So, after much slothfulness on my part, I went down to Norwich, CT for the Norwich Judo Dojo Grand Opening. This is the home of Bill Montgomery and JudoLady, and they recently moved and expanded their digs. To celebrate, they got Jim Bregman and Alex, oh, hell, I can't spell his name off the top of my head and if I try, I'll embarass myself and him, but the -66 US rep to the Atlanta Olympics. Yeah, you know the one. Anyway, they had two special practices with these two fine gentlemen. The first was for the kids, and, while I do tend towards the juvenile, I skipped that. The second was 3 hours for the adults in the crowd. I faked adult and drove down for that.

Let's talk digs for a few. The new location is nice. It's in a strip mall type thing, right next to a gym. THey've apparently worked out a deal with the gym, and we get to walk through to their changing rooms and showers and whatnot. Nice. Bring your own hair dryer, but nice... (Sorry, had to dig at the English survey on what women in judo want...). The dojo itself is new construction, and there's that new paint, new floor, bit of construction feel to it. It's long, deep, enough for two full competition surfaces, a section for chairs, and all the accouterments for administration - extra gi, extra belts, obligatory portrait of Prof. Kano. It's got a pretty good vibe to the place.

Anyway, it was a pretty good turnout. The space was pretty crowded with a good range of age, ranks, and gender. There were also a range of gi - from the traditional white with nothing on it to black to gi with large patches on the back. A few were tournament patches, but a few sported things like, "Gracie Jui Jitsu" and related clubs on the back. That's such a rarity. It's a nice rarity that shouldn't be so rare. In another world, the presence of such things would be adversarial, but not at Norwich. This was reiterated at line up when Bill Montgomery stated that Norwich's goal was to be inclusive. Yes, we're doing judo, so no heel hooks, neck cranks, etc, but we should include all interested in judo, no matter what the background. This is a good thing, at least in theory, and at the Norwich club, it's a good thing in practice.

Oh, and because pictures make this blog much more interesting, the start looked a bit like this:



After warm-ups, the two clinicians took over starting with tachi waza. It became apparent that Atlanta Alex (forgive me, I'm going to call him that - I can actually spell Atlanta, I think...) would show a throw, and Jim Bregman would show counters. It was wonderful to hear that Mr. Bregman's world hasn't changed as he said, "in my world, everything ends in uchi mata". So, the first hour was taken with throws and counters, and this is what it looked like:

After a water break, newaza was served up, with particular attention paid to juji gatame. This of course reminded me that a certain president of the USJA disagrees with Mr. Bregman - all things don't end in uchi mata, they end in juji gatame. On variation taught by Atlanta Alex was described by Mr. Bregman by its Japanese name: Pretzel Juji Gatame. anyway, here are a few photos:





















and I have to throw these two images up here - mother and son:

back to the regular photos:













Then, another water break followed by randori - newaza and standing. There were so many people there that they had to rotate in and out for safety.

















afterwards, line up, bow out, and shake hands:



Anyway, I took something like over 200 photos. If you want to see more, including the blurry shots, you can go here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/knapp.stacey/N...feat=directlink

I want to congratulate Norwich Judo Club on a fine Grand Opening event, welcoming everybody to their new diggs. Seems to me like a great way of inaugurating a new dojo. Here's to many years of fun!

So, I had a bit of a problem a few months ago, and I was stupid about it and, well, I let my thyroid disorder get the best of me. Arguably, I'm still doing that, but to a lesser degree. Anyway, it seems I'm not as healthy as I thought I was, or something.

So, here's my personal experience with the Norwich Judo Dojo Opening, complete with my stupidity detailed. Have fun.

I get up, and my gi are packed, and my cameras are ready, but my dog sitter has crapped out. It's in the 60's, and it really isn't that long a time in the car, so I figure, what the hell, I'll take the dog, and we head out, me and judo puppie (she's been smuggled into more judo events than I care to remember... yeah, that wiggling bag? that was her). Now, I haven't worked out in around 4 months or so, but I've done this before - take it easy, try not to over do it, take aspirin with you. It'll be cool, you'll meet some great people, some great Judo Forum people, and this might get you off your a55 and back into the dojo. Yeah, that's what I told myself. Another little niggling part of me was, I'll admit, telling me I was a fool.

