Sunday 24 October 2010

On the Mat Day 111: What do you want to know?

There was only me there on Friday night at the start so K-sensei asked me if I wanted to know anything. Luckily I had a lot of questions written down that pop into my head during the day while I sit semi-bored at work. I got him to go over a couple of standing techniques and some chokes.

Later on Kensuke and Atsushi both came for sparring. Kensuke is a judo boy and likes to have his way with me. I decided not to let that happen. Usually I am chilled and don't go all out but last night I felt like I had a fire in my belly and a sudden intense mood came over me. I know sparring shouldn't be used to mark notches on your post or to beat the other guy but there just came a point last night where I thought "Na, no way is he going to throw me around." I ended up defending against his grip attempts as his hands came in so that he only had the choice of gripping my left front collar. I broke that grip and pulled him forward and gripped his back and took him down with a Sumi-gaeshi which I had went over with K-sensei earlier and was something I had my mind set on doing. It worked like a charm. I love it when a new technique works because you put faith in it, try it and it does the business. He came at me pretty strong, I never see him smile, grin or comment on anything. I can only attribute it to the hard arses that do judo over here in Japan pushing these kids to be machines. Lots of guys at the gym laugh or joke around while rolling, I'm cool with that. Those things make it more fun and that means less chance for people to quit because they are not seeing it as a fight but just rolling.

When we were all done for the night I asked Kensuke whether it was true that judoka wear no underwear under their gi pants. He said it was true but he always wore underwear and that some of the guys at his judo dojo even jeered at him for wearing briefs. It seems to be an unspoken rule among them that you cant wear anything underneath and have to let the family jewels hang in the wind. I wear a protector and shudder when I think of going without even that. Apparently, women don't have to abide by this rule and keep their bits safely tucked away...ahem. I wonder if in non-Japanese countries judoka follow this weird rule of not wearing anything under the pants.


Sparring time: 6 mins x 5 rounds = 30 mins
Boxing vs the bag: 3 mins x 3 rounds (1 min rest) - felt the nausea at the end


Does Vladimir Putin let it hang in the wind?

No comments:

Post a Comment