Wed 13/5/15 Session

We had our second recreational judo session on Wednesday. Some familiar faces from Monday showed up. And some surprising new faces showed up too.

We had anticipated one girl would come but three showed up instead. All were about the same size so that worked out well.

 

Two of the girls were new to judo but they were surprisingly good at newaza. They picked up the hold-downs quite fast.

Some kesa-gatame drills. To reinforce what they learned on Monday.

Today, they practiced how to get out of a kesa-gatame hold. Not easy at all.

Here, they are trying out yoko-shiho-gatame. I had them do drills so that they can feel what it's like when someone is struggling to get out. Their job was to hold their partner down for 20 seconds.

We ended the newaza session with some light newaza randori. You can see them getting all bunched up, rolling around on the mat. Best way to learn is by doing.

For tachi-waza, I taught them ippon-seoi-nage. I explained the traditional way of how it is done according to the textbooks. Then I showed them how it is really done.

Getting the girls to try their hand at ippon-seoi-nage. Having a crash pad is useful for nagekomi.

The players are lucky. We actually have a total of eight crash pads. You can see six of them here. Another two were in the other wing.

After everybody got to try ippon-seoi-nage it was time for a line-up where each player got the chance to throw everybody else in their line.

The line up allowed them to throw with ippon-seoi-nage many times. Actual throwing is important for learning how to throw.

We can't end a training session without randori. Even the beginners got a chance to move around and do some light sparring. Very important for them to experience this.

Recapping all the things they learned today, including the Japanese terms.

Group photo. Nice crowd tonight. Certainly more than we had anticipated. Word of mouth spreading quite well. All the players said they had a fun time. So, hopefully we will see most of them again next time around.

Some of the guys wanted more workouts so I had them do judogi pull ups.

Some of them were surprisingly strong. Must get them to do this more often.

Lots of spirit, these guys. After a three-hour workout, they're still pushing hard!