Paula and Ariana fought Saturday in the Juniors divisions. Christine and Alma went to the tournament site and coached. This is laudable as it was neither close nor easy for them, but they stepped up to represent the coaches. the Juniors divisions were very competitive with excellent national level players in many divisions. Paula went 1-1 which says a lot about the level of competition. Ariana went 0-2 and fought hard but was in a little over her head when you look at the quality of the competition. If she will stick it out as she grows and fills out and fully discovers her technical skills, she will be a dangerous competitor
The Sunday competition went well. (In no particular order, just how they popped in my head.)
James threw an ippon which was great, but he continues to be vulnerable to seoi nage. Not really surprising as he is tall and a little stiff in the hips, plus he is a good uke all of which lends itself to being a seoi nage target. I might have him spend a lot of time with Lex throwing him in the seoi so he learns the feel of the attack and thus learns to defend it better.
Eric J. was a little frustrated I think as he was in a round robin 2 man division, which is annoying to pay full price for it. He lost his matches to a guy who he could definitely beat. His only problem is he isn't training enough. it's hard to play at a high level when you are just training once a week. I spoke to him about making a twice a week commitment until after Am-Cans.He also holds on to his grips too long after his technique has failed which leaves him vulnerable to be turned. Silver
Paula played well. She went 2-2 with a quality win and two tough losses. her losses to were to good players one in a scoreless match where she lost a referee decision after golden score, and the other she beat on Saturday via Ippon. She was thrown for a late Yuko, and her opponent ran from her the rest of the set. she just needs to work on her offense a bit as he defense is fine. But, really she has been training lightly as she finishes her senior year, Her opponents are training every day and barely beating her. Bronze (I think?)
Lex took 2nd in 90 kgs and 3rd in 81 kgs. He was armlocked in 90 by a bjj purple belt which will be a good learning experience for him. He was up a wazari and got careless for just a minute. He mostly dominated this division and was the best Judo player in it. The purple belt couldn't take him down at all but had the skills to catch him. a little better focus and learning better armlock defense will solve this issue. In 81 Kgs. we need to work on a way to get past the one sided stiff arm Miguel was using to defend. i want to work on the Sasai from that position to break up the defense. He was countered by another player and that will be solved by working on staying forward to avoid the counter. His opponent was sloppy and the referee was piss poor. The counter should have been yuko at best wazari, but was called ippon. He and Miguel were the class of the division. He showed great spirit technique and conditioning, Most of his problems will be solved with experience and some very minor fine tuning. I do want to review the way he was going for clock chokes and the advanced Paula. He had the wrong hand in too many times and didn't grab the shoulder I wold have liked to see him tap a few guys with it and end the match easier. Silver and Bronze
Miguel played very well. He and Lex were the class of the 81kgs division. He is very difficult to throw. he only allowed one score in 5 matches when he was countered for ippon in a match he was dominating by wazari and yuko to nothing when he got careless. His offense is very solid. I enjoy working with him and will be sad to see him leave us to return to Mexico. He has been an excellent addition tot he club while he has been here. Silver
Chris had a great day going 3-2, throwing 2 ippons won a bronze medal and playing very well. He still has some problems with posture and I want to take away the lunging Tani otoshi he tries as it again got him ipponed when he missed. Under a risk - reward model, it's not worth it. But all in all he [played well, had agood results and I was very happy for him. Bronze
Greg did a huge weight cut cutting 35 lbs in just over three weeks. He said he felt fine but he looked a little slow and sluggish compared to the explosive powerhouse I am used to seeing. he hasn't fought a tournament in 9 months due to the time off with the injury. I am looking forward to seeing him fight again without the big cut. He still went 1-2 with an ippon off of the Uchi mata-Kouchi Gari switch and took a bronze, but I know he was disappointed as he has high standards for himself. Bronze
Sarah looked great and did great winning a gold and totally outclassing her opponent. The downside was they bumped her down to novice where she did totally outclass her opponent. Hard to say much from these matches except congratulations and her job is to beat whoever is in front of her which she did with aplomb. In the future her matches will be more challenging. Gold
Joe C fought masters where he fought Lawrence twice. He has so much experience on lawrence this wasn't a very fair matchup. He threw ippons as you would expect. He also for some strange reason foought seniors where he fought hard but was outclassed by guys less than half his age. Gold
Lawrence Fought masters and drew Joe twice. He fought hard but the experience disparity made this a rather unfair match. i would have liked to see him get some players from another club to fight. Silver
Nick is an interesting case. He fights hard but seems to get thrown by people he should beat his stand up is solid and his matwork is solid but he seems to get overpowered and outgripped and overwhelmed by aggression sometime. When he settles in and gets to work he does fine, but, when he is grabbed aggrssively and yanked around he can get tossed . I need to work on his posture and controlling the match with grips and movement, instead of being dragged around and chased. he reminds me of one of our players from back in the day and I need to work on solving this as he is a great training partner and a very valuable member of the club and I want him to be rewarded for his hard work. Bronze
We had a strong turnout in the black belts who weren't competing to coach and assist. Several injuries and life issues kept us from having even more competitors, but we still had an excellent showing. Great to see so much support for the club. I would love to have even more students and have some of the guys who have quit come back, but I really love this group. It's one of the best we have had in my 15+ years in the club.
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