Judo class was really great last week.  I want to extend a special thanks to Bill, who came to class and spent a couple of hours working my butt of and helping me wit my Kazushi.

Unfortunately, I missed out o making it over to Akbar’s on saturday to train some more with Bill and the guys there… Mother’s day weekend you know

But on to the lessons learned:

Thursday we really focused on Kazushi.  Particularly with my Makikomi I had been just muscling through people, rather than setting up the move correctly.  This works fine with a smaller opponent (hell, it works great but when you face up against another big guy you end up hanging from his should wondering what just happened.

Instead of just muscling through the Maki we really worked on bringing the person into position.  There are a few great ways to do this.  One of the is actually the Deashi Bari, which will either knock the person on their head, or cause them to adjust their posture to be nicely positioned for the Maki.  This is especially effective if you pull “up” on the person’s collar while you hit the foot.  Be sure to keep your own kazushi straight up and down.  You shouldn’t be spinning on this specific use of the Deashi liek you might on a Tsurikomi Ashi.

The other move we worked a lot with Kazushi on was the Ouchi Gari.  Mike has really tried to pound into my head that I should try hitting the Ouchi by getting the person to step forward, rather than by triple-stepping in.  I have to admit, I had been resistant, and it just wasn’t clicking for me.  But after really working it over, and over, and over all night I found the magical weightlessness that a well hit Ouchi can deliver to someone stepping in.

A can’t wait for class tonight

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