Judo, 2/22/16

Today Mitch and I worked on all yellow belt throws for him. He's getting really good at them, and consistently throws me with hiza. I went through all yellow, orange, and green belt throws. I'm feeling much better at ukigoshi, which used to really frustrate me. I threw some very nice-feeling taiotoshis today too, and practiced transitioning into an armbar on either side, depending on how uke reacted after being thrown.

We spent the last third of our time with vigorous ground randori. Worked up a great sweat!

Study Group, 2/16/16

Judo:
Today Mitch worked exclusively on his yellow belt throws (osoto, deashi, kosoto, and hiza). We were both really getting some good hiza gurumas today! I worked on all of those, plus all orange (ukigoshi, seoinage, sasae, and koshiguruma) and green belt (kouchi, ouchi, ogoshi, and taiotoshi) throws. That was a lot of throwing, so it was mainly a review, spending more time on the ones that felt wonky. Probably the wonkiest one for me today was ouchi, for some reason. Sometimes I nailed it, other times, it was a miserable failure, haha.

BJJ:
Today we actually went through lesson 1 (all 4 "slices") of the Gracie Combatives curriculum. We did the standard Trap and Roll, punch block variation, headlock variation, and open guard pass. Mitch hasn't seen the videos yet, but he will watch them before the next time we practice. Then we'll ad the Reflex Development Drill to the end of it.

Judo Study Group, 2/11/16

Sorry in advance for the short update today; super busy!  We reviewed all yellow belt throws again, and went over all orange belt throws. I tried a few reps or okuriashibarai, but I'm gonna need a lot more practice with that one!

Judo Study Group, 2/10/16

We went through all yellow belt throws today, as well as ippon seoinage and sasae tsurikomi ashi.  Everything felt really good. We practiced kosotogari from a failed deashi, the way Pat originally taught it to me, and I think I have better success with it that way.

We ended the class with light, standing randori. It was fun, and I got a very slick kibisu geashi. 

Judo Study Group, 2/1/16

Today we went through all yellow belt throws, sasae tsurikomi ashi, seoinage, koshiguruma, ogoshi, and ukigoshi.

Polished it off with light standing-to-ground randori.

Study Group, 1/28/16

Judo:
We got LOTS of reps of the yellow belt throws (osoto, deashi, kosoto, and hiza). Then we worked on sasae tsurikomi ashi for a good while. This is one I have limited experience with, but I felt like it was going ok! We ended with 10 reps each of ippon seoinage.


BJJ:
Nothing but live rolling today. Oh, I also showed Mitch how to do an arm triangle choke.

Judo Study Group & BJJ, Jan 25-26, 2016

Judo, 1-25-16

We reviewed our yellow belt throws, then worked mainly on ukigoshi (still a little sloppy for me) and koshiguruma (we're getting pretty good at that one).

BJJ, 1-26-16

We drilled a few options from closed guard (bottom), including pendulum sweep, hip bump sweep, and kimura. I had a few rounds of live rolling, all of which started from standing. I felt like my judo was going my way today! I got a kouchi gari against another white belt, a drop knee seoi counter, tani otoshi, sumi gaeshi, and I countered a tai otoshi with a tai otoshi of my own against a blue belt, and an osoto gaeshi against a brown belt. Lots of throwing folks around today!  I had some good transitions, good pressure, and a successful americana against the blue belt. Fun rolls!

Study Group, 1/20/16

Today we started with the Foot-Sweep-to-Control drill, several times back and forth across the floor. Then our "nine-uchikomi-throw-on-the-tenth" exercise, for all yellow belt throws, as well as seoinage and koshiguruma (orange belt throws). We actually did two rounds for the yellow belt throws, so it we basically each did the following amount of reps:

Deashi: x20
Kosoto: x20
Osoto: x20
Hiza: x20
Seoinage: x10
Koshiguruma: x10

I still feel like kosotogari is the throw that's feeling the least natural to me. I can't put my finger on exactly why yet, and I am getting the throw okay pretty consistently, it just feels a little wonky to me. I'm going to surf YouTube for some things to try next time.

We also worked on transitioning from each throw to groundwork, so we got some good short rounds of ground randori too. That helped tori throw into a controlling position, and helped uke work on defending himself even after the "chaos" of getting thrown.

Study Group, 1/19/16

Judo:
I've been too busy to post yesterday's training session...here are the highlights: we went through 2 sets of uchikomi for each yellow belt throw, then played light randori with only those throws. We also did a brief intro to koshiguruma (an orange belt throw). I feel like we both did well with it.

BJJ:
I worked a lot on the excellent arm bar drill from the video below, and we worked on the basic D'Arce choke from side control, too. A little live rolling to finish up our time. Fun!

Study Group, 1/18/16

Judo:
I worked with Mitch again today. We went through 2 sets of 10 uchikomi's (throwing on the 10th) each for each of the yellow belt throws (deashi, kosoto, osoto, and hiza). I feel like were both throwing them all very well today. Mitch shows a lot of improvement. Of those 4 throws, I think the one we both need the most work on is kosotogari. We also got a few reps each of ippon seoinage and seoi otoshi, and we were both feeling good about those.  Lastly we played with countering deashi with tsubami gaeshi, and countering seoi otoshi with the first method in the video below. It works really well and it's super easy!





