Judo, first class.

It made me both nervous and excited to be trying something new. Judo is, for me, the perfect compliment to BJJ, so though I'm taking an entirely different art, I really just see it as an extension of my BJJ game.

You start standing in any real competition in BJJ, plain and simple. You have to be able to get to the ground safely....to have a plan, which would help settle nerves. Wrestling and judo are the options, and from what I've seen I prefer judo...not for any particular technical reason...I just prefer that way it looks. Stately.

So, today I had to get used to some new warm up drills which will start to instill in my mind how to do certain falls, sweeps, reaps and steps. They were very foreign feeling at first, but just like with BJJ training the idea is to take something foreign and through repetition make it natural. I expect it to be a few months before I even feel comfortable with my steps. I actually feel very natural falling though. I'm not sure why. I just instinctively get that I'm supposed to slap my hand and catch myself. I've got decent balance too, so that's a good thing.

Today, we worked on the entry to the uchi mata, with various grips. Now, I know the names change with the varying grips and I need to learn all of that, but basically, the idea of the throw was the same....reaping the leg. I need to get better about cheating outside about 1 inch and reaping the leg rather than the groin.