BMF
last night i was a total BMF at judo. we started off with a drill we don't normally do, which is doing sets of full throws instead of just uchikomis, which is when you practice the throw just up to the point of off balance, and then return to a neutral position. the point of an uchikomi is to drill the technique into your head and help with muscle memory, while also providing some aerobic (and anaerobic) exercise. say you were doing one of the first techniques that is taught in judo: ogoshi.
you've seen ogoshi before. i know you have. if you've ever watched a movie or tv show that has ever had choreographed martial arts type fighting, you've seen it. lethal weapon. kung fu movies. walker, texas ranger. i'll put it into practical terms so maybe you'll get a better idea of it than the abstract concepts we use when doing uchikomis: some burly dude is trying to punch your lights out. he tries for a straight punch to your facial area with his right hand. with your right hand you block and slightly parry the hand away and with your left hand you reach around his back. as you reach around the back, you turn your body so that your back is roughly flush with his front side. keeping your back straight, you bend your knees and pull his arm across your chest in a diagonal motion and pop up with your legs and rotate. the combination of his forward attack with your controlling his moment and ri-directing it will cause him to pop up and over your hip and land on his side in front of you.
so anyway, i think i sidetracked a bit there. we worked on throwing the other person instead of just doing an uchikomi 20 times each and then switching partners, which is how we normally start the post-ukemi class. while i love throwing and don't mind being thrown, sometimes it can get a bit hard on your hand if you land ten times on the same side in rapid succession. i like it when my tori varies it a little. since i was working with andrea, and her left side is a little weak, i landed mostly on my right side. so that kinda hurt a little. whatever. we moved into ne waza after about 15 minutes of the throwing, and i didn't really do a whole lot there. worked with andrea and some of the kids. when randori started i was kinda blah, too. my asthma has really been acting up lately and i've been a freakin wheeze factory. at first i took it easy and just fought a green belt. i took a little breather and saw bob, one of the nikkyu sitting around and fought with him. bob is a big, strong guy that outweighs me by about 40lbs or so, but he's slower than me so i can trick him sometimes. what i did was i would stiff arm him for a few seconds and then ease up so that he would instinctively get closer, and then i'd pull him in real quickly and throw him. i got him with two harai goshis. it was awesome. after the second throw i think i might have got him a little to hard and he took a breather. then i decided to see if one of the sandans (3rd degree black belts) wanted to go. he did... and i beat him. i didn't just beat him, either. i shut him out. 2 ippons to 0. it was awesome. i caught him with a reverse de ashi harai. i know that doesn't make sense that i caught him with a reverse advancing foot sweep, but i did, so shut up. and i caught him with hit twice in a row.
one thing about my judo that i can give myself credit for is that i am pretty hard to throw most of the time. i'm pretty flexible and quick, so i'm hard to tie up. since i'm quick, i can avoid a lot of throws. since i'm flexible, i can resist some throws that most people would just go over for. my only weakness (if it is one) is that i'm smaller than the other guys, so they can use strength to push me around. i try to use that against them, but i'm only successful a fraction of the time. after i fought rick (the sandan) we lined up and bowed out of class. i stayed after cuz i wasn't sure if gaye was going to watch lost or not, and i fought andrea a little more and then i fought todd. i *almost* threw todd a few times. granted, he creamed me, but that's beside the point. he's a shodan, and a good one at that. and he's a lot bigger than me. the fact that i got him to stumble a bunch of times is testament to my abilities improving. for a while i thought i was hitting a plateau, but lately my judo has been pretty strong. maybe that time off i took as done some good for me. r0xx0r!11
sweet... i'm all moved in to my new cube. i have a great view looking out over the east parking lot. normally that wouldn't be such a big deal... but the east parking lot is the one next to all the trees. so it's like looking out on a forest or something. i'm betting during the fall this is going to be great. and i don't have anyone across from me: just the windows. so i get a perfect view of the sky and trees. i think i might even take a picture of this, assuming i'm able to get a new camera soon. which i doubt. i'm tired.