Judo adventures 3.11

[yuuago]

Attending: Me, TJ, Co, SJ, C, and H. T-sensei instructing.

Saturday class! Longer than the usual - this one was 1.5 hours rather than the typical 1 hour.

I think 6 is the ideal class size, comparing this one to the last. Maybe 8 maximum. When it's smallish like this, you have lots of room on the mat, and more opportunity for one-on-one instruction. Anyway.

We mostly did drills and stuff today; no new material. So, we worked on uchikomi; I partnered with TJ and later H for that.

After that, we worked on entering, and doing that as much as possible. The general concept is that if you wait for the best opportunity, then you won't enter at all, so you need to be proactive and enter at every opportunity. I partnered with TJ, H, and then C. Ended up pushing myself really hard; got very tired from that.

T-sensei also went on to explain that combinations are important; that you can use a failed enter as a setup for another one. The important thing is to keep entering. Of course, this requires practice, so that the movement is automatic - if you're thinking about it too much, you're unlikely to actually take the opportunity to enter.

I really enjoyed having the extra class (especially since it was smaller and longer than the regular). I'm going to do my best to keep up with the Saturday classes as long as they're available. They're aimed more at the competitors, but I think I will get a lot of benefit from it. It's kind of exhausting, though - they're at 10AM, so like, I need to get early, haul ass to buy my groceries and take them home (because I always do that first thing on the Saturday morning), and then run down to class. But that's okay. I felt kind of... exhausted... the rest of the day, but I managed to complete a lot of tasks that I had to get done, anyway.

And it was nice to see T-sensei again.

I am once again envious of people who live in Edmonton. There's a training camp coming up with the opportunity to get instruction from Christa Deguchi. Bloody hell!! That's so cool! ...Though obviously the class is limited numbers, and it's likely that even if I lived in Edmonton I wouldn't be fast enough on the draw to get my name in the signup. It's still cool, though. And there's no charge - Judo Canada is paying for it. So, lucky for people who live in the area, I guess. Damn. :V