BJJ:
We drilled a leg separation guard pass several times each, and then rolled a lot. I practiced a pretty cool arm attack series from my new Erik Paulson DVD series.We spent some time live rolling too, and both got some good work in. Mitch has been getting deadly with his triangle attacks, so I had to pretty much resist 100% to give him some tougher practice.

Study Group, 1/14/16

It's been a great week - I've gotten to do 3 days of judo study group this week!  Today I worked with Mitch again. First we did a lot of uchikomi for the throws we've been working on for review and reps. So for osoto gari, deashi barai, hiza guruma, and seoinage, we'd do 9 uchikomi's and throw on the 10th one. My hiza guruma felt better today, and Mitch's osoto was feeling better.

Then I taught him kosotogari. The first time I showed it to him, I nailed it and got a great throw. Apparently that was because he didn't know what to expect, because then we had to go over being a good training partner, and stepping naturally, even when you know what's coming. We worked on kosoto for about half the time, and got just a brief intro to ukigoshi, which has never been one of my good throws. We watched Kyle's video below, and once we work on it a little more, I'm sure we'll get it.

We ended with a discussion about throwing into a controlling position, like Pat's been talking about lately. We played with that idea during "trading throws" randori. We'd move around and take turns throwing, and try to control uke enough that we could transition into newaza.

Study Group, 1/13/16

Judo:

Today I practiced with Mitch again. We reviewed osoto gari and deashi, and both got a couple dozen reps of each. Emphasis on the reaping action in osoto and "standing foot" direction and sweeping leg motion in deashi. Good stuff!

Then I taught Mitch ippon seoinage and hiza guruma. We both got several good seoinages. We worked on hiza for most of our judo time, and I felt better about it today. We both reviewed Kyle's video from my previous post, and things went ok. There were no huge airfalls, but almost, on a couple occasions!

For gravy, we looked at a hip block counter to seoinage, and what I remember of a hiza counter (relax the back and step over).

BJJ:

After some more triangle practice, we looked at creating more top pressure when you have your opponent in side control. We talked about making bottom guy so uncomfortable that he feels like he needs to move, and when he does, you can capitalize on it. We also looked at what Saulo Ribeiro calls a "defensive bump", that buys you some time and disrupts an attacker's efforts. Finally, we practiced a couple of udegarame variations from side control.

Study Group, 1/11/16

Judo:

Today I worked with my other drilling partner, Josh. I mainly drilled ippon seoinage today. I got a lot of reps in!  And my ippons today were some of the best I've done. Admittedly, I think some of them were more like ukigoshi, but I was really happy with most of them. Josh has a good osoto gari and deashi barai already, so I worked my counters for those throws. I tried a few reps of hiza garuma too, but I've never been great at that one, and it really needs some work. We had some extra time, so I was trying to remember some of Pat's koshiki no kata coolness. I think the closest I could recollect was sort of a sumi gaeshi. I'll have to look up the videos on those too. My plan next time is to work on hiza until I feel more comfortable with it. I'm gonna try this approach:




BJJ:

Josh is getting ready for the Houston Open coming up next month, so we drilled a good bit of guard passing, pressure, back taking, arm dragging, and all manner of transitions. I was mainly a grappling dummy for him, but I got to drill lots of the guard pass series we worked on in Friday's class.

Study Group, 1/5/16

Judo:
Yesterday I taught deashi to my drilling partner. We started with the foot-sweep-to-control drill and worked that a good long time, then worked on getting 4 feet on a line, and completing the throw. My buddy was reacting funny when I would try to do the throw on him, because he's still getting used to it; and that made the throw a little harder for me to do, so I used something Pat taught me years ago - let his foot almost all the way back down, and stop it just before he expects it to touch back on the mat. It worked beautifully over and over, and he'd fall immediately (and more dramatically than he would have otherwise) whenever I'd do it.

Once he had a feel for the throw, we did a good bit of deashi-only randori, focusing on getting the off balance as the guy is stepping backwards, by gently exaggerating his motion and momentum. We talked about the "maximum efficiency, minimal effort" concept, because he kept trying to off balance me against my motion instead of with it. He picked up on it quickly and we had some productive play!

BJJ:
We drilled triangles and D'Arce chokes again, then rolled for the remainder of our time. It was good and exhausting! When we were done, though, we were horsing around, and ended up chipping my tooth (crown actually)! Fortunately the dentist was able to grind and polish it down some so I didn't have to replace it. Still put me in a foul mood though, haha!

Judo, 1/4/16

Last night I had the pleasure of going to Pat's grand-reopening of the new dojo space for Mokuren Dojo.  The lesson was a pretty deep dive on deashi barai, the advanced foot sweep. MAN it was good to get back to Pat's style of training again!   We started out teaching the new folks to fall, then moved to the foot-sweep-to-control drill. I can attest that doing a few years of that drill back in the day helped with my timing and sensitivity in my recent, more sportive training environment.  Pat talked a lot about how in a sense, Judo is about control. Whether it's controlling ourselves, or being able to control a crazy guy that might hurt us or themselves. So rather than just trying to bust our partners with a slick deashi, we worked on protecting them as they fell, and maintaining control of them so they had to fall on their butt, facing away from tori.

