[registered]

Originally Posted by KenTheWalrus

Hey everybody. I recently started Judo (as in yesterday) and I thought I would keep track of my progress and post it here. This thread is only for fun and I'm not trying to tell anyone anything about technique in it, it's merely my way of solidifying my experience in Judo.
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That's about it. If anyone lasted this long I applaud you. My next class is tomorrow and I'll post my thoughts about that one when the time comes. -ken

Whatever happens just remenber that the first period, could be any length of time, is called "hell time": it hurts, it seems nonsense, it's hard, you don't understand anything, it's hell .... just keep going and going. If you had some prior experience try to visualise the pattern of the techniques. That's all, just keep going and make all the gym, spit your soul doing it, it will only get better.

There is another judo log here Judo Workout, PHASE 3, Brown to Black

see you

[KenTheWalrus]

Wax: Thanks for the kind words.

Registered: Thanks for the support. I'm pretty much through the hell period. The long weekend over the Fourth let me heal all my wounds except my throat which still hurts when I sneeze. -ken

[KenTheWalrus]

I’ve had a busy weekend that kept me from posting. I went to Lake Michigan with Jenny to celebrate her birthday. I showed her how to snorkel and we had a blast. I worked on my footwork a bit. I also worked on my balance against the waves. We decided to come back to the lake every couple of weeks for the rest of the summer. My sister came to Michigan from Fort Bragg. It’s always good to see her and her family. I miss living in NC. The people are so cool and the weather is more like Hawaii than Michigan.

Last class was informative. In hindsight I think I’m getting a bit of a big head. I decided to not let my usual partner (Otis) get any throws on me. He’s been missing a lot of class, walking out while sensei is talking and coming back in ten or fifteen minutes. He always seems to be out of the room whenever we go over technique. As a result his technique is suffering. I figured if he wasn’t respectful enough to sensei and his partners to listen to the instruction I wasn’t going to fall for him. When I corrected some mistakes he made he seemed to get miffed. He really started getting pissed when I kept telling him he wasn’t doing Hane Goshi he was doing Tai Otoshi. He wouldn’t lift up his leg so I kept falling with the momentum of his throw, catching myself, and spinning to keep from going down. I finally just stood there as a dead weight doll and let him throw me. We did it the wrong way once and after I landed I grabbed his ankle and told him to lift it next time. He did lift it on the next throw and I couldn’t have stopped the throw if I tried. I congratulated him on the best throw of the night.

A brown belt named Robert came to our class. Sensei and all the higher ranked belts have a lot of respect for him. Robert warmed us up and he had us in some crazy kinesiology drills. There was one in particular where we hooked one leg under the other, put both against our chest, looped one arm through the hole and grabbed the other arm with it. We all ended up in this crazy pretzel shape. Then we had to rock back and forth and move in different directions. It was weird but it gave me a lower back workout like I’ve never had before. After class I asked Robert some questions about another school that he teaches at. It has shoot wrestling which I’m really interested in as well as bjj, muay thai, jeet koon do, and some boxing I believe. I’m interested in learning no gi stuff so he demonstrated some moves with one of the green belts, Jason. I mentioned something about Greco Roman and it was like a switch flipped in Robert’s mind. He immediately went into a collar and elbow and showed us some judo throws from that position. He showed Jason and I so many moves that I can’t remember them all. We stayed for about half an hour, forty five minutes or so after class. It was really fun. I guess he’s trained with Rashad Evans before Rashad started going to New Mexico. Not to name drop or anything, but I do want to have some amateur MMA fights and 2 pro fights if I can after which I would retire. It just kind of hit me as a reality check that I’m still far away from that dream but meeting the right people to get there. After class Robert came up to me and told me to stick with judo because nobody would be able to throw me. It made me feel good about the effort that I’ve put in so far. I just have to make sure that I don’t let compliments get to my head.

Sensei came over and demonstrated Osoto Gari with me. It was a crazy feeling. It was like all of his weight was distributed evenly through the front of his body and the back wasn’t there. It’s like the skin on pudding that puts all the resistance on the spoon trying to break through. It was really weird. Anyway, when he pulled my arm down all the force he had disappeared and I was about 140lbs heavier. He didn’t actually do the reap, but I ended up falling anyway when he took his weight off me. Afterwards it was really hard trying to figure out exactly what happened. It was an awesome experience.

Things to work on in next class:
Footwork when pivoting for Tai Otoshi and Hane Goshi
Getting a deeper grip on my juji shimewaza techniques
Ukemi
-ken

[registered]

Originally Posted by KenTheWalrus

Sensei came over and demonstrated Osoto Gari with me. It was a crazy feeling. It was like all of his weight was distributed evenly through the front of his body and the back wasn’t there. It’s like the skin on pudding that puts all the resistance on the spoon trying to break through. It was really weird. Anyway, when he pulled my arm down all the force he had disappeared and I was about 140lbs heavier. He didn’t actually do the reap, but I ended up falling anyway when he took his weight off me. Afterwards it was really hard trying to figure out exactly what happened. It was an awesome experience.

