This has been a challenging week for me as far as Judo.  I had to miss Saturday because a friend of mine was going through the Temple with his wife, and I ended up getting there late thursday.  We did learn an interesting throw / roll on Thursday though.  Bear with me as I try to describe them

Before I go into the description too much, I want to say that there are some Judo moves that just “click” for me… moves that I am confident I will use.  This is one of those moves.  I really liked this one.

Normally when grasping in Judo (assuming a right-handed hold) your right hand is on the collar of your opponent, and the left hand is on the arm of their Gi near the elbow.  For this move, remove the arm from th collar (so imagine you just reached out and grabbed the arm.)  As your left hand holds the Gi, reach your right hand under the opponent’s right arm (the same one you are currently holding with you left hand.)  Reach your right hand down, under their arm, then up along the outside of their bicept.  Grab the Gi near their bicept.  Now with a little pressure from your hands you can really put some force into turning their arm.

To really turn this into a throw/roll you should move your right foot backward, then kick your left foot from right to left such that doing so is basicaly forcing you to fall on your left shoulder (Dang… I am going to start videoing some of these.)  This should allow you to force your opponent down.

If you don’t want to kick back your right leg and fall, another option is to instead use your right leg for an inside sweep of the person’s right leg while cranking the arm.

Looking forward to class tomorrow.  I am really pleased with how my cardio has been improving over the six months I have been in Judo.  I really feel a lot healtier and better about myself.

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