So, we head out, and it's overcast. In the mountains, it's raining. Coming into CT? overcast. Driving in CT reminded me of driving from Indy to Bloomington, but with more cops. No, I didn't get hit by a cop, knock wood. The instructions from Google Maps are right on, at least until we get to Norwich. Then, they have me taking a right into a dead end. Hmmm, I know I'm on the right street, so if I turn around and keep going, I'll inevitably find the dojo, I reassure myself as I turn around in an overgrown dead end. I mean, this area doesn't look like an area where there's a strip mall with a gym. Oh, hell, I'm already here, turn around. And I'm meandering around, thinking that I drove all that way for nothing. Fortunately, I was on the right road, and I did find the dojo, and I even got there with time to spare. Imagine that! Note to self; cross reference Google Maps with Map Quest to verify addresses. Better yet, send an email to somebody who's been there before... That would be too logical.

So, I get there. I let Maggie out, and she pees in the weeds. I fill her water dish, put her food dish with kibbles over on the passenger's seat. The parking lot is beginning to fill up. The first thing I see is a family with two kids. Well, in all fairness, they're probably 13 year old boys, and I'm thinking, did I get here at the wrong time? It's supposed to be adults only at 2. But, I grab my bag and mosey in. There's a table with a bald guy sitting there, and a woman who looks a bit like JudoLady standing there. Apparently, there aren't that many travelling old lady judoka around, so I was immediately identified. Waivers were signed, a warm handshake from Bill Montgomery (the bald guy) and a hug from Joan and I'm in.

Glancing into the dojo, a lot of adults - I'm there at the right time, whew! I'm directed through the health club to their changing room, where I of course, change. Grab my roll of tape, my volleyball knee pad, and I'm ready, or so I think. I go into the dojo, take off my shoes, sit in a chair and tape up. It's been a while, so I'm trying to remember what I have to tape besides taping the volleyball knee pad to the ankle. Oh, yeah, the left little finger - buddied to the ring finger. Then, bow onto the mat, pop my neck and start moving and stretching. I meet JF member rberry and a few others. Nice crop and cross section of ranks. I'm not the oldest woman, I'm not the youngest. I'm not the highest ranking, I'm not the lowest. That in and of itself is very cool.

Line up, and Montgomery, JudoLady, Jim Bregman, Alex Ottiano are at the front. We other black belts are wandering down the mat. The BB start peeling off, gesturing each one to take the start of the line. I'm not playing that, I fit into the middle of the line, somewhere. I figure the first one in the line should be a member of the host club, so that things can start off in the tradition of the dojo. That doesn't happen. The call goes out, "rei" we bow, then announcements. Gotta laugh, at least a little.... Anyway, we go from there to warm ups, lead by JudoLady. Start with one of my most favoritist activities - running. There are so many of us there that we make an entire circuit of the dojo, head to tail, no break. Pretty sweet! And I run. We run backwards, side ways, other side ways, footwork drill, etc. And, amazingly, I keep up. Maybe I'm not in as bad of shape as I thought. We then do some leg lift type stuff, blah, blah, stuff I generally like. I'm doing pretty good. We do rollouts. Ah, the test. I throw myself into left, right, left, right. Pretty sweet - that volleyball knee pad continues to work. I'm going easy, but still popping up. No more need to do the akido roll on the one side. Everything is feeling pretty good. We do more falling drills, some shrimping, some crawling. I get through the entire warm up o.k.. I'm almost pleased with myself - maybe I'll survive, at least until I have to wake up tomorrow. Everything's feeling, smelling, looking like judo. It's, well, it's nice.

