Well I have moved my blog to http://burning-towers.blogspot.com/. Check it out if you are interested.

I have lost some motivation to keep up on my record keeping so I am taking a break for a while with a plan to return sometime after summer.

Last night's class was lead by Ben with Mark leading the kids. I more or less was trying to go between the two groups to help out where ever I could. The class started with a nice variation on the warm-ups that included the sharks and penguins game and our standard newaza. After class during our chat we all realized that we missed any ukemi work, that was very odd. Mark took the kids and worked the basic four ground positions, the goals of each position, and some escapes/defenses for each. While Mark was covering this Ben went over a rather tricky attack into a juji gatame. There were mainly newer folks in the class so this proved rather difficult for many of them. Fortunately, this naturally evolved into a simpler version following a throw. Ben also showed a defense against juji that was very strong. Lets see if I can explain it. This example, uke is on his back with tori on ukes left side, left arm being attacked. Uke defends by placing his left arm next to his face with palm facing away. His left hand is placed on the right bicep and the right hand mirrors the left but the hand goes to tori's inner thigh. Very similar position to grabbing the gi, but the advantages are the free hand that applies their pressure to their leg to help pop your head through. This great defense leads to a nice transition for tori to the mount position traingle.

Ben then showed what he explained as a cross between seionage and tai otoshi (seio otoshi?). Supposedly this is Leo White's throw. Standard right hand grip, sleeve grip lets go and goes over then under the lapel grip to grab gi near the shoulder. The left foot steps to block ukes left foot and the throw is to the side. It is done with a bowing motion. It seems that if you can get this grip then you have a pretty well secured grip and can have your choice of throws.

We finished the night with some tachi randori, which is by far the most difficult thing to not do. I did help out a little last night and am feeling it in my knee today. Still awaiting my referral in the mail.

My knee is still messed up. I have a doctor's appointment for this Wednesday. Originally, I was going to just give a couple months to see how it felt before going to the doctor, but Neil told me about his own similar situation, that lead to surgery. So I am going in sooner now. Last week I went to both classes and more or less made sure the kids kept at it. We have been averaging close to 20 kids per class now. I think the most interesting aspect of the kids is watching the way they choose partners. They seem to quickly pick the partner of their choice. If they do not get their #1 choice and usually they have then missed out on #2 and #3, they then go into a mull around mode. This is typically about 2 to 6 kids. At which point you almost have to pair them up or they will just continue to wander around. So this is my current judo task.

There is no better place to witness the distiction between observer and participant, than in a judo class.

Well I missed class on Friday for two reasons. One, I twisted my knee doing a ouchi gari, during a club shiai on Tuesday. Two, my sister had her second little girl. Yay! So, my knee is still pretty buggered up today a week later. These type of injuries are such a pain in the rear. I can walk pretty much normal, and stand fine but trying to lift and bend my knee even to put some pants on hurts. This feels a lot like when I suffered my groin pull. Of course that night, after the pop, I was a little freaked out. So I got up and walked around trying to feel if everything was okay. Everything felt more or less fine. So I had one more match which I lost, not surprised too much. We stood around talking after class for quite a while and I could feel my knee stiffening up. By the time we left, I could tell I had injured it. So I went home and did the standard RICE. I have noted a couple times now that if something like this occurs I do not feel it until later. Wisdom would dictate that now if something like this occurs I should stop for the rest of class to see if it is okay. Adrenaline is a good and bad thing. It looks like I will be the kids helper for a while now.

Last Friday was my first class in I think 2 weeks. I have made it to so few classes this month that I was seriously sucking wind in class. So much so I sat out one randori or at least a half of one, someone asked me and I can't say no. Ludo is always great for pushing me. We went over a few throws during our moving uchikomi phase; kata guruma, ouchi gari, tai otoshi. It was one of those times that my tai otoshi was feeling on with the ouchi gari combination. Must remember to practice what we go over during randori. Sometimes I wonder about the gray matter in my skull.

