Kettlebells - OK workout, but, I was told it was a 2 bell work out so I took two 16 kgs. but we only really lifted one bell and used the other for stabilization for most of the exercises. it would have been better to push myself and take a 20kg.
BJJ - Big group of >15. Good mix of ranks. John did switching to Juji Gatame on the other side when you are in side control. With all of the new faces this was a very good technique choice, as it worked on some fundamentals and improved both movement and technique. He did the basic Kimura from side control when you walk and straddle the head. Also a good choice as many of them hadn't seen the position. sometimes its good to remember to cover all of the basics. New girl who looks to have a lot of physical potential if she continues.
John had some very cool techniques to work on for us that he saw at a semi-private he sis during the weekend, with De La Riva. Nice stuff that works for me once I get some reps on it.
Had a lot of fun training tonight. I took the blue belt Evan who plays bigger than he is. Nice warm up set. I swept from the butterfly hook position, passed and mounted he worked hard to escape. i maintained control and pressured him but didn't force the issue. He managed to escape but i passed and mounted again. he said he nearly tapped to the pressure from the mount but couldn't accept tapping to being mounted.
I rolled with Eric S next. I went for the butterfly sweep and managed to force him over when i used the second leg to tomoe nage him over when he was defending. Good to hit a good technique against him as it makes it feel good to hit a clean technique against a good player. I worked from the half guard to pass, but never quite succeeded. Good set with a lot of hard work and technical exchanges.
Dave O was next. He doesn't defend the butterfly hook sweep well so went over for it. I passed and mounted and then accepted the bump he did a good job of avoiding the sweep. I almost manged to come up but not quite. He went for the gi trap over my arm and passing it under me which i hate as it stresses my oft injured shoulder so there was no way i was giving that up. The set ended as I was keeping that away. Last set was with a white belt. He backed away and didn't try to pass for awhile. Eventually I gi dragged him and took the top I passed him as time expired on a short set.
Judo - >15 people including a new white belt checking out the club. There are a lot of tournaments on the horizon, so I did what I focused on what I consider competition techniques. We worked heavily on drop seoi nage, with a particular emphasis on getting far enough with the turn to complete the technique. The idea has to be to go past a line directly forward of ukes hips with your turn. Anything more shallow makes the technique problematic. If you don't at least come close I would say the technique is actually impossible. We did the kouchi gari to adjust their feet and stance which I think is an important element when combined with the drop. Joe C. also showed a grip cut he uses to get past the lapel hand in the right on left position. We did three sets of randori. I thought as a whore the group was playing well. We aren't peaking for this season like we did for the Liberty Bell, but, maybe we can have a lot of people ready in a month for the October tournaments. I intended to enter the randori, but was blocked by even numbers and good existing sets. I will probably hav to force the issue to get some more work for myself.
Ne waza we talked about passing the guard when being attacked by the triangle. I am a big believer in this and always aggressively attack triangles. The countless times I tapped to excellent triangles has given me confidence in my defense good success passing the position. I emphasize maintaining posture and space to avoid having the technique lock tightly.
I was in the last two sets of Ne Waza.. I had Eric S again as the set from the first class was enough fun that I wanted to do it again. He was also clearly the best Ne Waza player in the room and I wanted to roll hard. His neck was tight so I pulled. We exchanged grips and movements. I was able to break his balance backwards from a sweep attempt. it failed but I was able to scramble and come up and dump him backwards. I passed and used the back collar pin I often show. It worked well. He had a hard time making space or coming up despite me being in a seemingly poor position to maintain the hold down. Wen i switched to come up I made it to mount. I think kept this position for the rest of the set, but he was getting to a good position to escape as time expired. for the last set i let senior people choose their opponents. Eric called for round threee which was great for me as I was having fun. I pulled and shot for the X guard off of the initial exchange. I got to the position and forced my way to the full X guard. I tried for the fourth technique but he defended well. When his weight settle back i did the #2 technique and swept him backwards with the ankle trip. I came up and attacked the scramble and passed. I worked to the mount and held it for awhile. Funny to be in Judo and be able to just worry about maintaining the pin rather than advancing the position right away. When he made space and tried to turn, I used the mount I learned with Stephanie, maintaining the closed feet and letting him turn away, just not far enough to actually escape. He recognized the problem and centered back up and was working an escape that was putting him in a much better position when time expired.
Lot of fun tonight. Class went well, the students learned and improved. I had fun with the Ne Waza thought I woudl have liked to have had some of the randori sets. A new student was in... all in all a very good night.
Note to self - I need to update this as close to the actual class as possible as I get a lot more details and get more out of it this way.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Sunday 9/29/2010
Smallish group of 6 plus me. It included Art "The Mad Russian" one of our alumni from the YMCA days who was in town visiting for the first time since he left the club (and the city) in 1994. We did the regular warmups. Art had a little trouble with the Oma Plata. You could see he hadn't seen it much if at all. The others were fine for him though.
I wasn't sure how Art would be with everyone, considering his nickname is "The Mad Russian" but he was fine. He actually had some good sets with Sarah as well as with Peter and Scott. The group did well with everything. I had planned to work in and do some randori, but the sets were even and fair so the instructor takes he hit and sits. Overall I was pleased with how everyone there did. Lori and Mike both look good in their new belts and their play is reflecting the increased challenge of living up to a colored belt. Both are considering competing and are playing seriously.
For Ne Waza we continued passing the guard. I worked on one of my favorites, the head control half guard pass. I used the lapel grip when I went around the head and emphasized patience and pressure to grind out the pass.
Good class though I am looking forward to the summer being over and all of the vacationers returning to fill out the ranks.
I wasn't sure how Art would be with everyone, considering his nickname is "The Mad Russian" but he was fine. He actually had some good sets with Sarah as well as with Peter and Scott. The group did well with everything. I had planned to work in and do some randori, but the sets were even and fair so the instructor takes he hit and sits. Overall I was pleased with how everyone there did. Lori and Mike both look good in their new belts and their play is reflecting the increased challenge of living up to a colored belt. Both are considering competing and are playing seriously.
For Ne Waza we continued passing the guard. I worked on one of my favorites, the head control half guard pass. I used the lapel grip when I went around the head and emphasized patience and pressure to grind out the pass.
Good class though I am looking forward to the summer being over and all of the vacationers returning to fill out the ranks.
