It's been a while.

A lot of personal life is going on right now, with Zac starting school, Julia starting preschool, my friend Shane moving in and two exchange students moving in.

Add to that the fact that I start teaching my law school class soon and I'm a little busy.

That being said, I still manage to make it to Tuesday night judo and sparring regardless of what happens the rest of the week. Wednesday night, a fair regular class night, will be off for the next two months as it is one of my teaching nights. Additionally, Saturdays will be off the table, so I'll be clinging to Tuesday and every other Friday terribly (not to mention Thursday night at my house).

Anyway, in judo tonight we worked on the Tai Otoshi body drop. I like these sort of techniques where I allow their moment throw themselves with just a little redirection. I feel much better about a throw like this than I do with a hip throw or even Uchi Mata.

Judo and sparring, August 3, 2010

I'm exhausted. It was exceedingly hot tonight. Great workout, but my ears are still ringing.

Judo, we worked on the entry, completion and variations on kata garuma or the shoulder wheel, fireman's carry. Though there is some question about this "leg" first technique in modern judo competitions, it is still a very good throw for BJJ.

I like it because it makes it easy for me to get under people shorter than me, especially if I take a knee.

We worked on the basic throw, dumping it short and then how to make the throw work on a defense sprawl (by moving legs, windshield wiper style, towards their feet.)

We also worked on some arm triangle enteries from mount and kesa gatame.

In sparring tonight, I got smashed a lot. I need to work on side control escapes very badly. Towards the end of sparring, I got fairly decent at getting my knees with a strong underhook.

I also liked very much moving to north/south to get them on a side and to isolate an arm. I found it very effective.

I need more work on staying low in butterfly AND in having more than one sweep there. I need to rewatch Moura Robison and the counters he uses to still get the sweep.

Closed guard sweeps.

Today we worked the transitions in closed guard sweeps like the knee push or scissor sweep.

After doing the sweep, you can begin to set up the cross collar choke (in case you are bridged over right away) or swinging into an arm bar after being rolled.

I'd prefer to maintain the position though and was shown how to avoid the upa and bridge by sliding into S-mount.

Following that, we worked on using an arm drag to set up the pendulum sweep or to get head and arm control for a sweep into mount (and eventually side control, to finish the arm triangle). I have a very hard time getting my arm in the right place. I'd like to pretend that it's because I have enormous, python-esque biceps, but really I just need to get better about getting deeper with the arm.

Finally, we worked on closed guard sweep when they stand up. It's the classic arm under to shoulder, push into that knee with your hips and then walk your arms around to get into mount. I like this sweep, but see myself transitioning into De Le Riva more and more now.

Finally,

Foot locks and knee bars

So, we worked on some regular entries and then some interesting entries to some foot locks and arm bars today.

First, we worked the standard straight ankle lock from combat base. I need to work on bringing my foot to the right place to keep separation, but more importantly, I really need to get the feel of what my body is supposed to do to make the lock work. It's just very new for me to be messing with, but I need to start somewhere.

Next, we worked on the same submission, but getting it from side control when a person goes knee to elbow. If you raise your knee closest to their feet, it moves that ankle into attack position. You can then stand, turn and drop into an ankle lock, but one that is cross body.

If you'd rather try a knee bar, go to knee on belly....but with the opposite knee. You can rest there, seeing what is given. You can attack a toe hold, pull the knee bar or do a nice spin to mount.

Finally, we worked on the proper way to pop up and spin for an arm bar from knee on belly or when you've got someone in north/south with a trapped arm. I need to get this pop better. I think I can work on this by putting my punching bag on the floor and popping up on that.

Dog tired.

It was hot today. So hot, they turned the AC on....still super hot.

Judo was great. We worked on side sacrifice throws. First, we worked on Yoko Otoshi. I really feel like this throw would work really well against wrestlers, who give you so much energy coming right into you. I think that kazushi is vital here, because you must redirect them passed you. Otherwise, you're pulling them down into side control.

We worked something similar, which was like a combination of a side sacrifice and the beginning of a seoinage. Instead of much torque though, the energy came from the fall. I felt very comfortable with this throw and not as much with yoko otoshi.

For sparring, I was jelly, which is good because it forced a little more technique out of me. I couldn't rely on strength at all, because it was spent. I did some decent low mounting from side control and a nice omoplata sweep. I'm also getting quite comfortable with my low posture Tozi pass. I'm noticing that guys are actually not breaking my posture as much as they used to, which is good...I can start working other passes now.

Triangles, oh my!

So, I worked today on triangles from guard, mount and side control.

For the guard triangles, I need to be better about getting my hips high and biting with my leg. When I get that leg bent properly on the bite, I can produce a lot of downward pressure and fend off them most common pre-locked defense which is posturing. Once locked, I need to work more on creating my angle, dealing with then "in" arm and being prepared to switch (depending on the angle I'm at) to the arm bar or omaplata OR shoulder crawl back to avoid the stack.

For the mount triangle, I need to get better positioning and maintain more weight on the chest when setting this up. Yes, I'll probably always roll to guard to finish this....personal preference, but I need to have it essentially done before doing so.

From side control, I didn't like any of the entries. I'd just rather get mount.

Week three of judo

This was a great week. I got through without hurting myself and was feeling so good that I stayed after for sparring in BJJ. Great workout and I'm wiped out.

Judo started with a nice practice for the entry to Ippon Seoinage. I prefer the drop version simply because I feel like I have a hard time getting underneath people, but that will come with time.

Then we spent some time working on Tomoe Nage and different variations of this sacrifice type throw. I really enjoyed this throw a lot because I feel like I can create quite a bit of speed by letting my enormous mass fall backwards.

Finally, we spent time working on holding and escaping different pins, from side control, to kesa gatame and north/south with double underhooks.

I felt so good after class that I was able to stay for the BJJ sparring session, where I received a thorough beating.