Judo adventures - Class 67

[yuuago]

Class was cancelled on Tuesday, so this was the only class this week.

Attending: Me, J, M, M2, G, and a new blue belt whose name I didn't catch. Sensei instructing, V assisting.

Mixture of groundwork and upright today.

Started off with some chokes. Clock choke first, then bow and arrow, and then a third version that sensei referred to as helicopter choke. That one's kind of similar to bow and arrow, in that it involves a scoop + rollover, but the procedure's a little different.

For bow and arrow, you grip high with left hand when opponent is in turtle, and then step over and wedge your right heel in between their elbow and knee. Then you scoop their leg and roll to the right (over your shoulder), and once you're in a sitting position, you lean back. For helicopter - it's the same high grip with the left hand. Then you step over with the right foot - and then step again to bring the right foot to the other side, next to their left shoulder. Then you put weight on them, scoop their right arm with your right arm, and roll. It's kind of tricky, but really nasty.

After that, groundwork randori. Did a round with J, then M, then G. Turned out pretty well - I managed to get a really good choke on M, which was surprising because normally he totally flattens me.

(During a break, I had to help J tie his hair back. Dude doesn't know how to tie his own hair. Buddy, if you're going to wear it that long, you realllly gotta' learn how to do this... but I digress.)

Then upright. We worked on koshi-guruma. Did a variation where instead of gripping sleeve, you grip the left lapel (your left side/opponent's right side). This way, when you go in for the throw with your right arm over their shoulders, it's easier to use the left grip for strong balance breaking.

Randori after that. Once with J, once with M. Managed to get M down with a left-handed ippon-seoinage, which pleased me a lot. Didn't succeed in any of my other attempts on either of them, though. ;p

Looking forward to next week! :V