Monday 8/22/2010
BJJ - Was away for a few days so fell behind a bit. I know i was there but blank on what we covered.
Judo - Tough class - Good number of people with a good mix of rank. I tried the right on left O Goshi (really Utsuri Goshi) and everyone struggled with it quite a bit. I need to work on it myself as well as teaching it better before I work on it with the class, especially the lower ranks, on the way up. Then we did some randori sets and went on to Ne Waza.
I covered the Bull pass in some detail and had them do quite a few repetitions. Next we did some Ne Waza sets and called it a night.
No class until Sunday as the last vacation of the summer is beginning.
Judo - Tough class - Good number of people with a good mix of rank. I tried the right on left O Goshi (really Utsuri Goshi) and everyone struggled with it quite a bit. I need to work on it myself as well as teaching it better before I work on it with the class, especially the lower ranks, on the way up. Then we did some randori sets and went on to Ne Waza.
I covered the Bull pass in some detail and had them do quite a few repetitions. Next we did some Ne Waza sets and called it a night.
No class until Sunday as the last vacation of the summer is beginning.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Sunday - 8/21/2010
Early throwing - Sarah, Lex and I went in 20 minutes or so early and did some throwing.It was useful to me and I can still see and feel that I am leaving too much distance on my entry. It was particularly evident with Lex as I wasn't getting the depth on the entry I wanted. The videos of Sarah throwing Seoi Otoshi, Lex throwing Seoi Nage, and me throwing Harai Goshi are helpful and are helping me see the problem that I'm having. It is good to see i can still be a pretty good Uke, though.
For judo we did a lot of Tokui Waza, giving everyone a chance to work on their favorite techniques. I slid from set to set tweaking things, but mostly let them work on their forward techniques. We did a lot of good work.
I did note that there had been some recent complaining that we needed more time for tokui waza to the group, but that when I make a whole class of Tokui Waza, they miss the class. One of the people in the class noted that perhaps complaining was their Tokui Waza.
We did some randori sets. I took Lex. the left sided thing is still fun, but, the Harai entry hasn't improved.
For Ne Waza we began working on passing the guard. I want to devote some serious time to improving the passing skills of the club. We talked about passing over controlling the leg on one side I really emphasized using the far foot to come over the near leg and stepping out and passing. The foot over is something I use all of the time and with great success. I emphasized that if they get any one thing from the class today, to try to incorporate this concept into what they are doing.
Passing ran long so we only had time for two sets of Ne Waza and called it a day.
The randori sets are a bit of a blur at this point, so rather than recording them incorrectly I will skip it.
For judo we did a lot of Tokui Waza, giving everyone a chance to work on their favorite techniques. I slid from set to set tweaking things, but mostly let them work on their forward techniques. We did a lot of good work.
I did note that there had been some recent complaining that we needed more time for tokui waza to the group, but that when I make a whole class of Tokui Waza, they miss the class. One of the people in the class noted that perhaps complaining was their Tokui Waza.
We did some randori sets. I took Lex. the left sided thing is still fun, but, the Harai entry hasn't improved.
For Ne Waza we began working on passing the guard. I want to devote some serious time to improving the passing skills of the club. We talked about passing over controlling the leg on one side I really emphasized using the far foot to come over the near leg and stepping out and passing. The foot over is something I use all of the time and with great success. I emphasized that if they get any one thing from the class today, to try to incorporate this concept into what they are doing.
Passing ran long so we only had time for two sets of Ne Waza and called it a day.
The randori sets are a bit of a blur at this point, so rather than recording them incorrectly I will skip it.
Monday, August 23, 2010
8/18/2010
Open mat first. We did some BJJ rules and scoring for those fighting the in house this weekend. Explained the basics of scoring and a little strategy. Mostly for Sarah and Greg. peter had a few questions that we fielded.
Judo 12-15 or so in class. We did some Ouchi Gari I covered a traditional approach and then the drop knee version. Overall it was pretty successful in getting them through the basics as I want it done.
Several sets of randori. I did one with Eric. The left side game I have been playing has been surprisingly perplexing to everyone and I have had more success attacking from it than i actually expected. I didn't throw too much but I hit a big backwards counter. I actually got in for the left sided Uchi mata. Will keep playing with this game while I try to recreate my footwork for harai goshi.
We did the guard jump to Kosoto Gake. Not really Judo Ne Waza but still fun and good to see every so often. We then did the two footed flip for when Uke stands up and you fall off of the closed guard. After a few sets of Ne Waza we called the class.
We did a black belt meeting to talk about some club issues. The first was seeing who was interested in getting coaches certifications and who was interested doing ride alongs to work on teaching classes. Most were interested, so after the coaches cert is done we will start to do some coaching training.
Some suggestions that emerged and my thoughts
- More fundamentals for the white belts in Ne Waza but also in Tachi Waza. The suggestion was to do a fundamental technique with everyone then take the more experienced people to do something else while some continue working on it. I like this but for some techniques I would take some of the green and brown belts to do more while leaving some of the black belts to continue the basic repetitions. I'm not sure how this would fly with the black belts. The Tachi Waza is more doable as I will let more experienced people switch to Tokui Waza sooner.
- Clean the mats more often - I think this was overblown as the mats have rarely been cleaner. I haven't seen ring worm or any of the various funks on anyone since the last split last December, so I'm not too worried about this.
- People not leaving class early- This is another one that doesn't bother me. I don't like people coming late if it's avoidable and I prefer people staying for the whole class, but, if you have to go, I'd rather have you for as much class as possible.
- Kids Program - To be revisited.
- Posters demonstrating Judo throws - minor but, I support it. We/I have more influence now and the Judo program is receiving a more appropriate level of respect so things like this should be pretty doable.
- More Grip fighting - Agreed
- T shirts
- Monthly Thursday night randori/Ne Waza - idea well received
- CPR course - Alma has this one.
I emphasized that I need bodies and want any and all ideas about increasing membership and class attendance.
I Have to check the other things so i don't forget the suggestions.
Judo 12-15 or so in class. We did some Ouchi Gari I covered a traditional approach and then the drop knee version. Overall it was pretty successful in getting them through the basics as I want it done.
Several sets of randori. I did one with Eric. The left side game I have been playing has been surprisingly perplexing to everyone and I have had more success attacking from it than i actually expected. I didn't throw too much but I hit a big backwards counter. I actually got in for the left sided Uchi mata. Will keep playing with this game while I try to recreate my footwork for harai goshi.
