Judo adventures - Class 47

[yuuago]

Had to skip a few classes due to being ill, so today was class 47.

Attending: Me, J, L, Si, O, M, (and one guy from a previous class whose name I don't remember yet...). Sensei instructing.

Also, R was back for the first time since early January, after having to take time off for surgery. He says he's feeling really good now, so hopefully he'll be able to continue coming.

And also a new person, A; he's retired, and has some grandkids in one of Sensei's younger classes. He's an orange belt, but hasn't done judo for several years, and is hoping to get back into it.

We also had VP, a yellow belt who I've met previously at a meeting for more organizational-related judo stuff. At that time, I had been thinking about doing some volunteering for fundraising, but couldn't fit it into my schedule.

I was paired with VP for most of today. All groundwork, as typical for Tuesdays. We were mostly working on stuff to do when someone's in the guard position.

Worked on sweeps; first scissor sweep, and then second, one that I don't remember the name of. The second one works best when the attacker is grasping with right hand the opposite lapel of the person in guard (so, guard's right side, attacker's left). Procedure for the second one: Person in guard grasps high with right hand, toward back of the neck of person attacking. With left hand, sweeps attacking person's elbow/arm toward the right; then clasps hand behind attacker and pulls in to immobilize. From there, you can easily flip them over and get them into a submission.

Also worked on basic guard passes. We tried three different ones of varying difficulty. The one that works best for me is when you grasp the pants, pin the legs with that, and simultaneously move to the opposite side to get past the guard. I can move very quickly that way. ...Can't even remember the second technique we tried for this, actually. The third one was a really awkward procedure, where the person trying to get past grasps the person in guard by the knees, flattens out, and then from there moves to the side. It feels so inelegant! I don't know what I'm doing wrong that makes it so hard!

After that, we did a few rounds of practice - one person attacking, the other defending, etc.

VP was nice and fun to work with. She says she's going to try to come to class more often, so we'll see.

This weekend coming up there's a big competition in the provincial capital. Like, huge. I didn't get a chance to ask J about that, but I'm assuming he's going to it.

Sensei mentioned a rumour that for next year, the club is trying to get its own space. I really hope that will be successful - the current space we're using is a convenient location, but since it's a school gym, the times we can use it are limited. It would be great if the club could make its own hours and get more mat time for everybody.