Sunday - 6/13/2010

Judo - It was a smallish group, just 7 of us. I felt it was an extremely productive workout. We did the one handed tsurikomi Goshi drill with Eric, who wasn't in class the past week when we worked on it. It seemed like it was a good drill for him and may help get the final breakthrough he needs to turn the corner on the Harai Goshi. This was one of the drills that was the most important to helping me get over the hump and make the harai a dangerous technique. Hopefully it will help him as well. Nick, Scott, Lawrence and Lex all worked on it to some degree as well. I worked on the entry and gripping sequence that Stephanie used for her same sided Tai OToshi for Sarah, who is working on the same technique. I then took eric and did some of the one handed stuff with him and worked on a matwork technique I wanted to teach, while the other 5 did 20 minutes of golden score randori.

In Ne Waza, we worked on a modification of the trap and roll wherein you roll across the shoulder rather than the across the body, but get to the same place for the pin. I like this version quite a bit. It was possible to catch the arm if the uke didn't roll. You were safe from being pinned as long as you don't lose control of the arm. The big thing on the trap and roll is to roll over the trapping shoulder with the near side arm tucked down the body outside of the Uke's near hip and keep your head tucked as you roll but don't let it get trapped beneath the body of Uke. Keep it outside of the hip as well.

This is also useful even for people with strong trap and rolls across the body as when it is well defended and blocked, the opportunity to roll to the shoulder is magnified.

We did some trouble shooting on this position and then rolled one set. I took Lex. His butterfly game is improving. i am still ahead of it, but, it's getting much more dangerous. I passed him and caught a Kimura and reminded him to secure that grip as it happens fast when you get caught.

Very happy with the class. I think the participant got a lot from it and I helped my stand up but also really think I learned a useful improvement to a mat work technique I already did very well.