We did the guard jump to Kosoto Gake. Not really Judo Ne Waza but still fun and good to see every so often. We then did the two footed flip for when Uke stands up and you fall off of the closed guard. After a few sets of Ne Waza we called the class.
We did a black belt meeting to talk about some club issues. The first was seeing who was interested in getting coaches certifications and who was interested doing ride alongs to work on teaching classes. Most were interested, so after the coaches cert is done we will start to do some coaching training.
Some suggestions that emerged and my thoughts
- More fundamentals for the white belts in Ne Waza but also in Tachi Waza. The suggestion was to do a fundamental technique with everyone then take the more experienced people to do something else while some continue working on it. I like this but for some techniques I would take some of the green and brown belts to do more while leaving some of the black belts to continue the basic repetitions. I'm not sure how this would fly with the black belts. The Tachi Waza is more doable as I will let more experienced people switch to Tokui Waza sooner.
- Clean the mats more often - I think this was overblown as the mats have rarely been cleaner. I haven't seen ring worm or any of the various funks on anyone since the last split last December, so I'm not too worried about this.
- People not leaving class early- This is another one that doesn't bother me. I don't like people coming late if it's avoidable and I prefer people staying for the whole class, but, if you have to go, I'd rather have you for as much class as possible.
- Kids Program - To be revisited.
- Posters demonstrating Judo throws - minor but, I support it. We/I have more influence now and the Judo program is receiving a more appropriate level of respect so things like this should be pretty doable.
- More Grip fighting - Agreed
- T shirts
- Monthly Thursday night randori/Ne Waza - idea well received
- CPR course - Alma has this one.
I emphasized that I need bodies and want any and all ideas about increasing membership and class attendance.
I Have to check the other things so i don't forget the suggestions.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Thursday 8/18/2010
Day class at the Weston - John was running late so I covered the class. I revisited the De la
riva arm hook guard position to show the variations I use. We covered the few grip differences and position differences I like. This is a good position and I like to use it when I'm in trouble. But, I have enough confidence in it, that I don't really practice it much so the refresher was a good thing.
John told me about a recent butt call during the first set.
I rolled with Mike for the second He stood up without engaging which I don't really like, as I feel i should stand up myself then, but, I continued. He made it to my corner and forced me to turtle. He got his hooks in for a score before i could pull him around to the bottom. I went for the pass straight for the knee in the belly which in conjunction with the pass points would have given me the 5 points I need to make up for his four, but he avoided it and the set ended before i could take another shot at the pass.
riva arm hook guard position to show the variations I use. We covered the few grip differences and position differences I like. This is a good position and I like to use it when I'm in trouble. But, I have enough confidence in it, that I don't really practice it much so the refresher was a good thing.
John told me about a recent butt call during the first set.
I rolled with Mike for the second He stood up without engaging which I don't really like, as I feel i should stand up myself then, but, I continued. He made it to my corner and forced me to turtle. He got his hooks in for a score before i could pull him around to the bottom. I went for the pass straight for the knee in the belly which in conjunction with the pass points would have given me the 5 points I need to make up for his four, but he avoided it and the set ended before i could take another shot at the pass.
Tuesday 8/16/2010
Day class at the Weston
John continued the guard sweep work he is doing. I do the de la Riva arm hook sweep series a little differently but its still good for them to see it.
Had a good set with Lex. he pulled and worked his sweep series going for X-Guard and the butterfly sweep back and forth. i had to defend well to avoid it. I was on the run a bit just defending until he got a little tired and made a mistake. Then i used my balance and hip control to slide past his hooks and pass him. As we were moving I managed to mount and interestingly enough managed to trap both of his hands low where he couldn't recover them. This made him and easy target and was a little funny, because he was so screwed.
I took a young guy who I hadn't seen before but had been training in other classes. Moved around with him and passed and then let him regain his guard and transition a bit. Nice easy sweat.
John continued the guard sweep work he is doing. I do the de la Riva arm hook sweep series a little differently but its still good for them to see it.
Had a good set with Lex. he pulled and worked his sweep series going for X-Guard and the butterfly sweep back and forth. i had to defend well to avoid it. I was on the run a bit just defending until he got a little tired and made a mistake. Then i used my balance and hip control to slide past his hooks and pass him. As we were moving I managed to mount and interestingly enough managed to trap both of his hands low where he couldn't recover them. This made him and easy target and was a little funny, because he was so screwed.
I took a young guy who I hadn't seen before but had been training in other classes. Moved around with him and passed and then let him regain his guard and transition a bit. Nice easy sweat.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Monday 8/15/2010
Got caught on a call and missed Kettlebells.
BJJ class - The class started small but people kept coming in until we were up to nearly 20. John did some sweeps in the class. He did a few sweeps where you break the balance of the uke similar to the flower sweep and then come up to the top position. He covered the one with both feet together and both knees inside the elbows of the uke. He had a good emphasis on keeping tight contact with the inside of the elbow and getting a good balance break. he then did the arm de la Riva position I like to use. He did it a little differently including the way he had people coming to the top. I prefer my way, but, I understand he is concerned about a an accidental wrist lock or bicep cutter.
There was a visiting black belt in town, Tom, who is a security head for touring concerts. Mid 30s , 180ish form the Rickson association.
I had Eric S. first. We played from his cross spider position. He threatened but I slipped the position and put pressure on the pass. We are both regaining our feel for the position. Sidenote is that he is shrinking farther and farther from my division. For awhile, he was in the ballpark, but he is down <190. I wish I could say the same.
I had the visiting BB Tom, next. It was a fun set. he was strong and played a tight game. I pulled and he worked on the pass for a bit, then seemed to accept the sweep to get to the bottom. I came up and then it became more interesting. We went back and forth for awhile, I made it to a half guard but never much more progress than that. I baited him to go for a triangle, and he attacked the arm. I was still able to work and pass when he attacked the arm. I made it to side control and then to north south when time expired. Good hard tightly played set. Hopefully he will be back in town again. The last set was Dave O. Pretty typical set. I eventually swept and made it to mount. but didn't submit him.
