Holiday training :BJJ and Judo

I decided to give the double header another whorl on Monday.  They were just doing no-gi open mat work in BJJ as it was a holiday, but it was an excellent opportunity to get some good technique overviews from Coach Ray Casias.  I had another novice to work with so we got to drill quite a bit.

Ray started us doing a simple no-gi double leg pass where you put both hands on your opponents knees, scoot them to the side and then stop forward and chalk your foot into your opponents side.  He then had us do another variation where did the same thing but put one hand on the opponents belly and pushed the knee down with the other hand.

From there we went on to a basic side control position.  Ray emphasis calking your knee at the opponents hip to stop him from turning, and locking down the opponents head so that he can't turn into you.  We then progressed to knee on belly.  Ray emphasized that it is really the shin on the belly.  He exploded up from side control, placed the leg at a slight angle across the opponents middle, hips are open and the stance is wide.  Your arm that starts under the opponents shoulder  and pulls the opponent up toward the knee which creates enough pressure to keep control.

Next we worked some guard submissions.   In Judo we would call the two submissions performed juji gatame: arm bar (from guard) and Sankaku Jime: Triangular strangle.  I believe no two instructors will teach these movements identically but it was nice to see that many of the key components were common in Judo and BJJ.

In Juji gatame the emphasis was on a no-gi arm gripping to drag your opponents arm across to your shoulder. On foot on the hip and the other leg calking under the opponents armpit, and swiveling to create a proper angle, then throwing the leg on hip over the opponents face, and bridging your core to create the fulcrum.

In Sankaku Jime: the emphasis was on feeding your opponents arm through your legs and launching up with your hips to drag your opponent off balance.  Take his arm across your body (underneath your armpit) , secure his position by grabbing your own shin, throw your leg over. Grab his head and tighten everything up.

When your club is opened on the holidays be sure to take that opportunity to train.  Chances are not many people will be there so you will get some good personalized instruction from your coaches.  It is great to have the elements broken down by someone who has performed them thousands of times.  It gives you a sequence you can do reps with.

After BJJ I took some Judo.  I got very few reps in as in the first 20 min I managed to induce a muscle spasm in my leg, so we will write that class off to spending time with friends.  I did get to work on some Kouchi gari, but I really need to work on it when I'm healthy.

Sode Tsuri Komi Goshi

Sensei Jim Irvine posted the class schedule for yesterday.  The throw we have been working on is Sode Tsuri Komi Goshi and he was kind enough to do a breakdown and look up videos.

Foundational Skills Class – 7:30 – 8:30

·         General warm-up – falls, rolls, & light throw-for-throw (10 min)

·         we will then have a short conditioning section (10 min)

·         Uchi Komi  & throw-for-throw – any 3 techniques (20 min)

·         Review Sode Tsuri Komi Goshi à see video links below (20 min)

Advanced Skills Class – 8:30 – 9:30

·         Groundwork Randori (back-to-back drill – 1 min rounds) (15 min)

·         Throw Defense – hip bump (10 min)

·         Free practice of throws after quick review/practice of O Soto Gari, O Goshi, Tai Otoshi, Ashi Garuma, Hari Tsuri Komi Goshi & Ko Uchi Gari (25 min)

·         Light Randori with no resistance (10 min)

Sode Tsuri Komi Goshi

Sode-tsuri-komi-goshi is often known as Sleeve Lift Pull Hip. However, the Sode-tsuri part of the name refers to the tsurite being the sleeve grip. In other words, the fishing grip that is usually on the collar of the uke becomes the pulling hand (or hikite) as the sleeve grip becomes the fishing grip.

The tsuri-komi-goshi part of the name shows the throws similarity to tsuri-komi-goshi itself. As the sleeve grip is turned into the uke and upwards, tori gets this arm straight as possible to ensure as close contact to uke as possible, bending their knees if need be. As this movement is made, tori can then roll uke over their hips, pulling round with the other hand.

Due to the sleeve being used as the tsurite, tori can usually use a double sleeve grip to enter this technique, or turn into a left-handed throw from a right-handed grip or the reverse.

Video Links:

o   Old Masters – Osawa 10^th-dan (1:34) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdCKaJMIjmA&feature=related

o    Basics - Japanese (0:30) –  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-0fZLZS9dA&feature=related

o    Koga teaching in Japanese (1:03) –  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCpn191Imf0&feature=fvwrel

o    Basic Skills (2:35) –  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLfo1xzrckk

o   Teaching O-goshi, Uki-goshi, Tsuri-goshi, Tsurikomi-goshi, Sode-tsurikomi-goshi & competition footage (8:11) –

Tsurikomi-goshi at 4:35 & Sode-tsurikomi-goshi at 5:26 -  Professor Kano at  3:03 teaching Uki Goshi

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzBsKtf87cY&feature=related

o   Competition Throws (2:57) –  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkcPKJDD4e8

Combination:

·         Sode Tsuri Komi Goshi   à  Tai Otoshi  (0:14) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXeto1SWEKU

double header

Last night I tried to optimize my time by doing a hour of Brazilian JiuJitsu followed by two hours of Judo.  I was breaking off rust from my ground game but clearly have a lot of work to do.  When you are relaxed you can "flow" more and you burn less energy but when you are tight and scrambling you burn more.  For this reason BJJ really took its tole on me where as Judo (where I'm looser and more relaxed) was less punishing.  I did fewer reps and more uchicomies but still got a great work out overall.  As my stamina increases I should be able to improve my rep numbers.

From memory here are my reps.

