December 5, Sensei Stephen

I'm back! It's amazing what a good rest does. Though I worked out ( Weights & Cardio ) in Berlin, I think that letting my shoulder heal up and my toes solidify really allows me more in the workout. In my readings on excercise, supposedly the founder of Nautilus would tell people he could put an extra 1/4" of muscle mass on bodybuilders arms, when they took him up on his offer, he would make them rest for 3 days. Miraculously their arms were bigger, now I'm a bit skeptical on this, but after a week of rest, my lifts have increased dramatically.

1. Ikkyu from Inside ( "Hot side" )
So we make a mistake and move to to the inside.
• Windmill arm to move uke to your outside "Safe Zone"
• Kick into ribs and drop onto uke's elbow for the lock
• Guide to the ground & Lock up

2. Ogoshi from Inside
• Windmill arm to move uke to your outside "Safe Zone"
• Drop weight and move into uke, placing your arm across back
• Pivot pulling uke across your hip and drop them to thier demise!

Note : Working out with Adi, the fall wasn't as visually dramatic as say when i'm thrown by Sensei Coleman. Suprisingly enough the bigger the fall the less painful it is. After watching a lot of judo videos on Youtube, I can definitely see that a "real" throw isn't that pretty, it seems more about finding the moment of off balance and exploiting it with a technique. When it happens the uke doesn't take a big graceful fall, it's short, hard and devastating.

3. Katanage from Inside
• Windmill arm to move uke to your outside "Safe Zone"
• Shoot into uke with katana arm projecting them down

4. Morote-Gari
• From judo style, smack uke's arms up
• Drop between uke's legs and push

Here’s a link to the Kodokan’s description

5. Tani Otoshi
• From Judo Style, Kozushi with sleeve side
• Drop behind uke creating a vacuum at their rear
• Project

Note: Excuse the lack of description, still learning this.

6. Morote-Gari to Tani-Otoshi
• Uke throws you in morote-gari
• Hook leg into uke's, grab belt, as you fall pull them over
• After pull over, roll on top of uke
• Butterfly legs for a lock & move into ground pin

Note: On top of uke is a dangerous position if you fall into gaurd, butterfly to eliminate the chance of this. I pivoted to the side and went for a kimura.

7. Randori with Sensei Stephen
I fall onto my back from Tani-otoshi and use the "unbendable arm" for my legs to stay out of the butterfly gaurd. It works!
I bridge and get onto Sensei Stephen side, I try to remeber that technique he showed us from the side, and by the time I remember that I don't remeber, I am in Sensei's gaurd.
I reach in for Okuri-eri-Jime and grab it, but he does it to me as well. I tuck my chin and realize "Hey I'm not being choked!"
I post and break gaurd and grab his leg because fror some reason I think I know how to do a leg lock, stupid stupid woody.
Sensei gets me in a leg lock.

Grappling is very very much like Chess. That last move was stupid, foolish, and cost me. I had an exit. I could have just got up and ran away. Lesson learned. I also realized that I wasn't as winded as I normally am, which is nice because the cardio is kickin' in.

It's interesting to grapple, because ultimately the person we are trying to lock will probably be beligerent and may want to drag us down, in that case it seems important to nuetralize then fight. Maybe not to fight for nuetrality. I'm going to make it my lil' project to learn the Osaewaza.