Judo - We worked on Sasae Tsurikomi Ashi to the sleeve side. More of a drawing out/hiza guruma approach rather than the typical hip/power slam version. I liked the way the class handled it. We also talked about switching to a Bulldog to knock the uke down for a yuko and pinning them when the classic Sasae fails.
We lost Paula who has begun her college experience at Penn State. she has been a great addition to the club while she was with us. A good person and an excellent Judoka. I will be sorry to see her leave us, but, hopefully she will back and visit us when she is in town. She plans to practice with the Penn State Judo team.
For old time sake here and here and here are some of Paula's matches fighting for us over the years.
I covered the Ancona roll again. I think this is such a valuable technique for the club, I get frustrated when we don't use it more often and better than we do. We did a few sets of Ne Waza and called it a night.
One new guy joined us a BJJ guy who trained in Dubai and will be at Wharton for the next two years. He had a hard but good class and will hopefully stick it out with us.
BJJ class - The class started small but people kept coming in until we were up to nearly 20. John did some sweeps in the class. He did a few sweeps where you break the balance of the uke similar to the flower sweep and then come up to the top position. He covered the one with both feet together and both knees inside the elbows of the uke. He had a good emphasis on keeping tight contact with the inside of the elbow and getting a good balance break. he then did the arm de la Riva position I like to use. He did it a little differently including the way he had people coming to the top. I prefer my way, but, I understand he is concerned about a an accidental wrist lock or bicep cutter.
There was a visiting black belt in town, Tom, who is a security head for touring concerts. Mid 30s , 180ish form the Rickson association.
I had Eric S. first. We played from his cross spider position. He threatened but I slipped the position and put pressure on the pass. We are both regaining our feel for the position. Sidenote is that he is shrinking farther and farther from my division. For awhile, he was in the ballpark, but he is down <190. I wish I could say the same.
I had the visiting BB Tom, next. It was a fun set. he was strong and played a tight game. I pulled and he worked on the pass for a bit, then seemed to accept the sweep to get to the bottom. I came up and then it became more interesting. We went back and forth for awhile, I made it to a half guard but never much more progress than that. I baited him to go for a triangle, and he attacked the arm. I was still able to work and pass when he attacked the arm. I made it to side control and then to north south when time expired. Good hard tightly played set. Hopefully he will be back in town again. The last set was Dave O. Pretty typical set. I eventually swept and made it to mount. but didn't submit him.
Judo - We worked on Sasae Tsurikomi Ashi to the sleeve side. More of a drawing out/hiza guruma approach rather than the typical hip/power slam version. I liked the way the class handled it. We also talked about switching to a Bulldog to knock the uke down for a yuko and pinning them when the classic Sasae fails.
We lost Paula who has begun her college experience at Penn State. she has been a great addition to the club while she was with us. A good person and an excellent Judoka. I will be sorry to see her leave us, but, hopefully she will back and visit us when she is in town. She plans to practice with the Penn State Judo team.
For old time sake here and here and here are some of Paula's matches fighting for us over the years.
I covered the Ancona roll again. I think this is such a valuable technique for the club, I get frustrated when we don't use it more often and better than we do. We did a few sets of Ne Waza and called it a night.
One new guy joined us a BJJ guy who trained in Dubai and will be at Wharton for the next two years. He had a hard but good class and will hopefully stick it out with us.
Sunday 8/14/2010
Good Judo class today respectably sized group in attendance with a good mix of ranks sizes etc. I would like to see some more rank in the class as many of the black belts have been conspicuously absent. We focused on the footwork for the Harai Goshi. I realized while watching some videos, that my shoulder issue has led to a footwork problem. I'm not stepping with my support leg on my entry. This is killing my entry and therefore, my technique. I need to get this back. There is no way to hide from it either. I now realize that this problem is what changed me from being always able to enter, even if the technique failed to not being able to enter effectively at all. The class did well with it.
We did 4 sets of randori. I continued with my left sided experiments with reasonable success. I am throwing some left sided ashi waza and threatening more. The Ouchi Gari and the Sasai Tsurikomi Ashi are working a bit. I bang with the Kouchi gari and the Osoto is on the horizon, but haven't hit them yet. The Yoko Tomoe Nage from this grip has been my best technique against good players and feels the cleanest. But, the real revelation is how easy the switch to right sided from this grip has been. It has consistently put me in a very good offensive throwing position. So I will continue playing with this as well as trying to relearn the footwork for the Harai Goshi, which is all I really want anyway.
We worked on some front sankaku practice with pretty good success. I am trying the tight turn approach rather than the open turn approach I have used in the past. I think it went a little better, but it will take some more repetitions to see the final result.
I began telling several of the guys not to let Mike T do his crawling forward guard split that some of them have allowed him to do in the past. He is such a character and shows up so I consider him a challenge. if i can get him through classes I can get nearly anyone through classes. But, I don't want to hear anymore about he has a better way to do Ne Waza and that I should be teaching his way.
We did 4 sets of randori. I continued with my left sided experiments with reasonable success. I am throwing some left sided ashi waza and threatening more. The Ouchi Gari and the Sasai Tsurikomi Ashi are working a bit. I bang with the Kouchi gari and the Osoto is on the horizon, but haven't hit them yet. The Yoko Tomoe Nage from this grip has been my best technique against good players and feels the cleanest. But, the real revelation is how easy the switch to right sided from this grip has been. It has consistently put me in a very good offensive throwing position. So I will continue playing with this as well as trying to relearn the footwork for the Harai Goshi, which is all I really want anyway.
We worked on some front sankaku practice with pretty good success. I am trying the tight turn approach rather than the open turn approach I have used in the past. I think it went a little better, but it will take some more repetitions to see the final result.
I began telling several of the guys not to let Mike T do his crawling forward guard split that some of them have allowed him to do in the past. He is such a character and shows up so I consider him a challenge. if i can get him through classes I can get nearly anyone through classes. But, I don't want to hear anymore about he has a better way to do Ne Waza and that I should be teaching his way.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Friday 8/12/2010
Open Mat at the Weston - First there was just Lex, Steve B and myself. Craig and Jack came in with varying degrees of lateness. I had Steve twice. Very solid sets albeit similar to the ones we have had. He hasn't been able to sweep me but has been difficult to pass. When I did pass, only once was I able to advance my position, getting to the mount. Typically he was able to regain his guard and then I would be forced to pass again. Good sets, but, I remain a bit of a bad match up for him .Jack is having trouble and is in a little over his head with the group here, though he and Craig have pretty decent sets. Lex is a very good addition to the Friday group and will add another fun set to the mix. Craig has been steady but I need to work on his basic split of the guard. he is trying to use his elbow to dig inside rather than pressuring the ankles and this isn't helping him.