First drill, ouchi gari from a left hand grip, but throwing to the right. No, no, not the ken-ken version. JudoLady and I pair up, and start working. Me? I take that left grip and naturally try to throw a left ouchi gari. Guess I've got that one in muscle memory or something. Anyway, have to think about it to take a left grip and throw right. It works. JudoLady throws me a few times. Everything is cool, until I start seeing spots in front of my eyes and my tiny little heart goes ker-thunk ker-thunk ker-thunk. I'm thinking, ah, just a bit of a heart palpitation, big deal. Been through them before, will have to endure them again. Take a short breather until the ticker gets back in rhythm, and jump right back in. So, I step out. It's not getting better, so I go down into a crouch. My chest feels all crampy and I'm feeling like I'm going to pass out. At the same time, squatting on my damned ankle is painful. So, I stand, bent at the middle. Nope, that doesn't work, back down to a squat. Nope, that's not working. My heart doesn't seem to want to get back into the right beat. It's becoming more than incidental. So, while they're demonstrating the next drill, I shift over to the chairs. I really need to sit down.

I sit. O.k. things are getting worse. My hands are shaking. I've got little spots in front of my eyes, feel faint, and my chest is really uncomfortable. Sort of a cross between indigestion and a muscle cramp. I figure, can't be indigestion, I haven't had that much to eat today. Hey, maybe that's part of the problem, not enough to eat. Well, that usually doesn't cause chest cramps. O.k. how about anxiety? O.k. I'll bite - it's been too long since I've been to a dojo, maybe I'm being anxious or something. I'll grab a camera out of my bag and use that to distract myself. If it's anxiety, that should alleviate it pretty quickly. I move 3 feet to my bag, but standing up almost takes me out. I grab my camera, but I feel like hell. Part of me is trying to think of the appropriate etiquette in this situation. Can't die here - bad for an opening. Well, I can leave? Sh!t, I can't really move. Ambulance? Over my dead body. Sh!t, just wait it out, it's bound to get better. I try to take some pictures, but I really feel like crap. They go through a few more drills. They take a break. They start in with more drills. I'm taking pictures, but I still suck. My damned bra is too tight, or so it feels. But, hey, it's not getting worse. That's a start. About 45 minutes in the second session, my chest starts to loosen up. I take a deep breath, and I'm actually able to take a deep breath. I can move.

Next session is randori. I wish. I just sit on the sidelines and snap pictures. That's all I seem to be good for. But, at least things are getting better. I feel like I'll actually be able to move, get to my car, drive home. The session ends, the class ends. I beg off dinner and head home. 2 hours later, I'm back, and I'm feeling better. I can move. I can breathe. I still feel like I have a brick on my chest, but that's a helluva lot better than it was. I'm really really tired, so I'm going to bail on the more important blog entry for the night and go to bed. Ah, well.

Finally, after all this time, Sam the cat finally allowed me to take his picture. He even posed. So, I'm including the pictures here for a collective, "Awwww!", shmaltzy as that may seem. Yes, your teeth will itch with the sweetness.





and finally, the best and sweetest of them all:

I think this says it all:

Back to Northampton for more Saturday judo. Again we ran, and I started as the guys were changing. They caught up to me about 200 yards from the end of the run. I think I really need that head start and hope to narrow that gap week by week. Running, however, is a distinct weakness of mine. Until today, I've been running a loop that's a little over a mile in distance. Today, I have a head cold or something weird going on with my sinuses, so am sleeping a lot.

Back to Saturday. We went over a few other juji gatame variations before doing some stand up. We worked this technique:















I love my camera sometimes.

The big news, at least for me, is I did stand up randori with somebody other than a black belt. Keith was nice enough to go with me and after a little jostling, I threw my tai otoshi to the side. He felt it coming and could do nothing. It was sweet. Makes me think I'll get back to an acceptable level of judo for me. Thanks, Keith.

Went to Northampton last night and was impressed with the number of judoka who showed up. There were 5 bb including yours truly, a mess of brown and blues, one white was graduated to green at the start of the class, and there had to be 5-6 whites. Now, two of them are very new - the creases from their new gi haven't gotten sweaty enough to disappear... They are brothers, about 18 ish, and heading to the military after the summer, or something. Last night, they brought what I figure were their girlfriends, but in all honesty, they could have been sisters (though, there was too much giggling for sibling rivalry...) The girls sat and watched, and the sensei sometimes went over and talked with them. On Tuesday, they may show up to play. Goody, goody.

