), and did some ground randori. I still get crushed on the bottom when rolling with Pat, and today showed me I need to review and drill my basic escapes some more. For some reason, I was only trying downhills and knee-to-elbows today, and not having too much luck with either one. Pat admitted one of his weaker escapes was from the North-South position. I shamelessly took advantage - ERRR, I mean...helped him practice it a couple of times. I found I was reasonably successful keeping that position by sort of "running" on the balls of my feet while keeping weight on his chest.

I told Pat how I had caught my nephew with a few armbars, but once he started defending with a gable grip, I couldn't get past it. Pat showed me how making him raise his hands above his head really weakened that grip. That turns it from a perfect bicep situation for the defender into kind of weird rotator cuff thing.

Lastly, we talked about how having your opponent in your guard is not a time to rest or catch your breath, but to keep moving, defending, etc. I'll be glad when my endurance is equal to the task.

It was another really fun, really exhausting lesson.