All in all a good 40 minutes or so of solid training. Pretty good for a Friday afternoon.
All in all a good 40 minutes or so of solid training. Pretty good for a Friday afternoon.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Tuesday 8/9/2010
BJJ at the Weston - John did some more of the closed guard sweeps as from the Monday night class.
I rolled one long (8+) minutes set with Craig, who continues to do well. He still has technical weaknesses but his fighting spirit is excellent as well as his work ethic. He is improving and plays very hard. He actually had me retreating from his guard pass and he forced me to bail just because he is strong and came at me hard. Good solid set.
I rolled one long (8+) minutes set with Craig, who continues to do well. He still has technical weaknesses but his fighting spirit is excellent as well as his work ethic. He is improving and plays very hard. He actually had me retreating from his guard pass and he forced me to bail just because he is strong and came at me hard. Good solid set.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Monday 8/9/2010
No Kettlebells I was caught at work so was a little late.
BJJ - John covered some basic closed guard sweeps (scissors sweep - hip bump sweep, Fima sweep)
I did three purple belt sets Dave O first who is playing hard and pretty well right now. I concede him some advantageous positions and he maintains them for a bit. he still can't stop the butterfly sweep, very well, but, if I let him get to half guard he was able to make me bail to a turtle. He tried to wrap the tail of his jacket around my neck to go for a choke. He was just across my face and irritated me quite a bit. I reversed him, then passed and kee in the belly and mount. The set ended here.
I had Mike B. next - He stood and I went De la Riva and kept him bent over and swept him. I stayed in side control for awhile before he regained his guard and I passed again. His defense from the position was solid, but he was unable to reverse me. He is refusing to go for a triangle, so I forced the one in and one out position and passed from there.
Last set was with Eric S. He pulled to work his cross spider position. We are both refamiliarizing ourselves with the position. He went for a few things but, i was able to get him to some bad spots and pass, but was unable to advance my position.
Judo. The warmups went well and quickly. They are understanding and doing better at the drills we are doing. Still waiting for the techniques to show up in ne waza more, but I am starting to see it.
We did a lot of structured work recently so i let everyone work on Tokui Waza. I did some left sided work with Eric. I did left Ouchi Gari, Kouchi Gari and Osoto Gari. I also did soe Seoi Nage as a prelude to working on the drop seoi to the left side, which my body finds horrifying and refuses to do. I threw the Seoi Nage some and it felt surprisingly good. Old friend and training partner, Mike Bowman came to class. He seems to be committed to starting back with us. Hopefully he will stick it out. He worked with Eric a bit. Need to make sure he doesn't throw himself in too deep too soon, as i want him to build up a bit first.
We did 3-4 sets of randori and called it a night for stand up.
I covered switching to the belly down armlock from the mount when the Uke throws you off. There was a lot more trouble with this technique than I expected. This seems quite easy to me, but most people couldn't/wouldn't keep the arm tight and high enough on the chest. We will have to revisit it. Part of it is the feel for how an armlock is applied properly, as with the similar troubles we had applying chokes. So as the familiarity increases I think the techniques will improve. If you understand the proper application of the choke or armlock, the different techniques are just changes in details. When you don't, the details often end up misapplied.
We did a few sets of Ne Waza and called it a night.
BJJ - John covered some basic closed guard sweeps (scissors sweep - hip bump sweep, Fima sweep)
I did three purple belt sets Dave O first who is playing hard and pretty well right now. I concede him some advantageous positions and he maintains them for a bit. he still can't stop the butterfly sweep, very well, but, if I let him get to half guard he was able to make me bail to a turtle. He tried to wrap the tail of his jacket around my neck to go for a choke. He was just across my face and irritated me quite a bit. I reversed him, then passed and kee in the belly and mount. The set ended here.
I had Mike B. next - He stood and I went De la Riva and kept him bent over and swept him. I stayed in side control for awhile before he regained his guard and I passed again. His defense from the position was solid, but he was unable to reverse me. He is refusing to go for a triangle, so I forced the one in and one out position and passed from there.
Last set was with Eric S. He pulled to work his cross spider position. We are both refamiliarizing ourselves with the position. He went for a few things but, i was able to get him to some bad spots and pass, but was unable to advance my position.
Judo. The warmups went well and quickly. They are understanding and doing better at the drills we are doing. Still waiting for the techniques to show up in ne waza more, but I am starting to see it.
We did a lot of structured work recently so i let everyone work on Tokui Waza. I did some left sided work with Eric. I did left Ouchi Gari, Kouchi Gari and Osoto Gari. I also did soe Seoi Nage as a prelude to working on the drop seoi to the left side, which my body finds horrifying and refuses to do. I threw the Seoi Nage some and it felt surprisingly good. Old friend and training partner, Mike Bowman came to class. He seems to be committed to starting back with us. Hopefully he will stick it out. He worked with Eric a bit. Need to make sure he doesn't throw himself in too deep too soon, as i want him to build up a bit first.
We did 3-4 sets of randori and called it a night for stand up.
I covered switching to the belly down armlock from the mount when the Uke throws you off. There was a lot more trouble with this technique than I expected. This seems quite easy to me, but most people couldn't/wouldn't keep the arm tight and high enough on the chest. We will have to revisit it. Part of it is the feel for how an armlock is applied properly, as with the similar troubles we had applying chokes. So as the familiarity increases I think the techniques will improve. If you understand the proper application of the choke or armlock, the different techniques are just changes in details. When you don't, the details often end up misapplied.
