Good things come in small packages

Having a small group for training can sometimes be a blessing in disguise.

This Sunday we had our smallest group yet. Only eight players on the mat, way below our targeted benchmark of 12. But it was fine. Actually it was more than fine.

Normally for our training sessions we end up not achieving parts of the program due to lack of time. That's usually the case when there are lots of players to attend to. When there are fewer players, we can zip through the practice quite quickly.

On Sunday, we did a full set of judo-centric High Intensity Interval Training exercises. Then, we launched into an hour of yoko-tomoe-nage practice. This is a very complex throw and it usually takes several sessions just for the players to get the uchikomi right. But on Sunday, the players managed to do uchikomi and nagekomi.

What's really encouraging is that during randori, many of the players tried the technique. It failed -- which is to be expected -- but the important thing is that they tried. It will take many more tries before they can get it to work against a resisting partner. As they say, the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. They've taken their first step towards learning yoko-tomoe-nage.

We also had time to do newaza. We started with the standard koshi-jime, done the traditional way. Then I taught them the competition approach which involves grabbing hold of uke's trousers to prevent uke from circling away. Finally, I taught them how to do the leg-insertion version to really prevent uke from escaping during the strangle.

Randori was short, only 30 minutes because there were so few players on the mat but the players were keen and in the case of the heavyweights, since only two were there, they did multiple rounds against each other.

We ended on time after 3 hours of training. Everyone felt they learned a lot despite the low numbers (or perhaps it was because of it). As a coach, sometimes you feel a training session didn't turn out as good as you'd like and sometimes you feel that it turned out better than expected. This one was way better than expected. I felt good leaving the mat on Sunday.