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I r narked. There's one thing about Judo that pisses me off. I see a situtation that I know how to handle and can handle very well, but my brain is trying to do Judo.
We did ne waza today and I was struggling. "What you want to do from here" my partner says "is this" and he does a passible rendition of suwari waza kokyu ho.
Or several sets of push tests and I suppose pull tests too both static and in motion. This is a realisation I came to last night in training while doing nikkyo ura. We were doing kata dori nikkyo ura, witch craft stylee and my uke was doing his level best to lock down my technique, as Sensei had told him, and I did it anyway, but I had to use my whole body.
No problem, was doing that with little bother but then I became unbalanced on the first tenkan and it felt like all my power just drained out of me, I was up on one foot and everything.
That's when it hit me that everything we do from a grab in Aikido is basically just a push or pull test.
I think the bulk of my training now consists of Sensei getting the biggest and strongest guys in the dojo to hold me in place and stop me moving. Then Sensei stands there eyeballing me as I try and move them. To be fair it's good training, it highlights how I'm moving and forces me to move in a structured and balanced way.
Sensei's still on holiday so I went to my mate's dad's karate dojo where they tried to kill me.
The visiting shihan joke doesn't work anymore though although I still get the whole "He's wearing a white belt but he's not a white belt" speech.
At one point he went around checking everyone's posture and he first pulled my hand, I didn't move so then he climbs on my back leg, putting his foot in my knee and trying to break my posture that way. It didn't break. I was complimented on that.
Then in sparing I did quite well, I can hold my own with most of the dan grades.
As usual I vandalised a kata, Jion in this case. Actually I was kinda getting it by the end. At the end of class I was asked to do the cool down, I went through some breathing exercises.
I was getting yanked all over the mat and then this little voice in my head growled out, "Posture!" My foot had just been swept but I kept my balance and stamped it back into the mat, shoved my back leg in place with my hips then forced my hips up my spine to straighten my posture out all the while he's trying to keep me down.
Again he tries sweeping my front foot. Nothing happens, it doesn't move a milimeter. He starts pulling on me to try and get things moving again. Nothing, I don't budge, I feel like I have roots. I grab the top of his lapel and cut him down, almost to the mat and reach over him for his belt but I can't reach; he's too big or my arms are two short, one of the two.
I can't reach, I accept the fact. Possible techniques race through my head. I shoot my legs under him, one goes on the top of his thigh, I roll over and he's already trying to get up, I jump on and roll him back onto his back. "Side pin thing, how do you do the side pin thing?" for a second or two I try and work it out; finally I get it.
I also learned that I have a unique but apparently functional style of ne waza. Which kinda confirms that if you throw in something new the fruits of training against a resisting opponent get thrown out and "What do I do against this?" creeps in.
I'm on the floor on my back and this Judoka is really doing his best to mount me. What he's expecting is for me to open my legs and let him in and then wrap my legs around in the guard, this is the standard
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04-24-2010 09:31 AM 
