Friday 5/6/15 Session (Extra Competition Training)

One of my players, Cherylynn, wanted extra competition training so I suggested we train in the evening on Friday night. She asked what time we should train until. I suggested up til 9pm. She just kept quiet. I said you want to train til 10pm? She said she didn't mind. So, we trained until 10pm. I'll never say no to a player who wants to train more.

We started off with drills for playing the mat edge strategically. Here she's trying to pin me to a corner.

And here, she's trying very hard to avoid being pushed to a corner, and ultimately forced off the mat.

We also worked on different gripping scenarios. I've taught her how to break off a high grip using the "Okada Shrug" (named after double World Champion Hirotaka Okada, now a coach, who developed this move specifically to deal with the new IJF rules). I drilled her on this over and over again on Friday.

Next, I got her to work on breaking uke's lapel grip. I've confirmed with Chew, one of our instructors who happens to be a referee, that this approach is legal under current IJF rules. It's something I have been getting the players to drill on over and over again so that the movement becomes an instinct rather than something they have to think about before doing it.

Gripping is really important and in time, Cherylynn will become very good at gripping. She realizes the importance too and worked very hard at it on Friday night. 

At one point, her fingers became quite painful but she wanted to go on so I gave her a roll of athletic tape and taught her how to wrap her fingers. Later she told me it helped a lot. After concluding the mat edge and grip fighting drills, we did several rounds of randori. A very good practice.