Smallish Judo class of 7 of us. A group went to the Easterns in Newark, NJ yesterday mixed results with Sarah particularly standing out, but regardless of results, I was happy to see so many competitors. We did quite a bit of grip fighting, focusing on drills. We started with the basic 1, 2, 3 grip sequence looking to establish a dominant grip while not giving up a strong grip. We also did the sequencing with more resistance then adding a fit then doing it with more resistance. We then added another grip sequence, cross gripping with the right hand to the cross right lapel of the Uke and then going through similar drills.
We did golden score randori. i set the timer for 12 minutes and did a set of the three girls Sarah, Cecelia and Lori and the 3 guys, Lex, Peter and Z, who it was great to see back in class. I jumped into the men's group. I had a lot of fun in the randori I scored some throws. My harai is still a mess but I hit a few other things.
Z countered me once, which is a sign of how messed up my forward throw is. I would go months without being countered and now it is happening fairly often. The Kosoto gake's are leading to more Uchi mata counters than i would like but, they are also being thrown for ippon, so who am I to complain. Lex got me up off of the groupd for the standing Seoi Nage for the first time, though he was still not that close to getting me over the top, but he is getting closer. I was having so much fun i added 3 more minutes. This was probably a mistake. I had good control of my group, but the girls group was still going. Sarah hurt her knee and groin. I really should have paid more attention to it. She fought 6 matches the day before, did all of the grip fighting then fought nearly every golden score set for fifteen minutes. It's not too surprising she finally broke down. It was careless on my part to los track of the other set. Hopefully the injuries are minor and she won't pay too much of a price for my lack of attention.
For Ne Waza we did two clock choke variations. This included a grip starting from the left side of the Uke and putting the right arm over the far side of the head of the uke. I love my classic clock choke but have to say this one felt very strong and was easier to get into it than the traditional approach. After a bit of experimentation and minor tweaks, it seemed to be doing quite well. The hardest part was getting everyone to effectively break down the uke from a four point position to a flattened out position. From there it was easy to apply. We then did the version with back of the tricep on the side of the head closest to the tori. i have often spoken poorly of this version, and I still think there is a gaping hole in it if the uke reacts quickly and perfectly, but, it was also strong and I could feel how to mostly close the escape hole that this version leaves. I think its the one with the best chance to escape but is also the easiest to enter. So, there is a definite balancing test as to which one different people like to do. I want to make a point to take a shot at both of these variants along with some of the others I have seen recently during live training. I need to remember to let the Ukes get to the turtle and keep them there while i hunt for the techniques.
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