Kouchi gaka to drop seonagi : 3 -  Even though this is one of my favorite combos, I figured out this is want is putting pressure on my right knee so I'm backing off this one for a while until I can correct my technique.
Hiza Garuma to Hari O Goshi:  5
Kouchi to O Uchi to Tai Otochi:  5 ?

Ashi Garuma : 6
O Goshi : 10
Sode Tsurikomi Goshi: 15

Last class

Jim Irvine taught today.
I'm being conservative on the reps but these are the throws we worked on.
Ashi Garuma: 10
Sode Tsurikomi Goshi:  10
Ouchi Gari: 5

We worked on the following combos:
Osoto Gari to Ashi Garuma : 10
Osoto Gari to Ashi Garuma to Ouchi Gari : 10

The brain is a funny thing. One minute everything seems to be working and the next things fall apart.
We also did some bean bag drills, some turn over drills, and a little free sparing groundwork.  I feel very rusty on the ground right now but not completely a fish out of water.
We had a new fellow in class today which is great and he has had some previous judo training.
I know these entries have been boring, but I really want to keep writing this stuff down so that I can track my progress.  My energy was a bit lower today and my right knee is far from good.  Hopefully I will be rejuvinated by next class.  I'll put together something more esoteric for the blog soon.

Hours of training 2.0

Class Update

Hands Hands Hands.  I must work on my hands through throws.  It's funny how I seem to be able to focus on one or two elements of a throw and then when I try to add one it it totally falls apart.  Of course you need all the elements to make it look eloquent.

We had a good class last night.  Terry Spencer taught and Jim Irvine also worked out, so the class was overflowing with experience.   We had a new young person show up and it was great to see some new blood energized by judo.   We did some hold down drills and I also did some juji gatame  reps.  It had been to long since I drilled that so it was good to start to get the flow again.

I worked a lot on combos last night:
Hiza Garuma to Hari O Goshi : 20 reps
Kouchi Gaka to Ippon Seonagi : 10 reps.. (although some of those I ended up throwing the Kouchi)
Kouchi to O Uchi to Tai Otochi : 3 reps..
Kouchi to Tsuri Goshi : 3 reps

Ashi Garuma : 10 reps
Tsuri Goshi : 10 reps
O Uchi Gari : 3 reps
O Soto Gari: 5 reps

We also did quite a few fit ins or Uchikomi (fit in drills) as well.

Why do we compete?

Lately I've been thinking about the importance and role of competition within Judo.  I've heard a lot lately about  going to compete and "hanging it all out there".  Judo competitions are setup to crudely emulate combat but do so in such a way as to test the skill set that is studied in Judo.  Anytime you create a framework or rule structure to simulate combat, as athletes, we adjust our strategies and do non combative and non martial things that exploit the weakness within the rules.  These types of things are what put the "Sport" in Judo.  When we collapse into a turtle position and hold on and wait for the ref to stand us up, this is an action that is effective in sport and not effective in combat.  When we role through a throw such that our opponents backs hit the ground but we role over them such that we neither are left standing, nor ground control, this is a sport strategy and  not martially effective.  If we dive to the ground face first rather than doing a break fall and rolling out of a throw, we are playing the sport of Judo to avoid loss rather than to safely walk away from being thrown.  These are just a couple of examples of how the sport of Judo effects its practice.   Now there is nothing wrong with doing the sport of Judo any more than there is anything wrong with playing football or tennis or hockey.

For myself and many other judoka, the sport aspect is secondary to the martial one.  When you practice judo I think you have to decide at some point if you are training in order to compete and win, or if competition is a tool you use to test your training.   It would be akin to playing hockey to test your ability to skate. I have seen Judo players break arms and collarbones trying to twist out of a throw to avoid a loss rather than break fall safely and accept it.    With the martial aspect in mind we can still compete whole heartily,  but the way we train and execute the techniques we know may handicap us somewhat when participating under the rules of the sport.

I guess a distinction could also be made about the difference between the martial and the art within the martial art.  Kano seems to stress the importance of position,  timing and off balancing, to create an effortless throw.  It is true that putting yourself in a position to break an opponents knee or wrist and execute a throw is a very martial thing, however I think that training exclusively in that heavy marital way may cause us to miss the subtleties of the art portion.  I think that adding heavy martial aspects to your techniques is probably much easier to do after you have mastered the art involved in effective throwing and ground work.

Whether you enjoy training in judo for the sport, or focus on the martial art, I think it is also important to realize that the training is where all the work and learning is done.  Just as most of golf is really learned on the driving range and on the putting greens not in the game,  judo is learned in the dojo through repetition and hard work.  Competing without training just increases your chances of injury and creates a very slow path of progression which can be frustrating and counter productive.  So YES, compete! compete often!  Test yourself.  But above all else TRAIN.  Because if you aren't training, what progress are are you supposedly testing?

-----------------
Statistics from last class:
Personal Repetitions:
Ashi Garuma 6
Tsuri Goshi 6
O-Uchi gari 10
Ko Uchi Gaka 5
Uchi-Mata 10

Combos:

Hiza Garuma - Hari O Goshi 10


Hours of training : 1.5 total 5.5

Notes:  We did some Randori tonight and I went back into my habits of heavy grips, blocking, countering, and not moving around enough and not committing to my attacks.  My Uchi-Mata practice was horrible, but I was reasonably happy with how my Tsuri Goshi is coming.  We spent some time figuring out some techniques from Saturdays clinic.  I found the arm grab escapes particularly easy to pick up on.  They were simple essentially identical to ones I practiced when I briefly studied Japanese Jiu-Jitsu in Canada.  The body drops demonstrated a different kind of kasush but would take me many many many repetitions before they become intuitive, so I think I will just focus on the 67 judo throws for now.