Missing three classes feels like close to forever. I have to miss another class this Tuesday. My schedule has been a little crazed lately. So Fridays class was so nice to make. Lately, as I have said, we have had a lot of new people, especially kids. I ended working with the kids for part of the class for uchikomi. Part of our standard Friday class is lots of randori which was great.

A while back we were shown a modified version of escaping from kesa. During me and Ludo's newaza randori he got me into kesa and I made the attempt to use it. I discovered in a more active escape scenario it is more difficult to get your hip under them to make the escape possible.

Our adult class has been shrinking lately as our kids class grows. Friday we only had 7 adults and probably over a dozen kids.

It's Tuesday and I'm trying to remember what we worked on Friday and I'm drawing a total blank. The one thing that comes to mind is my randori with Joe. He and I are pretty close in size and skill. I have been consciously working on not following during randori, as an exercise in itself. So it seems during a moment when I forgot about that exercise, I walked right in one of his seionage, very clean. This also seems to have got me back track of making them step into position for me to take advantage of and attack. We exchanged some good throws on each other. Oh yeah, we did some three man uchikomi, I enjoy that drill. We had four so we got one round of rest which was welcomed.

I went to class last Tuesday but then missed Friday due to a sinus infection. Last Tuesdays class was almost entirely spent working with the kids. I did get a chance to do a little randori and worked in part on not being in follow mode. I was discussing with Neil last night one thing that makes a good uke is that following, but in shiai that should be a lesson of what not to do. So that is my current work item, when to work which way.

Last nights class. We worked on ippon seionage and ogoshi. Neil asked me to demonstrate ogoshi. I realized after my demonstration that I did not verbally discuss the foot position. My key point was bringing their hip to yours. Another class with lots of kids and not many adults. We worked on the ogoshi counter with ogoshi, stepping around. Next, we worked on a new and interesting counter to right ippon seionage with right ippon seionage. As the person comes in you take a very large step around their right side, continue to turn counter clockwise bringing your left foot into position for your throw. A very dizzying exercise. We then went on to work on something else I think. I then didn't think to work it during randori. I realize that before randori I need to take a moment to reflect on the techniques we have gone over and attempt them in randori. We played a fun game of sumo. I just stepped out during a harai makikomi so I had to sit down. I'm happy to see that my mind was aware of the line during the throw to realize what to do to make the best effort.

Friday, work on not following and reflections of techniques before randori.

Tuesday and Friday's classes were both good. How many times have I written that. Well it's true though. Tuesday, Estaban finally did his test in front of class. We have been practicing here and there for quite a while. Lately, we have been staying a little later to go over various things. I thought his test throws were done the best I have seen him perform them. The whole time training he would get in position to throw and then during the kake phase he would slow way down. Test day though, he threw me and well. I then performed my ashi waza techniques, which felt okay overall. Sasae tsurikomi ashi and okuri ashi barai were both trouble for me and I redid okuri. After class I got some ribbing from Ben for not showing the other foot techniques. There are quite a few that I need to work on more. Friday's class was pretty good intensity with lots of randori at the end. We did several rounds of moving uchikomi before hand.

Yesterday was the Isao Wada Sensei Memorial Tournament in West Covina. We had a good club representation with eight of us competing and Ludo coaching. All of the kids medaled and one junior and one adult. I think my division was the last of the day. There were five in my division 3 black belts and 2 brown belts. First match not so good, gripped up, walked right into his throw, 10 seconds. Next match. gripped up, moved around some still following way too much and walked into another throw this time after about 35 seconds. Did make a couple of attacks though. Third match versus the other brown belt. Grip up, make some leg attacks, still not committed to my attacks enough. He goes in for an ouchi, as I'm following STILL, but he doesn't have enough control up top so I turn out of it enough so it is only a wazari. I quickly rolled him over into tate shiho gatame and held him for ippon. Last match versus the last black belt. I can tell he is tired and I am not. We grip up move around I make the most attacks of the day. I definitely am more aggressive in the last match but fall into my habit of following and he catches me. Something to work on now. Stop following people. On the positive side this was my first win in the brown/black division.