We did a few sets of Ne Waza and called it a night.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Sunday 8/8/2010
Smallish Judo class, just seven of us. I was discombobulated the entire class, though this led to an interesting thought. I was on time but realized I had forgotten my gi. so i had to wait for Beth to drop it off when she went out, so I was about 20 minutes late coming upstairs. Alma warmed up the class and started with some three man drills. The timing of the class was a mess for me. The two clocks were 20 minutes apart. I was looking at each of them some of the time so it through off my timing for the class. We did some fits and throws then some randori. I took Scott S. I was so out of sorts I decided to play left sided. I hit some left sided ashi waza scores with him and switched to right sided and was in a very good position. It seemed to screw him up quite a bit. So I made this my theme for the day. In the four sets I did I found that I was able to hit an OK, left Ouchi Gari, an OK left sided Sasae Tsurikomi Ashi and Osoto Gari. I threatened and rocked people with a Kouchi Gari and had poor attempts at left forward techniques. with everyone wen I switched back to right I was in a very good position, including securing several good belt grips. I think that I will make getting an effective left sided game my current project. It wold seem appropriate for a Yodan to be able to perform left sided techniques so this makes sense.
For those who don't know me, I am dedicated right sided player. I don't do anything well on the left side. I can teach it and I can demonstrate it but not use it competitively. My body is totally unwilling to enter to the left. Trying to get my body to drop left sided for a seoi nage is actually comical. I like how it opened up the opportunity to get to the right side in a tight offensive position. It's a little funny but the reference that flashed into my head was when Mickey got Rocky to switch to a conventional right sided fighter from his old school southpaw slugger style, then late in the fight wanted Rocky to switch back to southpaw. Rocky kept saying how he didn't want to use any tricks and wouldn't switch. This is sort of the exact opposite of me and I, of course, am more than happy to use tricks so I will play with this a bit.
Here is the end of Rocky 2 poorly dubbed into Spanish, which gave me a chuckle.
For ne waza we did the Ancona Roll. It went OK, but still needed work. This is such a simple fundamental technique especially for the clubs veterans, I sometimes struggle getting the new people to do it as well as I would like. But it will go into the list of things to practice and do better. two sets of Ne Waza then we called it a day.
For those who don't know me, I am dedicated right sided player. I don't do anything well on the left side. I can teach it and I can demonstrate it but not use it competitively. My body is totally unwilling to enter to the left. Trying to get my body to drop left sided for a seoi nage is actually comical. I like how it opened up the opportunity to get to the right side in a tight offensive position. It's a little funny but the reference that flashed into my head was when Mickey got Rocky to switch to a conventional right sided fighter from his old school southpaw slugger style, then late in the fight wanted Rocky to switch back to southpaw. Rocky kept saying how he didn't want to use any tricks and wouldn't switch. This is sort of the exact opposite of me and I, of course, am more than happy to use tricks so I will play with this a bit.
Here is the end of Rocky 2 poorly dubbed into Spanish, which gave me a chuckle.
For ne waza we did the Ancona Roll. It went OK, but still needed work. This is such a simple fundamental technique especially for the clubs veterans, I sometimes struggle getting the new people to do it as well as I would like. But it will go into the list of things to practice and do better. two sets of Ne Waza then we called it a day.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
8/6/2010
BJJ open mat at the Weston
Good training today. No Chris but, we had 6 of us, Steve B., Marty, Blue John, Craig, Jack and myself. the additions of Marty and Steve to the usual suspects is an excellent change of pace. I am a little bit of a bad match up for Steve just by style of play, but he plays such a solid technical game, I really enjoy it. I pulled and swept from a bit of a scramble. Then worked to half guard and then passed. He avoided the mount and made it back to half guard. I passed again and time expired before anything else happened. I had a couple of interesting exchanges with Marty. I went rubber guard on the left side to go for the Oma Plata. He ripped loose, but I switched right away to the opposite side and caught it, forced him to accept the sweep then caught him. same thing two times in a row. Maybe try to create this left to right situation more often. It flowed nicely together. The other sets were pretty standard. We did 7- 5 minute sets so a nice sweat for a Friday afternoon.
Good training today. No Chris but, we had 6 of us, Steve B., Marty, Blue John, Craig, Jack and myself. the additions of Marty and Steve to the usual suspects is an excellent change of pace. I am a little bit of a bad match up for Steve just by style of play, but he plays such a solid technical game, I really enjoy it. I pulled and swept from a bit of a scramble. Then worked to half guard and then passed. He avoided the mount and made it back to half guard. I passed again and time expired before anything else happened. I had a couple of interesting exchanges with Marty. I went rubber guard on the left side to go for the Oma Plata. He ripped loose, but I switched right away to the opposite side and caught it, forced him to accept the sweep then caught him. same thing two times in a row. Maybe try to create this left to right situation more often. It flowed nicely together. The other sets were pretty standard. We did 7- 5 minute sets so a nice sweat for a Friday afternoon.
8/5/2010 - The Yodan Promotion
Tonight Alma and myself were awarded our Yodan (fourth degree black belt) in Judo. This is obviously a big promotion and I have had a lot of mixed feelings about it. While it is a great honor and recognition of a lot of years of hard work there were also some unfortunate elements and thought that came up for me along with all of the positive.
First the details.A large group was in attendance. This made me feel good as some of them came specifically for the opportunity to be part of this promotion with us. Among the visitors (all former club members who haven't been with us in some considerable time) were Rich Callahan, his brother Kevin Callahan and old training partner and club members Will Dampier and Dave Dawson. The room was quite full and rather hot. I led a warm up, then we jumped directly into randori. we played 5 sets at a time and did somewhere between 10 and 15 - 3 minute sets. The sets are on video and are mostly a blur. I will have to go back and see how many I did and who I had.
Randori Video 1
Randori Video 2
Randori Video 3
Randori Video 4
Randori Video 5
Randori Hilight video
By the time we stopped I was tired but felt good to have done the sets despite my advancing decrepitude. I didn't do every set and there were certainly people I would have liked to have had in training who I missed, but, it was still a very good work out. In fact it went so well and everyone enjoyed it so much, I think I will do it every so often. Just come in and do a big open randori session then do a big ne waza session.