Anyway, back to the story. The practice goes as usual, though we did some ground learning that the sensei admitted was right out of Judo Sensei's book, that juji gatame transition into senkaku that works so wonderfully on people who don't expect it. Then we rolled newaza randori. I got two whites, one brown and the sensei. First round, nobody picked me and whites went with white, and male whites went with anybody other than me. So, I got the sensei. Cool. I always learn something from him. I got one of the brothers later. So, what do I do? I don't know a thing about him, so I need time to evaluate his frustration level (and therefor my chances of getting hurt) so I turtle up on him. Good technique, and I give it to him and roll gradually to turtle again. But... He gets really frustrated. He's huffing and puffing and getting more frustrated as I turn him over and settle into an easy kesa gatame. Hold him there for a few and the round is over. Didn't help that this was in front of the girls. Oh, and I gave up 2 other pins because we were moving too close to another pair and to the edge. Anyway, after class, the boys are over talking to the male bb and one apparently complained about me. From across the mat, I hear, "Well, she is a black belt" as in, kid, what do you expect against a bb? That something like that needs to be said still offends me. That my peers are backing me up, and the quality of my rank means a lot to me. That they have to be placed in a position to do that just sucks. Goes to how far women have yet to travel to obtain parity.

On another note, a brown belt got me in tateshiho gatame (or however you spell it) and I took my almost flexible legs and wrapped them around his torso, crossing them at the ankle right in front of my face. I was a bit amazed that my legs would actually do this, but the question is, did the brown belt have osekomi? Did I have to plant my feet beneath his arm pits and push him off me to get the toketa, or did my little wrap do the job? Technically, he couldn't get up without me hanging from him. Still, weirder things have been considered a pin, and the "MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY!" position of one judoka wrapped around the lower leg of another judoka is not a pin, no matter how ineffectual it would be in real life - it's not a shiai pin. The consensus at the dojo was that I hadn't broken the pin until I planted my feet in his pits and lifted him off me. What're your thoughts?

Over all, a good practice. I got in some standing. Got thrown with a great sweep that had me laughing it was so good. Love it when that happens.

I went to Slav's Saturday class and made it through the 20 minute run... in 30+ minutes. Yeah! I can run!

Then we did a bit of stand up learning. Then a bit of newaza learning. I taught a number of methods of getting into juji. After, we did some newaza randori, and I went with Slav first. For some reason, he believes I'm some sort of newaza maven or something. That's a lot of pressure. So, I threw a flying arm bar on him the moment he grabbed for my lapel. And, it worked. ROCK! I've never tried such a thing before, and to pull it off? Awesome. Maybe I should stick with judo. Running definitely isn't my forte.

We did a bit of standing randori. Thursday, we did some, too. And I discovered that John's method of ankle protection really works. Basically, you take a junior volleyball knee pad and tape it over the ankle. Gets the ankle from low to high, and people can kick the sh!t out of you without feeling it. Beats tying a sponge to your leg, and you go through fewer sponges that way. Since there are 2 knee pads, it's easy to keep one clean.

SLav is starting a Saturday class at Northampton. It was small and intimate this week with onyl 4 of us students. But, that was a good thing. In the middle of all the crunches and pushups, we learned a number of very interesting variations on techniques. Russian variations. While we spent a minimal amount of time on the ground, other than to warm up and cool down, we spent a lot of time on standing technique, something Slav is known for. His variation on marote seio nage is something that I actually want to work on. It involves a lower grip, a bit of surprise, and just is so smooth. My shoulder and wrist never feel compromised throughout. I know they're not supposed to in a regular morote seio, but for me? I've never had the technique or strength of arm to pull them off without feeling it. Slav's version? That I can do. That, I want to do. That I will do.

We worked a gake and koshi garuma. Koshi is a lot like the koshi I try to practice, but it was good to have the confirmation that that's a good way to go about it. Also, his starts with a higher grip than mine. I never use a high grip because I'm usually short man. This is a definitive negative when it comes to shiai as there, I'm tall chick, so being conscientious about my grip position is a good thing. Getting throws on tall guys with the grip is a good thing. Working with a guy my size is a very good thing.

All in all, his method is very adaptable, and as a result, looks at things a bit different. IT was interesting to see judo from this perspective and I will definitely go back again, for as long as he chooses to teach on Saturday.