Ninth judo lesson. After warm-up, we practiced a failed hiza garuma going into sasae-tsurikomi-ashi. Then we worked on a failed hiza immediately going into a hiza on the opposite side. The push attempt to effect one hiza is really effective when switched to the opposite side. As your opponent defends to the opposite direction to your push, suddenly yanking him over the other foot (in the direction of his resistance) is comically easy.
Pat demonstrated that one thing that makes hiza work is uke tightening his lower back muscles to keep from falling. He showed how to defend against hiza by relaxing and leaning in toward your opponent, then stepping over his hiza attempt into a hiza of your own on his other leg. Nice.
Next we practiced the kata version of sasae-tsurikomi-ashi. This was my first introduction to formal judo kata. Pat talked about how in kata, the steps are shorter and quicker, and therefore they can be a little tougher to deal with. This version of sasae was pretty amazing though. The throw was BIG. It’s odd because it seemed like very little effort was put into the throw, but the throw was huge. Pat recommended I read “Judo: Formal Techniques” by Otaka & Draeger for a lengthy discussion on kata. I started reading it yesterday, and came across the following line that seemed to jive with my experience with that throw: "This discipline {kata}, instead of hampering the judoist, actually frees him from undue restrictions, liberates his bodily expression in movement, and best teaches him economy of mental and physical energy." That throw may have been the clearest example I've seen of "Maximum Efficiency with Minimum Effort" so far in my very short judo experience.
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