Judo adventures - summer session 13

[yuuago]

Attending: Me and C. T-sensei was instructing.

It's been a while since we were able to have a weekend class. I was really glad that I was able to go today! Since it was just me and C, we were able to get some very thorough one-on-one discussion.

T-sensei talked a little about kata, since as I advance I'll need to focus on that. Not anything specific that I will note down here, but it does seem like there is more to it than just, like, throwing correctly. I'm going to have to make a note to look up more information on studying it. And/or ask him for suggestions of how to learn more. Obviously it's like, not something I need to be thinking about right now (or ever - I mean, I don't know if I will ever get to the point where I'm preparing for a kata test) but it won't hurt to know about what goes into it.

We worked a bit on variants of upright arm bars. We don't usually do these in class, so it was a bit of a change of pace. I don't know if I'll remember any of these, but we'll see.

Anyway. We worked on tomoe-nage, AKA circle throw. This throw is kind of intense, but also very cool. We worked on doing it backward, when you're pulling your opponent back; we also worked on a version where you're moving sideways and then throw them kind of diagonally. Procedure is pretty much the same. The main issue/thing to keep in mind is that your foot needs to come up to their hip before you drop down; part of the momentum comes from your foot there. The second thing to keep in mind is that your other foot needs to stay on the ground, not go up. So if your left foot is on their hip and you are dropping to throw them backward, your right foot needs to stay on the ground, rather than going up like the left one is doing. And also you need to keep a hold of your opponent, not letting them go.

One of the reasons for holding on - aside from the usual - is that if you can keep a grip on them, then you can use the combination of the grip + the momentum of them going up over your head in order to, after they are on the ground, roll backward and end up in mount position for a hold-down. It seems like something that would require a lot of practice but would be super cool if you could pull it off.

Aside from that, we did a drill where one of us was selected to practice throws; we'd grip and move around, and T-sensei would call out a throw, and the person whose turn it was would do that throw. It's basically a check of whether you actually recall what the name of the throws are, and also speed/reflexes. I did... uh... not as well as I would have liked, but eh.

In all, it was a really productive class, and I'm glad we were able to do it.