paw

I found that my "defense" was very good. Even though I wasn't aware of the setups and exact throws that were being attempted, aikido allowed me to sense that I was going to be led off balance and let me adjust.

Personally, I had a harder time throwing judoka. I never really "found" a throw...I always ended up with some ugly variation of a traditional throw.


re: Michael Neal, et al....

I didn't read all the interactions that carefully, but I hope I'm not too off base if I mention a few thoughts. To the best of my knowledge:

Randori is training for judoka. They don't keep "score". It's just training. Some dojo I visited will even suggest that it you're not getting thrown, you're not learning.

It would be, well, disrespectful, if during aikido practice in the process of having trouble with koshi nage that my instructor came over, worked with me and then eventually allowed herself to be thrown by me...that I ran to the internet and posted I threw a 5th dan in aikido the other day

There's a huge difference between the average judo black belt, and someone who's nationally ranked. I'll randori with an average judo black belt anytime. A person who is nationally ranked however ..... can throw me at will, hard enough that I'm not going to get back up ---- on padded floors. It's like the difference between a bicycle and a car. There's a similar difference between an average judo school and a competitive one.

My experience was with an average judo dojo. There were a handful of men and women who were pretty good (could do well in a state tournament), but no one who was regional or national level caliber. Places like that will let someone like me train there. I'm not going to walk into SJSU without an introduction....and a fairly good competitive resume. Those men and women would kill me.

Regards,

Paul