Judo adventures 3.27

[yuuago]

Attending: Me, VP, Ry-sensei's two kids, and two other kids. Ri-sensei instructing. Ry-sensei is studying for his level 2 instructor exam, and T-sensei was out of town.

We went through the variant techniques that TN-sensei taught us previously; no new material.

Ri-sensei brought up that he wants us to focus more on learning to do good breakfalls. I appreciate that, because I'm not happy with my breakfalls yet, aside from my side breakfall (I'm pretty OK at that one).

He also taught us some safe neck-strengthening techniques; basically you put your hands at the back of your head and try to push your head down, while resisting. And then back the same way, while resisting. You can also do one where you put your palms on your forehead and bring your head down, while trying to push it back. It's important to have a strong neck, and some methods for working on that are safer than others.

Ri-sensei is also putting out feelers about the idea of offering a class focused on actual self defence. I'm interested, but I don't know where I would be able to fit it in. This would be a regular thing, not just a special event. I want to do it, but I'm already doing judo 3x per week and feeling squeezed. Well, we'll see what the proposed days/times are. I'm assuming this would start in January.