WOW! That's the kind of feeling you are looking for! This is the kind of feeling you HAVE to get when doing techniques, forget about legs, arms, whatever! One day you'll get JOY doing a technique, maybe other things too. That will tell you that you are on the good path, follow it. And allways remenber : you don't know shit

If you fell like reading something this could be one of them http://www.samurai.com/5rings/
Anyhow you won't understand anything, it's just that maybe some day you will feel and say "hooooly shit, this is what he was talking about!".

Keep going.

[KenTheWalrus]

We went over all the Goshi, Osoto Gari, and Tai Otoshi. We learned Koshi Guruma. For mat we worked on Yoko Shiho Gatame and Kami Shiho Gatame. For Kensetsuwaza we went over Juji Gatame. Shimiwaza was Kata Juji Jime.

I need to keep working on my footwork. I need to focus on which throws require a wide base and which ones are closer. I also need to keep focus on which way I’m pulling for each technique.

Otis didn’t come to class again so I worked with Matt the green belt. I like working with Matt. He’s a lot taller than me so it gives me a sense of what it would be like to compete against someone who is the right height for my weight. I made sure not to grab his nipple with my lapel hand like I did last time. Matt showed me a couple of tricks he learned from Robert to help me use my weight to my advantage. Our next grade is a week from Thursday. I need to brush up on some of the earlier moves we used. I’m holding back too much on my pins. We might be able to start randori Thursday. Sensei told me that I should come out to the MSU Judo Club. From what I here it has a pretty big turnout during regular class sessions. I’d like to check it out if my schedule can be worked around. -ken

[KenTheWalrus]

We were able to randori for the first time today. We were limited to nagewaza. I went 1-1-2. The loss was from a seoi nage from Otis. I feel I could have spun out but I would rather land with ukemi than risk rolling an ankle. Otis straight arms the whole time. Sensei, Matt, Jason, Mike, and Todd all gave me ways to counter it. I was pushing my weight without any force to make him work harder but it didn’t pay off the way I wanted it to. He did wear down like I thought, he’s all power with little technique, but it didn’t come into play. Sensei showed me the “gentle way” by moving back, letting Otis come to me, then use Tai Otoshi. Matt told me to break the hold and let him lunge to get his grip then attack. Jason showed me the drop and pull into seoi nage. I hit Otis with an Osoto Gari after his failed seoi nage. He uses seoi nage almost all the time. He tried de ashi harai once or twice, but he tried morote seoi nage about fifty. In the last randori with him I actually fell but it was due to my pants being too long and Otis stepping on them. I am going to get them hemmed this weekend. Otis is a pincher. My biceps are peppered with bruises. He has long ass fingernails too and scratched me a couple times. The last randori session was against Jason, a green belt who is also looking into joining the same MMA school I’m looking at. I outweigh Jason by at least 60lbs. He is a lot faster, as could be expected. He almost had me in Ippon seio nage. Literally in the blink of an eye he dropped lapel grip and trapped my arm, fully spinning. The only thing that saved me was being so fat. I’d like to play with Todd and Matt next class. They’re both my size and it would give me a good feel for the sizes and body types I might face in tournament play.

I ripped off my big toe nail on my left toe. Now it matches the right one which was ripped off last week. It’s no biggie. I still have half the nail on both toes. It’s a lot better than the broken toe George got from MSU’s Judo club yesterday.

George gave me some tips on kata juji jime. My throat hurts just thinking about it. His forearm technique was killer. I want to work on the forearm and deep grip like he showed me. It was a completely different feeling than when Otis did it.

When Otis had kata juji jime on me I tapped. He didn’t let go so I tapped again. He still didn’t let go, he just stopped applying as much pressure when George told him I tapped. Even then he still didn't let go and my neck still had enough pressure to be uncomfortable and I had already tapped twice so I grabbed Otis’ wrist and elbow and arm barred him. It surprised him when I did it and I used the arm bar to push him off me. He laughed and said something like, “That still hurt?” I ignored him and tried to focus on what George had shown me. Otis’ over aggressiveness is really pissing me off. I’m not sure if I want to partner with him anymore. Later I was standing while listening to Sensei. Otis came up behind me and started slapping me and lightly hitting me on the back. It was annoying and he wouldn’t stop so I spun and threw a back elbow. I pulled it about an inch from his eye. He stopped hitting me after that.