While jumping through all of the hoops and paperwork issues we had to get the promotion application in a reviewable format, it quickly became apparent that I lacked any urgency to get it done. Both Art and alma pursued it more aggressively. I think this was largely, though not exclusively because of the importance and symbolism of this particular promotion. The Yodan promotion and subsequent promotions are generally viewed as an instructor promotions. It is symbolic (to me at least of the end of the competitive career and the focus as an instructor. I'm proud to have earned this opportunity with 1000s of hours on the mat learning and teaching, but, it rankles me that I have to face the end of my competitive career. I was never a great competitor, but I was a pretty good one considering when i began Judo I think I reached my ceiling. I don't think I could have been much better than I was without quitting the rest of my life and walking the earth doing Judo. I'm a little too rational for that so I feel reasonably comfortable with my competitive career. There were certainly matched I could have and should have won and tournaments I could have fought that i found a reason not to do. But, in general, I'm comfortable with what I did as a competitor. However I don't feel like I am ready to accept that it's over. I still feel that I have some (Masters) matched to fight. so, as a result, when I was reflecting on what class to run to celebrate the promotion, it struck me to do the opposite of our regular formalized promotion. I decided to just do what I love best in Judo, warm up, then get a bunch of my friends together and bang heads in randori with them until everyone is dripping in sweat and too tired to do anymore. That has always been what I loved most in Judo so that is what we did. It was also symbolic of the idea that I am not done with competing and fighting, competition may think it's done with me, but I'm not done yet.
Alma did a great Kata demonstration of a very rarely seen Kata as her part of the promotion. I think it will be up on Youtube eventually. If so I will link to it.
Itsutsu No Kata
Art, Rich alma and myself all said (more than) a few words. It was great to hear so many good things and intelligent reflections from them both. Art is someone I respect and I have a great deal of affection and admiration for him. I didn't learn everything I know in Judo from him, but, everything I learned was due to the opportunities he has afforded me to be a member and an instructor in the club.
I had the chance to share some of my own thoughts on how important the club is to me. The Judo club is my home and everyone in it is my family. It kills me when they get hurt, I glory with them they win, I find a silver lining when they lose, I lose my shit when a referee costs them a match, and so much more because they really are all my brothers and sisters. I always try to get people into the club, firstly because it really is the best thing I have ever done and I am baffled when someone tries it fails to agree with me. I guess it's possible not to love doing Judo, I just can't imagine it. But, also, whenever we get a new member, I get a new member of my extended family. Some I like better than others, some are better fighters than others. but, one has little to do with the other. You always like some members of your family more than others, but, at the end of the day, you go to the wall for any of them.
The club is strong right now and has been for some time. Art and Rich both mentioned how the Philadelphia Judo club can trace an unbroken line from 1948 until now. sometimes it may have lost the path for a time and sometimes things were better than others, but, There was never a break. I'm genuinely proud that we are strong and successful on my link in the chain of the instructors. I want to make us larger and stronger with more and better players, but, I will take the people we have right now and take my chances. It's an excellent group. They are talented but, more importantly they work very hard, they compete, they win and lose with grace, dignity and pride and I feel fortunate to be associated with them.
First the details.A large group was in attendance. This made me feel good as some of them came specifically for the opportunity to be part of this promotion with us. Among the visitors (all former club members who haven't been with us in some considerable time) were Rich Callahan, his brother Kevin Callahan and old training partner and club members Will Dampier and Dave Dawson. The room was quite full and rather hot. I led a warm up, then we jumped directly into randori. we played 5 sets at a time and did somewhere between 10 and 15 - 3 minute sets. The sets are on video and are mostly a blur. I will have to go back and see how many I did and who I had.
Randori Video 1
Randori Video 2
Randori Video 3
Randori Video 4
Randori Video 5
Randori Hilight video
By the time we stopped I was tired but felt good to have done the sets despite my advancing decrepitude. I didn't do every set and there were certainly people I would have liked to have had in training who I missed, but, it was still a very good work out. In fact it went so well and everyone enjoyed it so much, I think I will do it every so often. Just come in and do a big open randori session then do a big ne waza session.
While jumping through all of the hoops and paperwork issues we had to get the promotion application in a reviewable format, it quickly became apparent that I lacked any urgency to get it done. Both Art and alma pursued it more aggressively. I think this was largely, though not exclusively because of the importance and symbolism of this particular promotion. The Yodan promotion and subsequent promotions are generally viewed as an instructor promotions. It is symbolic (to me at least of the end of the competitive career and the focus as an instructor. I'm proud to have earned this opportunity with 1000s of hours on the mat learning and teaching, but, it rankles me that I have to face the end of my competitive career. I was never a great competitor, but I was a pretty good one considering when i began Judo I think I reached my ceiling. I don't think I could have been much better than I was without quitting the rest of my life and walking the earth doing Judo. I'm a little too rational for that so I feel reasonably comfortable with my competitive career. There were certainly matched I could have and should have won and tournaments I could have fought that i found a reason not to do. But, in general, I'm comfortable with what I did as a competitor. However I don't feel like I am ready to accept that it's over. I still feel that I have some (Masters) matched to fight. so, as a result, when I was reflecting on what class to run to celebrate the promotion, it struck me to do the opposite of our regular formalized promotion. I decided to just do what I love best in Judo, warm up, then get a bunch of my friends together and bang heads in randori with them until everyone is dripping in sweat and too tired to do anymore. That has always been what I loved most in Judo so that is what we did. It was also symbolic of the idea that I am not done with competing and fighting, competition may think it's done with me, but I'm not done yet.
Alma did a great Kata demonstration of a very rarely seen Kata as her part of the promotion. I think it will be up on Youtube eventually. If so I will link to it.
Itsutsu No Kata
Art, Rich alma and myself all said (more than) a few words. It was great to hear so many good things and intelligent reflections from them both. Art is someone I respect and I have a great deal of affection and admiration for him. I didn't learn everything I know in Judo from him, but, everything I learned was due to the opportunities he has afforded me to be a member and an instructor in the club.
I had the chance to share some of my own thoughts on how important the club is to me. The Judo club is my home and everyone in it is my family. It kills me when they get hurt, I glory with them they win, I find a silver lining when they lose, I lose my shit when a referee costs them a match, and so much more because they really are all my brothers and sisters. I always try to get people into the club, firstly because it really is the best thing I have ever done and I am baffled when someone tries it fails to agree with me. I guess it's possible not to love doing Judo, I just can't imagine it. But, also, whenever we get a new member, I get a new member of my extended family. Some I like better than others, some are better fighters than others. but, one has little to do with the other. You always like some members of your family more than others, but, at the end of the day, you go to the wall for any of them.
The club is strong right now and has been for some time. Art and Rich both mentioned how the Philadelphia Judo club can trace an unbroken line from 1948 until now. sometimes it may have lost the path for a time and sometimes things were better than others, but, There was never a break. I'm genuinely proud that we are strong and successful on my link in the chain of the instructors. I want to make us larger and stronger with more and better players, but, I will take the people we have right now and take my chances. It's an excellent group. They are talented but, more importantly they work very hard, they compete, they win and lose with grace, dignity and pride and I feel fortunate to be associated with them.
