Thursday 7/8/2010

Kettlebells - I did my thursday Workout -  I switched to the 16 KG at the same place, but I made it through the workout.  It's tough and I was tired and drenched in sweat as the room was hotter than i like it to be between the heat wave and the minimal air conditioning. It felt like I was doing a Steve Maxwell, class before he added all of the joint mobility.

Open Mat - Lex and Eric were there and wanted to do some no-gi in preparation for the upcoming tournament. I'm interested in a little no go lately so I dressed out and joined them. After the workout I was already nice and slippery but I was starting from a pretty tired spot. All in all, it was both fun and frustrating.  It really confirms how limited my no go game is. My takedowns are not good. I can kind of defend and I can takedown if I am able to work to a clinch, but all in all it's not a pretty sight particularly when i am used to being at least competitive off of my feet.

I did match with Eric. We worked back and forth and he went for the takedown. I avoided it and maintained the top position. Once there, I was able to pass and use my BJJ fundamentals to do OK, but, it's still frustrating as I realize how much there is in the no gi game I'm missing. If I was 15 years younger I would worry about it more, but, I can only do what my life allows me to do. So I think I'm going to do some no gi when I can, have some fun with it but, not get obsessed. At least that will be the plan.

Judo -
I began adding some matwork drills in place of the warmup. We need to maximize our useful time, and with the additional standup we have been doing, I need to find more time for Ne Waza. I also like the Lloyd Irving style of making the warmups repetitions of basic positions, so we get loose and at the same time work on skills.
I did the Oma Plata drill, the armlock drill, going down the mat from the butterfly armdrag and coming up with the butterfly. They all went OK, and showed how useful some of the drills will be. I wasn't satisfied with the butterfly guard coming up drill and might punt it.

We did Uchi Mata (inside)  for 20-30 minutes, then some tokui waza and then randori. The only note I am going to make is that chris L was hurt while doing randori. The same knee she injured and had repaied was hurt again. she was looking brilliant for the past few classes in randori, so this is very disheartening. I'm hoping it's only a sprain.

We talked about the arm drag so they will understand the purpose of the drill and then did Ne Waza. I took Cecelia and wanted to see her skill level. She has some basics but has some gaps in what she has learned. She is a very good athlete with excellent fighting spirit, so she will improve her mat work skills quickly if she's willing to be open and have some fun with the Ne Waza. She is almost too competitive, wanting to be in a good position rather than risking a bad one for the chance to improve other techniques. I was guilty of this and still am, so I can understand it. She is so young with such a bright future she could get past this easily.