Mon 19/5/15 Session (Recreational & Competition Training)

For Monday's session we decided to try something different, which is to have a joint recreational and competition training. Since our dojo is designed in such a way that there are two wings, I figured the beginners would train in one wing and the colored belts would train in another wing. It actually worked out rather well. 

We began with a briefing on what to expect in today's session and a viewing of some competition clips for inspiration. Even beginners like to watch judo in action.

We don't do a lot of breakfalls or forward rolls at KL Judo but since we had a lot of beginners in attendance, we began the session with some forward rolls.

The safest techniques to have beginners do is hold-downs so we worked on some of those.

Wai Kit wasn't training today due to a slight shoulder injury, so he helped to guide the beginners.

Aishah too played a big role in helping to guide the beginners on how to pin properly.

I had them try out other pins as well, such as kami-shiho-gatame. Here you see a new girl trying out this hold-down.

After that initial osaekomi practice, where the beginners and the colored belts trained together, we decided to split the class. My judo buddy Jason was on hand so he helped to take care of the beginners.

I took charge of the colored belts. They had done some juji-gatame practice on Saturday and I decided it would be good for them to go through it again.

I had taught them both the Iaskevitch and the Adams roll and told them they could go for whichever one they felt more comfortable with. Qaini adopts a perfect Figure-4 grip, ala Neil Adams.

So does Chee Wah, who also managed to clamp on a nice Figure-4 grip, essential for making this technique work.

Matthew grimacing as he tries to straighten Luka's arm. Luka's not giving up easily though.

Water break for everybody. The drinks machine is now well stocked with Gorilla vitamin drink, soybean drink and mineral water. It proves to be popular!

Back to training, and it's crash pad time. I'm a big believer in using crash pads. Getting players to do uchikomi only trains them to enter into the throw. Unless they do the actual throw, they won't learn how to execute it properly.

The technique I wanted them to try is ouchi-gari, a typical beginner's throw.

Jason takes over and gets the beginners to complete their throws on the crash pads.

Next, we lined the walls with crash pads and had the beginners learn to lunge forward as they throw with ouchi-gari. Here, Jason demonstrates the throw.

Since we have crash pads, we might as well make full use of them. And we do. We certainly do.

Meanwhile, I teach the colored belts how to roll someone into a juji-gatame when they are flat on their stomach. Many of the players told me they find that to be a problem. I show them a simple solution.

And they try it out. These players are good. They managed to make it work. I ask the uke to give 25% resistance, followed by 50%, 75% and finally 100%. Drills are important. I'm a big believer in drills.

Next, how to straighten the arm. I show them a special lever made famous by Neil Adams.

Showing Qaini how to do it. She picks it up really fast. Sometimes it takes a long time for players to understand the mechanics of this arm lever, which is not very intuitive. But she's quite a natural.

Next, showing Aishah how to do it. She picks it up very fast too. These girls are good.

It's video time again. I show them the Ecky-Gatame, the technique named after Neil Eckersley, who is widely credited for inventing this unorthodox hold-down that's used when you can't straighten your opponent's arms.

I demonstrate on Luka how you get into the Ecky-Gatame position, which is recognized by the IJF as a legitimate hold.

Here you see the Ecky-Gatame from another angle. It's very unique hold invented by a British player that eventually got recognized by the IJF. And, it's used a lot by the European players. I've never actually seen a Japanese player use it though.

It's not a very stable hold, which is fine. It's not meant to be. It's designed, in fact, to encourage your opponent to try to spin out away from you, as Qaini tries to do here.

When they do so, it's the perfect time to spin back into the juji-gatame position, and straighten their arm.

First you get into the Ecky-Gatame to secure the osaekomi. It's not a very stable hold...

But so what? Once your opponent tries to get out of it, you just snap on the juji-gatame. In a way, it's a kind of baiting maneuver.

From Day One, I told both the recreational and the competitive players that KL Judo is a very randori-oriented club. I am always amazed when I hear of judo clubs in Malaysia where the practices don't have randori or very little of it. At KL Judo, we do lots and lots of randori. Everybody does it, even beginners on their first day (of course we pair them with experienced colored belts who can take care of them). Nobody is allowed to sit on the sidelines and shake legs.

I tell the players, the only people who get to skip randori are those who are injured. Otherwise, you do randori. I've been to clubs where players actually decline to do randori -- because they are too lazy, because they are not in the mood, because they plan to leave early. And they are actually allowed to get away with it. That will never happen at KL Judo. If a player declines to do randori I will kick them out of the club. Judo is not a spectator sport. Judo is a do-ing sport. If you want to do judo, do judo. 

We have a big space so everybody gets to do some free sparring. It's the best way to practice what they've just learned.

And the students love it. All of them say it's so much fun and better than what they had expected. Some of them have been to clubs where all they did was break-falls for weeks on end. At KL Judo, everybody does randori.

After the beginners have had their time doing some sparring with the colored belts, it's time for the colored belts to fight each other. Jason squares up with Qaini.

I come to grips with Aishah, who is a tough cookie. She's not easy to grip fight with.

The two brothers also spar with each other. Some sibling rivalry, perhaps?

We end with a circular bow. It was a good practice. The weather was wet and rainy. The traffic jam was horrendous. But we had an excellent turnout with many beginners bringing new friends to the club to try it out. The common feedback we've been getting from the beginners is that our practice is so much fun. I think that's because we actually let them do judo!

Everybody say "Ippon!" for the camera! Next training is Wednesday nite.