Judo adventures - Class 44

[yuuago]

Attending: Me, J, M, Jo, Si, L. O also came again. We also had a new person, M2. Instructing: Sensei and R-sensei, who was involved with the club in the past and is now coming back to it as an assistant instructor.

Anyway! Today was throwing. We focused on technique for osoto-gari and ouchi-gari, then moved from technique to throwing practice.

I was with J as usual. I've noticed that sometimes he isn't confident with technique when we initially start something, so he ends up trying different things until he gets it right, making adjustments as needed - and that helps me too, because I can use observations from what he's doing (or not doing) to figure out how I should proceed.

Me 'n J did throwing on both the crash mats and on the firm mat. The crash mats are a soft landing, but... they kind of get in the way, and if you don't get the distance right, it's hard to do it properly. It's easier to execute a throw when you aren't using them. But the disadvantage of not using them is - well, falling. J seemed to think I was concerned about my head, but it isn't that; I'm pretty good at tucking it in at this point. But I do worry about what a bad fall could do to my hips and so on (I'm not sure he realizes that; I think sometimes he forgets that I'm literally twice his age). ...But anyway, the only way to get better at falling is to actually do it, so. Onward!

After that, short randori. One round with J - I ended up almost totally gassed out after that, whew. Managed to actually get him on the mat one time, though!

Then a round with R-sensei. Dude's well-balanced and built like a brick, so following through with the throws was very difficult. I did get lots of good attempts in though, so overall I'm happy with how I did there. :V

Thursday's class is now confirmed to permanently have the earlier time slot. So, I'm happy with that - it's much more convenient for me.