It's great to be able to practice Judo that jives perfectly with my aikido, both practically and philosophically.

After class, Pat gave me a couple osoto gari pointers for the study group I'm working with. I'm looking forward to trying it out later today, along with the sweet deashi goodness we went over last night.

I think the relaunch was a success. I was glad to see such a good turnout, and hope that bunch sticks with Pat for years to come.

Study Group, 1-4-16

Judo:

What a nice way to begin the year!  Me and my drilling partner worked on Osoto Gari for a good long time. He hasn't done any judo before, so it's all brand new to him. We went over the basics, and got lots of uchi komis. After working the throw to death from static, we did it stepping back and forth, looking at extending uke's step, and using that for more kuzushi. 

Lastly, we worked for a little while on an osoto-gari-to-osoto-makikomi against a resisting partner, and countering osoto gari with osoto gaeshi. By the end of it, he seemed to be feeling better about his osoto, and loosened up a lot. 

After we moved on from osoto and worked on our ground work, we did several rounds of light, standing randori. I played very light with him, and mainly worked combos and constant attacks. Then I'd just move around and let him try to find osoto wherever he could. I did catch him with my first sumi gaeshi in randori, and was able to do it gently enough not to throw him far or hard.  ;-)

BJJ:  

We drilled a lot of triangle chokes. My buddy is getting really good at his setups for it, and I'm having more and more trouble stopping him. I was doing better with mine today. We've been working on a Ryan Hall version of it where uke's arm being across your body is irrelevant, but for my body, or movement tendencies, or whatever, the arm is still very relevant to me getting the choke. 

We also drilled a D'Arce choke when you have the guy in side control and he turns in to you. This is getting to be a bread and butter move for me. Today I was working on a D'Arce-to-armbar combo for when bottom guy keeps his elbows in too tight for a D'Arce. Needs work, but I think there's a good combo there. 

I got a few reps of my "running escape" guard recovery, and I'm feeling better about that too. 

Judo, 12/14/15

Last night we worked on miscellaneous mat work in our rank groups. I'm still having a little trouble with the stock turnover, but just because it's new to me. Worked on a butterfly sweep a lot. We didn't have a "whole class" lesson, because the juniors had a promotion night and cut into the adult Judo time. I did one round of ground randori against an enthusiastic white belt who's only been coming a month or two. He had good pressure, and goes a little hard, I guess to compensate for his newness, but my defense was good, and I was never threatened. He was asking if he could work his scissor sweep on me, so I let him. He's having trouble with it, so I showed him the way I tend to do it (keeping my partner away / stretched out rather than pulling his weight on top of me). That seemed to work ok for him as well. We got a few more reps in after class. It's nice to be able to help guys that are even newer than me.

To end the class we had several rounds of tag-team randori, which is always fun.

Judo, 12/7/15

Last night our rank group worked on all pins and escapes, chokes, and armlocks for yellow, orange, and green belt.  The whole class then worked on okuri iri jime (I think). Clock choke, in BJJ. I didn't realize the clock choke is the same as koshi jime, with one hand placed differently (it grabs a lapel instead of going on the mat in front of the guy).  We also worked on putting weight on the guy's head if he tries to get up out of it. Instinct makes you want to lean on his back to keep him down, but weight on the head does it way better.

I only had one round of light ground randori last night. I tried out that nifty collar choke I mentioned in my previous post, and I'm pleased with it!

Judo, 11/23 and 11/30

The 23rd was just a pre-thanksgiving open mat night. I was a throwing dummy for a fellow orange belt, and he let me work some side control escapes. I got one round of ground randori in, against a yellow belt. One of our school's BJJ students was there watching, and paid me a high compliment: "I like the way you move, very relaxed and flowy."   That's what I'm shooting for, glad it was noticeable.

Last night, the 30th, our rank group worked on green belt throws first, then the whole class worked on the green belt self defense scenarios. I had one round of standing, and one round of ground randori. 

Judo, 11/16/15

Our rank group worked on all the ground work for green belt. As a class we worked on an arm bar escape. I had one round of ground randori, but it kind of ruined my night, haha. For one of the first times, I had good control over my huge buddy I frequently roll with. I had a really tight spider guard working and was getting ready to sweep him. Being a mountain compared to me, he was able to pick me up slightly and sort of slam me on the mat. Then he said reset and stopped rolling.

I had no idea what was going on, but the teacher was nearby and explained to me that by "judo rules" if you can pick your opponent's back up even a little off the ground, it's a stop, and you reset. I was appalled. I thought "What kind of martial art is this, that gives an already stronger opponent a greater advantage?"

For the rest of the roll, every time I got caught in something I'd say "oops, let's reset" in a real sissy voice, to make fun of him. That's a laaaaaaaaame rule! I'll be ready for it next time.