Judo adventures - Class 38

[yuuago]

Attending: Me, L, J, M. T-sensei instructing.

We paired off, and started with an exercise where - you grip your partner, and go in as if to throw, but no drop, and no follow-through; and do the positioning of as many throws as you can think of. Like, you focus more on footwork and speed than the precise correct positioning, and your partner is mainly a prop to move against.

Then we briefly covered the ouchi-gari throw; I can't remember if we've done this one before, but if we did, it was only once. It's... hm. It looked so easy when T-sensei did it - step toward opponent and pull them toward you, bring your support leg behind your advancing leg, then reap inwardly with your advancing leg - destabilize, and send your opponent backward. But I had trouble getting it right, but J also found it tricky. Need more practice with that one.

Then, groundwork randori with J. He kicked my ass per usual. But I successfully evaded twice, and he only got me in a proper lock once, so I'm going to count that as a win.

Toward the end, T-sensei had L and J go together for some formal upright work (me and M sat out). Basically, he had them go against each other as if for a tournament, since they're both competing in one coming up soon. It was really cool to watch them; they're both really good at what they do in different ways, and it was great to see them against each other.

Judo is like... it's tough, but when everything all comes together, it can be really beautiful to watch.

(And we ran over time by almost half an hour and now I need to go to bed aaaaagh.)

Comments

[octahedrite]

Ouchi gari is SO fun though. We drilled it for an hour (yes a whole hour) once and my legs started shaking by the end. But it's neat!

Also, is it ashiwaza week at your dojo? xD