My legs are dead. When I was stretching before class I felt something tight and when we were practicing yoko shiho gatame my thighs seized up. I stretched them out and they started feeling better. Now, a few hours after class, they are super tight and sore. I’m not sure what it was from but it reinforces my need to start running again. I need to get my training plan together and on paper for the Great Lakes Open in October. I have to remember to ask Sensei next class if he thinks I’ll be ready for tournament play by then. I just want to compete, winning is secondary from just getting out there and doing it. Even if I were to get knocked out first, it would give me more time to watch. This weekend is the WFA so I’ll kick back on Saturday leaving Sunday open to work on my technique.

Things to work on:
Footwork
I need to remember to use my arms to pull during randori
Stop swiveling my torso without my hips when pivoting for the throw, I’m losing a lot of power in the process
Ukemi, I actually hit a couple nice rolling ukemi today. Remember to slap at a closer angle. -ken

[Frodo]

Tell Jason to try switching to either kouchi gake makikomi or fireman's carry if ippon seoinage starts to fail. Otis is an asshole. Randori should not be very serious. Don't worry too much about the score or ranks. Of course, sometimes you have to randori hard, but it shouldn't be that often. Don't do my mistake... I got a broken toe from doing randori too hard.

[registered]

squeeze his balls once, hold them watching his eyes and say "respect" ... smiling

such assholes understand only this

[KenTheWalrus]

Class was a lot of fun. We went over everything we learned in the last couple of weeks. I partnered with Matt for class. He had an awesome osoto gari. Randori was also fun. I played with Jason. I didn't get him down, but I made him fight hard for the three throws he landed. I also saw a big problem wth the way that I practice at home. I work too hard on my footwork and not enough on my arms and core. There were a couple of times when I had my feet firmly planted and ready for the throw, only to have Jason counter me. In the split second my upper half is off from my lower half he changes weight or steps away. I need to work on making the moves one instead of feet and then everything else. My ukemi during randori was crap.

I sprained my finger during randori. I didn't even notice it until I was driving home. I knew I tweaked my finger on one of the throws from Jason, I didn't let go to slap. To be honest I didn't even know what he was doing or what throw it was. I went from trying to do deashi harai to flying across the mats. The last throw I didn't tuck my chin and bounced my head a couple times on the mat. I'm pretty sure I got a flash KO from it. I remember slapping the mat and the next thing I know, Jason is standing over me trying to help me up and George is saying something but he sounds like the parents from Charlie Brown. It's been awhile since I've been knocked out. I don't rebound from them quite as quick as I used to. Even then I still had more fun than last week. The finger and the head are both my fault for not using ukemi correctly. That is definetly something to work on. -ken

[KenTheWalrus]

Thursday was my last day in the beginning class. We had our final grading and I did better than I expected. A few people who hadn't been there in awhile showed up. Otis came and partnered up with me. We went over all the throws we were being graded on again. Otis tried doing O Goshi on all of the throws instead of the proper form. It was kinda funny. We worked through all that with Matt and Todd's help.

We went over:

Uki Goshi
Harai Goshi
Koshi Guruma
Osoto Gari
Tai Otoshi

Kata Juji Jime
Gyaku Juji Jime
Kami Shiho Gatame
Yoko Shiho Gatame
Juji Gatame

I had a point deducted from Koshi Guruma for my approach and a point for Kata Juji Jime for not leaning forward. Durring Tai Otoshi I lifted my foot as if to go for Harai Goshi and then shot it down fast when I swiveled my hips. It was in order to save form but it added a ton of force to the throw. It felt really nice. I need to try and replicate the same adjustment again to see if it is something to add to my technique.

After our test sensei told me to stick with judo. He said I did really well in his class. I'm already signed up for the intermediate class which is Goshin Jutsu. The Goshin Jutsu should help in an MMA setting. To keep going with the traditional judo I'm going to start going to MSU's judo club. Hopefully I'll be able to make it on a regular basis. I might drop in on the beginning class from time to time. Our class dinner is Tuesday night at a chinese place by my house. I'll be bringing Jenny with me so she can meet sensei and some of the other students.

Keep working on my footwork with the upper body movements as well.

Thanks to everyone who has helped with their posts especially Frodo. My goal is to have a log as sharp as yours.

Thanks to all my fellow students who helped out, Matt, Jason, Todd, Mike, George, and the other Mike. Thanks also to the special guest instructors Robert and Pete.

Thanks to Otis for partnering with me. Even though I wasn't always happy with it, you can't play judo alone.

Thanks to Sensei for the teaching, support, and contacts.

And as always, thanks to Jenny for all the support, helping me get the blood stains out of my gi, and listening to all my judo babbling. I definitely have a good woman to stand behind me when I need it.

The next intermediate class doesn't start until the fall semester so it'll be awhile until the next class post. Good luck to everyone and I'll be back in a few weeks. -ken