Wed 22/5/15 Session (Recreational)

Wednesday night's practice was a low-key affair. Almost all the elite players were out of town for different reasons and two of the beginners were not feeling well, so we only had a handful of players on the mat. But in judo, you just need a minimum of two players to train. And I have been to many a practice where only two players were present. So the fact that we had about half a dozen players on hand was already pretty good.

The players relax a bit before their three hour session begins. They know they are in for a tough practice even though this is just a recreational class. Both Clinton (far end) and Johnson have been with the club from Day One. They have been training diligently and I believe they will go far.

Today I decided to let them try some strangles. The first one I taught was gyaku-juji-jime which is usually done when your opponent is in between your legs.

And off they go... practicing this strangle against their opponents. After a few practice runs, I asked the ukes to resist so that tori has to work hard to get the strangle to work.

You can see how determined Johnson is to strangle Matthew. But Matthew "Never Surrender" Nekvapil isn't giving up easily.

Strangling is no laughing matter but the players share a light moment during the drills.

Next up, I teach them okuri-eri-jime, which is a slightly more complex strangle often done while you're straddling the back of your opponent.

You can see Suan Wah (blue) is all eager and ready to strangle his partner!

Encouraging Clinton who is trying very hard to get the strangle going on Matthew.

Johnson is nearly there and has Matthew gasping for air. He's picked up the strangle quite well.

Before we ended the newaza session, we did some newaza randori. Always must do lots of randori.

Water break. The drinks machine is a popular addition to the infrastructure of the club.

Next up, some tachi-waza. I teach them how to do a standing seoi-nage against someone shorter. No, it doesn't involve bending your knees, which would put you in an unstable position.

Instead, I recommend they do a deep leg insertion but keeping the driving leg straight, ala Koga.

Matthew manages to launch Suan Wah, who is a lot shorter than he is.

Jason arrives just in time for randori. Since he had missed most of the training and the boys were all already pretty exhausted after two hours of training and drills, Jason had to fight everyone without a break.

Everybody loves to cha cha cha... Matthew shows how light he is on his feet!

I tell the players to continue with groundwork if the attack goes to the ground. Quite often I see players just get up. I want these guys to instinctively attack on the ground when the opportunity presents itself. Jason does just that in his randori with Matthew.

Johnson attacks him with ouchi-gari. He might be a white belt but he's a determined fighter.

Suan Wah put his seoi-nage training to good use and manages to sneak underneath Jason for a surprise attack.

Before the randori session ended, the two old guards decided to have a go at each other.

Jason catches me first with a rolling soto-makikomi that had me all wrapped up.

I managed to catch him with an ura-nage which I executed after baiting him to attack me with uchi-mata.

We end the practice with our customary circular bow. There were only seven players on the mat today but we had an excellent session.