Judo adventures - class 19

[yuuago]

Today was me, J, K-kun, K-chan, and S, with T-sensei instructing.

Started off with some throw review, and I was paired with K-chan for that. She still seemed very tentative, though not quite as much as previous. I'm still not sure if it's a confidence issue, or if she just thinks she's not strong enough to throw me (maybe both?).

The rest of the class was grappling techniques. We reviewed kesa-gatame, kata-gatame, kami-shiho-gatame, and errr a few other techniques that I don't remember the names of. It was tricky, because we haven't done much with these specifically, so half the struggle for me is remembering the process in the first place, let alone getting the technique right.

Then we learned a strangling technique that I really wish I could remember the name of. It's a super nasty one that you do when both people are on their knees. The process is something like - tori gets uke's head underneath their right arm, and grasps uke's collar (on tori's left side/uke's right) with right hand. Then tori's left arm goes up underneath uke's right arm; at this point you can grasp, but depending on some factors you might not even have to do that. And then tori basically rolls the uke over to get them into the strangle.

I'm describing it very poorly, but it results in a really intense choke and I'm definitely going to have to ask T-sensei next class what the hell this one was called, so I can look it up for proper reference.

K-chan is too young to learn strangles yet (according to T-sensei). So I was paired with J for this. He's very noodly, so it took us a moment before he figured out how to get a proper tight hold on me. Still, whew. It's very effective.

We did manage to fit in randori toward the end of class. Paired with J, finally. It's been a while since I was able to have a go with him, and I really missed this! 'Course, my technique is uhhhh very lacking, so he was able to get me in a hold a few times, but I sure didn't make it easy for him.

Then I went a couple rounds with K-chan, who seems to like groundwork. It's kind of a mixed bag with her - she isn't much of a challenge for me, but the upside of that is sometimes I can get her situated so I can actually practice the formal techniques we've been learning.

tl;dr Fun class, looking forward to the next one, wish I was better at remembering things. (One of these days, it'll all stick.)