Monday, August 09, 2010
8/5/2010
Open Mat No bells tonight as it was going to be busy. I got to open mat uncertain who would be there and just expecting to warm up. Greg, Peter and Sarah were there. We covered some questions on generating Kazushi and passing the butterfly guard then we trained a few sets. I had a good roll with greg who is getting better in Ne Waza quite quickly. His stand up is potentially devastating and his mat work is improving rapidly.
8/5/2010
Thursday Day class at the Weston - I covered the class again. I did the underhook half guard pass, but i did the version where you go belly down on the side away from the underhook rather than tripoding up which I find can give the opportunity for the bottom guy to regain guard. This also how Brian popped my knee and sent me to surgery by locking it and twisting it to the other side. I also
I also covered briefly the pass where you stay low and kick back through his half guard after you have flattened him and the one where you stay high and turn to the hips. Really too much information but, I don't get to show things all of the time and they were doing well with it so I ran with it and showed all three.
I had them do 2 longer sets rather than three short ones.
I also covered briefly the pass where you stay low and kick back through his half guard after you have flattened him and the one where you stay high and turn to the hips. Really too much information but, I don't get to show things all of the time and they were doing well with it so I ran with it and showed all three.
I had them do 2 longer sets rather than three short ones.
Thursday, August 05, 2010
8/3/2010
BJJ at the Weston - I covered the class and continued the half guard passing that John was doing. I did the head control pass with the gi lapel trap, which is how I prefer it. I also did the back take when they escape the arm that Sharon showed me. They liked that and I actually saw it hit at least once during training.
I had them do half guard positional training and then did 2 sets of matwork.
I had them do half guard positional training and then did 2 sets of matwork.
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Monday 8/2/2010
Kettlebells - It's amazing how much I dislike some of the joint mobility stuff but how hard in a good way some of the kettlebell work outs can be. Alma went through the warmups, of which i like (and do on my own) the kettlebell ones and hate the joint mobility ones. The work was a double bell work out and the first thing i have done except go to the beach or the pool in 10 days. I let my ego push me and took two 20kgs. Very tough workout, so tough i thought I may have hurt my back, but, must have just pushed it tot he edge as it feels good the next day.
Tired for BJJ -15 or so people, so a bit smaller than what we have had lately on Monday. For some reason most of the girls weren't in tonight which makes up the difference.
John is doing half guard passes. He did a head control pass but without holding the lapel and the tripod version of the underhook pass. I use both but prefer the head control with the lapel trap and the belly down version of the underhook, so it was interesting to see the details of the differences in his version.
I rolled with Dave Oh first. I wnet for the basic hook sweep but tried a variant where i kick his support leg out. He went over but scrambled back much quicker than i expected so i ended up in half guard on the bottom. nearly swept a few times but time ran out in that position.
I also rolled with mike B. he stood and I went De La Riva and trapped his near leg. i kept his posture broken and swept him directly to side control. He did a very good job avoiding the mount and knee in the belly eventually he turned belly down. I took the back without hooks, but he may have been to curled up to get points. I was working behind him when time expired.
There was another set that i don't recall.
Judo - Alma led the warm ups which went well. I did the outside Sume Gaeshi from the right on left. I emphasized keeping the weight on the outside of the knee to avoid getting the weight on your hips and squashed. We also did the grip break and the technique from right on right. Mostly went well, but they actually did better right on left.
They did three good sets of randori.
Between the difficulties some had with the new technique and the intensity of the randori, i wanted to slow the Ne Waza down a bit. For ne waza we worked on the anatomy of the back choke, correctly applying it. We then did the checkmate version, for lack of a better name as i have decided to call it
2 sets of Ne Waza then we were done.
Tired for BJJ -15 or so people, so a bit smaller than what we have had lately on Monday. For some reason most of the girls weren't in tonight which makes up the difference.
John is doing half guard passes. He did a head control pass but without holding the lapel and the tripod version of the underhook pass. I use both but prefer the head control with the lapel trap and the belly down version of the underhook, so it was interesting to see the details of the differences in his version.
I rolled with Dave Oh first. I wnet for the basic hook sweep but tried a variant where i kick his support leg out. He went over but scrambled back much quicker than i expected so i ended up in half guard on the bottom. nearly swept a few times but time ran out in that position.
I also rolled with mike B. he stood and I went De La Riva and trapped his near leg. i kept his posture broken and swept him directly to side control. He did a very good job avoiding the mount and knee in the belly eventually he turned belly down. I took the back without hooks, but he may have been to curled up to get points. I was working behind him when time expired.
There was another set that i don't recall.
Judo - Alma led the warm ups which went well. I did the outside Sume Gaeshi from the right on left. I emphasized keeping the weight on the outside of the knee to avoid getting the weight on your hips and squashed. We also did the grip break and the technique from right on right. Mostly went well, but they actually did better right on left.
They did three good sets of randori.
Between the difficulties some had with the new technique and the intensity of the randori, i wanted to slow the Ne Waza down a bit. For ne waza we worked on the anatomy of the back choke, correctly applying it. We then did the checkmate version, for lack of a better name as i have decided to call it
2 sets of Ne Waza then we were done.
Monday, August 02, 2010
7/19/2010-7/23/2010 Catch up post.
I did my normal schedule for the week of 7/19-7/23
Monday Kettlebells, BJJ and Judo
Tuesday Day class at the Weston
Thursday Kettlebells, Open Mat and Judo
Friday Weston Open Mat
Then the family and I went on vacation. I had intended to catch up, but, the beach house didn't have internet access, so I will punt the details of these classes and start fresh tomorrow.
Kudos to my people who competed in both BJJ and Judo while I was gone. It's good to see them carrying the flag successfully.
Monday Kettlebells, BJJ and Judo
Tuesday Day class at the Weston
Thursday Kettlebells, Open Mat and Judo
Friday Weston Open Mat
Then the family and I went on vacation. I had intended to catch up, but, the beach house didn't have internet access, so I will punt the details of these classes and start fresh tomorrow.
Kudos to my people who competed in both BJJ and Judo while I was gone. It's good to see them carrying the flag successfully.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)