Unfortunately, the numbers for our class were considerably down from recent weeks. Probably due to a combination of the amazing weather we're having at the moment and the fact that it's officially the first week of the summer hols. Regardless, we were a bit thin on the ground but to be honest that didn't really matter because it allowed Dominique to focus a bit more individually (handy for me anyway).
A couple of Dominique's students also came up for the occasion, which was very cool of them and we definitely appreciated their assistance. A young lad called Joe, who was a Judo blue belt, and young girl who was a green belt with a couple of stripes whose name sadly eludes me (I think it was Cathryn or Carolyn or Christina) so I will just refer to her here as Judo Girl (I mean no offence by this).
Venue: Sweat FA, Weston Super Mare, Uk.
Instructor: Dominque Beach.
Warm Up:
Laps of the mat, including, ass kicks, knee ups, facing inward for a lap, facing out for a lap and arm windmilling for a couple of laps. Neck, Arm and Shoulder stretching. Push ups 10x4, Squats 10x 4, Crunches 10 x 4, then some leg stretching and some back stretching exercises.
Techniques:
To start us off, Dominique had us do this strange drill that was equal part amusing and humiliating. Essentially you start off doing this weird side to side dance with your training partner. You grip your partner at collar and elbow and side step together in time down the mat. I was totally pants at this as my dance timing is generally pretty shoddy anyway. The idea was for you to get the timing right so you can sweep your partner's trailing leg out as he's stepping it toward the forward leg. To do this you have to get the timing right and use the flat of your foot. Dominique explained that you should use the flat and not the side of your foot or it would prove painful and damn me she was right. You don't use the side of your foot more than a couple of times :o(
I was drilling all the techniques with long time training buddy Marcus and even his usual skill and good timing was sorely tested when faced with a lumbering clodhopper like me. I sort of got it in the end though
For the second drill/technique we did another dance drill back and forth into a sweep. Another collar and elbow tie up start, for this explain where my hands and legs were for the move. With my right hand gripping Marcus' collar and the left at his elbow, what we did was step forward and back with one leg together (my left leg and Marcus' right). You do this step about three times to get the timing right and as Marcus' is stepping forward on the last one I had to use my right leg (the flat of it again) to sweep his right toward me while pushing on his collar and pulling at his elbow. This action fairly reliably dropped him down to the mat.
I found this technique a lot easier.
For the third technique we started from a collar and elbow tie up once again. This time though you make as if attacking for a Seoi Nage shoulder throw. Keeping the opponent's right arm pulled out straight by using your left hands tight grip on his arm, you release your right hand grip on the opponent's collar and bring that arm inside and up under his right arm pit whilst turning in toward him. This is the standard set up for the Seoi Nage shoulder throw where you'd push your backside into his hips and pull him over your shoulder. On this occasion however, instead of turning your backside right into him, you step in with your right leg going between his legs and snaking around the opponent's right leg. With your right arm you reach down and grab the opponent at the knee. Now all your weight and leverage is geared toward taking out their entire right side and it's easy to pull that away and drop the opponent on their ass. The unfortunate part of this technique when applied to Bjj is that you can give up your back quite spectacularly so for the purposes of Bjj, me and Marcus found that as soon as the opponent's base is taken out and they are toppling it's best to sprawl to land in top control.
Next up we did a bit of grip fight practice. Your partner grabs your collar with one hand as hard as they can and you grab that arm at the gi cuff with both hands and push away hard to break the grip. Good method of gaining separation.
This lead us neatly on to what Dominique referred to as a suicide roll sweep. The whole technique begins with a collar grip break (opponent had gripped you with his right hand at your left collar and you used the above technique), allowing you to push the grip-broken hand away so you can hold that arm off with your right arm whilst reaching around to their back with your left. Bring your right leg up under their left leg so the shin is pressing against their inner thigh and jump to the right and fall back keeping your leg out straight. If done correctly the opponent should get uprooted and topple backward
with you neatly landing on him in side control.
This is a cool stand up sweep that is fairly reminiscent of a butterfly sweep. Works well but it takes courage to go for it because if you fail you could have your opponent with side control on you.
Ian also showed me and Marcus how to turn this on into a triangle if they resist. When you're raising your leg to underhook their leg, if the opponent step away out of range you can put your foot on their hip and fall back on the floor bending them toward you so you can easily wrap the right leg over the shoulder and around the neck and close the left leg around it on the other side. Very ninja. Nice move.
We were then run through a traditional Seoi nage throw drill. Basically you follow the picture below, stepping in, bringing your arm up under the arm pit, driving your backside into their hips and raising them up by bending forward. You then let guy back down and step out, rinse and repeat for ten goes each.
This lead neatly on to an awesome Seoi nage set up suicide throw. You start as for the picture above getting to the second picture, then instead of pushing your backside in you drop to the floor at the opponent's feet pulling him down then over the top of you so he lands out on his back with you coming up into side control.
This one for me was the technique of the day. I really liked the method of it and the fact that it requires next to zero effort to get your opponent down to the ground. Once again though, as the name suggests, if you don't land the move you'll be left in a whole world of trouble.
Dominique finished up with a nifty little gi choke from a blocked Seoi nage. The opponent has attempted the Seoi nage throw with your right hand still gripping their collar. When he's turned in you you've managed to lean on him to drive him to his knees. As you've still got his collar at this point, all you need to do is step past him on his right side with your left leg to a seated position and use your left arm to push into the side of his neck. This should tighten the collar choke for a quick and easy tap.
Nice move, but I think I'd be more tempted to hit the Bow and Arrow from that position.
Sparring:
As a change we did stand up sparring in the fashion of Judo, where the objective is to trip, sweep, throw or otherwise takedown the opponent. For variation we were all mixed up so we sparred against guys we weren't drilling with.
I went against both of the guys that came from Dominique's Judo class in Street, Judo Girl and Joe. I managed to take both of them down a few times with neither taking me down. Joe came very close with a throw (might even be counted in Judo I don't know) but I landed in a position to take his back with hooks in so I didn't really count it as a loss.
I also went against Chris Hardaway, who I thought would probably tool me as he's a Copper, is ridiculously athletic and is usually really good at this sort of stuff. I actually managed to trip him down and land in top control twice though so I was pretty chuffed with that.
My last round was against Ed (don't know his surname). Ed's quite an old boy but he's very game and he attacked me straight from the off. I managed to get a trip on Ed once but on his second visit to the floor he'd tried to sweep me, landing on his bum so I could just step over and land in top control. Doubt I would've got any points for it in a Bjj match or in Judo (haven't got a clue how these things work in Judo) but at least I resisted and won position.
That was the end of a fantastic Judo for Bjj lesson and I have to say I was very impressed with the stuff Dominique had shown us. I hope she'll be willing to come up for another some time and Ian has already said he'll be going down there to give her class a Bjj for Judo lesson some time. I think I'll tag along for that one and see what new techniques I can pick up.
Think I've got a decent week of training coming up as Marcus finishes his job on Sunday so we can train a bit next week ahead of my competition on Sunday. I can't effing wait for that. Even if I do totally shit I will be chuffed just for entering and particularly for entering at Medium Heavyweight 88.3 Kg. I am pretty well on target for hitting that weight easily on the day (as long as they haven't got Mickey Mouse scales or something) and hope to have a fun day out with some of the other guys from Checkmat Bristol attending. I'll be taking a camera and video camera to capture some of the action and have some stuff for a decent log entry.
Can't wait ¬m/
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