Last night I went for a third trial class at the local judo club. I'm glad I did; for my first two classes, I knew I was rusty, but it felt like drinking from a fire hose. Too much info, not enough repetition. It turns out they are just preparing for a big tournament this weekend. I suspected that might be the case. Before last night, there seemed to be a strong competitive focus there, which isn't my thing. After class, the owner told me he teaches in cycles that alternate among kata focus, self-defense focus, and during certain times, competition focus. I think I can deal with that. I'm meeting with him this afternoon to get a couple more questions answered, then I'll make my decision about whether to join. I'm 95% sure I will though.
So last night, while higher-level belts were practicing for the tournament, he separated us white belts, and had a black belt go through the list of yellow belt requirements with us. I enjoyed the slower pace, and technical focus. I'm analytical by nature, so breaking things down helps me a lot.
For throws, we covered ogoshi, seoi otoshi, osoto gari, ippon seoi nage, and morote gari. We went over two pins: kesa gatame and yokoshiho gatame, with an escape or two from each pin ("head push" and bridge-and-roll for kesa, and a neck pushing, shrimping guard recovery for yokoshiho).
We also did rear naked choke, and koshi jime, a "hip choke". It was kind of like a clock choke from BJJ. The only arm attack we went over was the cross-body arm lock, juji gatame.
Finally, for "miscellaneous mat work", we did a cross-face turnover, half-Nelson turnover, and scissor sweep.
primo!
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