On the Mat Day 264: Lots of New Guys

We went over scissor sweeps again last night. I paired up with Christiano who is a purple belt I have not seen for ages. The last time I saw him was about 2 years ago when he just got promoted. He said he had not trained since then. I sparred with him later on and he still has the same laid back style. Kind of more wanting to flow and not caring if he taps you or gets the tap. When I was a white belt I remember just going balls to the walls trying to catch him, which I did several times, but now I turned it down a lot. Just matching his pace really. You can tell as soon as the person grips your lapel how rough or light they are wanting to go. I see the benefit of both styles of sparring.

F-sensei also has a board with a polaroid of everyone on it. He has recently upgraded to a larger board because we just got 2 new members in the white belt ranks. One is another judoka, no suprise there, and the other used to train for at Bonsai Jiu Jitsu which is owned by the famous Souza brothers. He actually turned up for training and I got to spar with him at the end. I watched him previously and thought he was quite good and would probably need to not give him any slack. The first thing I did was drop seio-nage him and establish far side armbar from knee-on-belly. I expected him to put up more of a fight and so half-way through the round slowed it down a bit to work escapes from him. In the past I have been very passive with new white belts and as a result had my balls crushed, burst lip etc. I've changed my approach so that now I take top and dominate until I feel comfortable enough with them to let them play their own game.

There were also 3 guys came to sit in on class. When they left Tete told me that they were 3 blue belts from a different club wanting to sign up. In fact they did at the end of the night. One of them I was told is very strong and threw one of our guys in a tournament with very little effort even though our guy is really heavy and no slouch at judo. Something to look forward to.

At the end of class, I stayed for about 40 minutes. Asking about Darce and North South chokes. I also drilled a Lockdown escape because, to be honest, I hate the Lockdown. We only have one white belt do it but it always puts pressure on my bad knee. I used to use it as a white belt but personally prefer a traditional half-guard now with a knee shield.

We have a lot of members now and things are looking really good for the club. In fact looking at the board of members, we have a ton of white, half as much blue, then just a handful of purple and brown with F and K-sensei who are black. I think that is a good mix of chiefs and indians.

Sparring time: 7 x 6 mins = 42 mins

Before I forget, check the video out below if you like judo throws. This is Neil Adams, Olympic champion, who I met as a boy but failed to realize how amazing the guy is. I was 11 years old or so at the time so I will forgive myself. 2 years later I started Karate. Why? I ask myself now.