September 5, Sensei Steve

1. Warm-up, Tai Sabaki
Taking Jeannie's advice I decided to push weight forward onto my leg, this helped immensely. Then I noticed I wasn't swinging my arms like everyone else, this also helped alot.

So remember :
a.Collapse front leg as opposed to pushing off back foot.
b.Swing arms

2. Osoto-Gari in judo position ( is there a proper name? )
Some of you may have been seeing me before class working on my sweep ( it’s also a good hip loosener), today I focused on a few things with Osoto-gari:
a.Perfect kuzushi with entry
b.Keep head up when sweeping
c.Take clean falls
Please refer to previous post for a & b. For the ukemi, be sure to get on the balls of your feet when your balance is broken. This was pointed out by Sensei Steve and Senesei Coleman on Sunday. For some reason the fall is very clean and not hard at all. It’s actually quite amazing, it also seems to protect your ankle from getting whacked.

3. Osoto-gari from pull back mug
From a pull back mug, allow yourself to be pulled back.
Stick your first three fingers into the crook of the elbow to prevent choking
Pivot from off balance postion ( which will put uke off balance and tori on balance )
Sweep

Note: Doing this with Sensei Coleman , the velocity was so great that he came down on me. This was interesting for two reasons. 1. It made since why there are ground techniques. 2. He landed on the bottom ribs,( the area more specifically ) the other day when youval showed me KesaGatame, he showed me how to use the angle of the ribs to control uke. When Sensei Coleman came down on me he said what I was thinking “Interesting.”

4. Uke-Goshi
Working out with Jeannie was a real eye opener. These were the hardest falls I have been with you guys. There is something about the entry, the load and drop from such a short height that was rocking my world. Jeannie also has a lot of dexterity in her hips which gave her a lot of power on the pivot.

To give you an example,
On a throw, I got up and Jeannie said
“Woody, are you okay?”
I said “Oh yeah, I’m fine”
“Woody you’re bleeding” she said so poetically.

Come to find out that she had thrown me so hard that as my jaw ran along her gi lapel it had actually cut me. I think my new nickname for Jeannie is Jeannie the Terrible.

5. Tai-Otoshi
Revolve around Uke in Tenkan, while revolving lead uke’s arm as if you were about to hold hands, pull the arm close to the body trapping it and applying pressure, pivot and roll uke causing a throw.

Doing this with Sensei Coleman was really nice b/c I was having a hard time understanding the throw. I also was throwing myself into breakfalls.

This is a bad idea.
It’s bad because when you are my size you throw yourself harder then uke is throwing you. Because of this I came down really hard on my heel and hurt my ankle. Sensei Coleman deserves a thank you because I learned why we shouldn’t throw ourselves while doing ukemi.

In the end only pride is damaged. Woody lives to throw another day!